Contemplative Education: A Systematic, Evidence-Based Review of the effect of Meditation Interventions in Schools
L. Waters, Adam Barsky, Amanda Ridd, Kelly-ann Allen
March 1, 2015 DOI: 10.1007/s10648-014-9258-2 via Semantic Scholar
Summary
A review of 15 peer-reviewed studies on school meditation programs found that meditation generally has small positive effects on student well-being, social competence, and academic achievement. Of 76 calculated effect sizes, 61% were statistically significant, with 67% showing small effects, 24% medium, and 9% large. Transcendental meditation programs had more significant effects than mindfulness-based ones, possibly due to delivery context. Program duration, practice frequency, and instructor type influenced outcomes. The paper proposes that meditation boosts student success by improving cognitive functioning and emotional regulation.
Study at a glance
| Design | systematic review |
|---|---|
| Sample size | 1,797 |
| Population | students in school meditation programmes |
| Key finding | Meditation programs in schools have mostly small positive effects on student well-being, social competence, and academic achievement, with program features like duration and instructor type influencing outcomes. |
Abstract
Schools need reliable evidence about the outcomes of meditation programs before they consider if and how such programmes can influence learning agendas, curriculum and timetables. This paper reviewed evidence from 15 peer-reviewed studies of school meditation programmes with respect to three student outcomes: well-being, social competence and academic achievement. In total, there were 76 results where effect sizes could be calculated. The overall number of participants in the effect size analyses was 1,797. Of the 76 effect sizes calculated, 61 % were statistically significant. Sixty-seven per cent of the results had small effects on student outcomes, 24 % of the results had medium effect strength and 9 % showed a large effect of meditation upon student outcomes. Transcendental meditation programmes had a higher percentage of significant effects than mindfulness-based and other types of meditation programmes, but this may be to do with the settings and programme delivery rather than the technique itself. Programme elements such as duration, frequency of practice and type of instructor influenced student outcomes. A conceptual model is put forward based on two propositions: proposition 1—meditation positively influences student success by increasing cognitive functioning; proposition 2—meditation positively influences student success by increasing emotional regulation. Suggestions are made to stimulate future research and to assist in the development of more efficacious applications for meditation in schools.