Using mindfulness to support children's social and emotional learning in a kindergarten :|a teacher’s perspective

Abstract

This study aims to understand how mindfulness practices are used in a kindergarten classroom as a tool to develop Social Emotional Learning (SEL) competencies of children from the teacher’s point of view. Specifically, it is aimed to understand the teacher’s perspective on how mindfulness is helpful for children to develop SEL skills, academic skills, and the classroom climate. The study is conducted as an exploratory single case study in a private school’s kindergarten classroom in Istanbul. Twelve children who are 5 to 6 years old and their teacher took part in the research. In class observations, semi-structured interviews with the teacher, lesson plans and children’s artifacts are used as the data set. The data is analyzed through thematic content analysis. The analysis generated three themes: mindfulness for the teacher, mindfulness for children (SEL) and inhibitory control skills. During the analysis of the data, it continuously surfaced up that the teacher conceptualized mindfulness practices by connecting the benefits not with academic skills but specially to inhibitory control. The results show that the teacher believes that mindfulness is good for herself and for children with regard to their SEL skills, inhibitory control skills as well as the classroom climate. Being one of the first qualitative studies conducted in Turkey about the use of mindfulness to support SEL programs in a kindergarten, the study implies the importance of teacher’s motivation of using mindfulness programs and how it is a valuable tool for fostering SEL. It is suggested that more research need to be conducted to better understand how these two phenomena work together in different programs for teachers and children from various demographic backgrounds in qualitative and quantitative methodologies.