Toward the Integration of Meditation into Higher Education: A Review of Research Evidence

By S. Shapiro, Kirk Warren Brown, J. Astin. Teachers College Record, 2011

277 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Context There is growing interest in the integration of meditation in higher education. Purpose Here, we review evidence bearing on the utility of meditation to facilitate the achievement of traditional educational goals and to enhance education of the “whole person.” Research Design We examine how meditation practices may help foster important cognitive skills of attention and information processing, as well build stress resilience and adaptive interpersonal capacities through a review of the published research literature. Conclusions/Recommendations We offer directions for future research, highlighting the importance of theory-based investigations, increased methodological rigor, expansion of the scope of education-related outcomes studied, and the study of best practices for teaching meditation in educational settings.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Social Psychology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/be9b99dea2834c32672bfa316810a50a5ae8150f

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Citations in the corpus

Meditation in the Higher-Education Classroom: Meditation Training Improves Student Knowledge Retention during Lectures (2013, background): “One contribution of the present study is that we have examined meditation and knowledge retention using an experimental method that Shapiro et al. (2011) and others have argued is necessary to establish causal links between meditation and salutary effects.”
Contemplative Pedagogy: A Quiet Revolution in Higher Education (2013, background): “The center also commissioned a review of the research into contemplative pedagogy relevant to higher education (Shapiro, Brown, and Astin 2011).”
Learning to BREATHE: A Pilot Trial of a Mindfulness Curriculum for Adolescents (2009, background): “…of meditative practices to support the goals of education such as improved attention, concentration, creativity, and emotional intelligence (Cowger & Torrance, 1982; Goleman, 1995; Mayer & Salovey, 1997; see also Shapiro et al, 2008, for a review of research on meditation and higher education).”
Mindfulness‐based interventions for improving cognition, academic achievement, behavior, and socioemotional functioning of primary and secondary school students (2017, background): “…by which MBI’s may work (e.g., Grabovac et al., 2011; Howell & Buro, 2011; Jankowski & Holas, 2013; Melbourne Academic Mindfulness Interest Group, 2006; Shapiro et al., 2006; Shapiro et al., 2011; Zelazo & Lyons, 2012), the specific mechanisms of mindfulness have not been fully explicated.”
Mindfulness-based interventions in schools—a systematic review and meta-analysis (2014, background): “They enable children to deal with future challenges of the rapidly changing world, ideally becoming smart, caring, and committed citizens (Shapiro et al., 2008; Mind and Life Education Research Network (MLERN), 2012).”