The Effects of Mindful Awareness Teaching Practices on the Executive Functions of Students in an Urban, Low Income Middle School

This research project evaluated the effectiveness of a school-based program of mindful awareness on the self-regulation and the executive functions of 40 sixth grade students, ages 11- 12 years, in an urban, low income, public middle school in a randomized control study. Core classroom teachers rated treatment and control students on the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function before and after the mindful awareness program. Although mindful awareness is often viewed as a multi-faceted construct, this study operationally defines mindful awareness as defined by the Wellness Works in SchoolsTM program and is based primarily on research on the executive function behaviors that are manifested cognitively, emotionally, and physically. Wellness Works is a mindful awareness program that focuses on both executive attention and executive control behaviors in students. In this study, eight domains of cognitive and behavioral regulation were assessed and analyzed in the children. These eight domains of self regulation behavior and executive function are 1) inhibiting, 2) shifting, 3) emotional controlling, 4) initiating, 5) working memory, 6) planning & organizing, 7) organizing of materials, and 8) monitoring. Research literature on self-regulation including executive attention and executive control indicates the positive effect of these behaviors on academic outcomes and on student temperament in the classroom. To date, this study is the first in the literature to investigate the impact of self-regulation behavioral training program on the executive function skills of an urban, low income, middle school student population. The study findings indicated a significant effect (p< .05) for the treatment group in the ability to shift. Treatment scores showed a positive trend in improvement of the overall scores on the Metacognition Index and Global Executive Composite (Figure 1) of the BRIEF. The findings for the treatment group are encouraging in consideration of the limitations of the study. In addition, the findings are important when compared with the analysis of the executive function scores of the control group. The control group students who did not receive Wellness Works training scores (Figure 1) demonstrated a decline in scores on the two indices and on the composite score. Overall, treatment students maintained or improved executive function skills while the skills of control students regressed.