Integrating Mindfulness Into Higher Education: The Impact of Mindful Moments on Students and Educators

Teacher candidates are not being taught about self-care in their teacher preparation programs. This qualitative action research study explored how to integrate mindfulness into the higher education space using Mindful Moments. This study was conducted over 6 years at three teacher preparation programs in California. The qualitative approach was selected to explore and identify themes found when mindfulness is used as a best practice tool to encourage self-care for teachers with the hope of preventing future teacher burnout. Four themes were discovered in this study: potential benefits to teacher candidates to help them understand how important self-care is in the education system. The study utilized both a theoretical and conceptual framework. Four recommendations were developed to help other teacher preparation programs learn how to integrate mindfulness into their courses. Additionally, a list of 50+ Mindful Moments categorized by type and purpose will be shared along with sample lesson plans with reflection prompts to help these programs begin integrating Mindfulness into their curriculum frameworks.