Handbook of Mindfulness in Education

This handbook addresses the educational uses of mindfulness in schools. It summarizes the state of the science and describes current and emerging applications and challenges throughout the field. It explores mindfulness concepts in scientific, theoretical, and practical terms and examines training opportunities both as an aspect of teachers’ professional development and a means to enhance students’ social-emotional and academic skills. Chapters discuss mindfulness and contemplative pedagogy programs that have produced positive student outcomes, including stress relief, self-care, and improved classroom and institutional engagement. 

Featured topics include: 

• A comprehensive view of mindfulness in the modern era.
  
• Contemplative education and the roots of resilience. 
  
• Mindfulness practice and its effect on students’ social-emotional learning.
  
• A cognitive neuroscience perspective on mindfulness in education that addresses students’ academic and social skills development. 
  
• Mindfulness training for teachers and administrators.
  
• Two universal mindfulness education programs for elementary and middle school students.

The Handbook of Mindfulness in Education is a must-have resource for researchers, graduate students, clinicians, and practitioners in psychology, psychiatry, education, and medicine, as well as counseling, social work, and rehabilitation therapy.

Kimberly A. Schonert-Reichl is a Professor in the Human Development, Learning, and Culture program in the Faculty of Education at the University or British Columbia (UBC) and Director of the Human Early Learning Partnership, an interdisciplinary research institute in the Faculty of Medicine at UBC. She received her MA in Educational Psychology from the University of Chicago, her Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Iowa, and was a postdoctoral National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) Fellow in the Clinical Research Training Program in Adolescence at the University of Chicago and Northwestern University. Prior to her graduate work, Kim was a middle school teacher and a teacher at an alternative high school for “at risk” adolescents. Kim studies the social and emotional development of children and adolescents, particularly in relation to identifying the processes and mechanisms that foster positive human qualities such as empathy, compassion, altruism, and resiliency. She has won several awards, including the 2015 Joseph E. Zins Distinguished Scholar Award for Outstanding Contributions to Research in Social and Emotional Learning, given by the Collaborative for Academic, Social, and Emotional Learning (CASEL) and the Confederation of University Faculty Associations’ (CUFA-BC) Paz Buttedahl Career Achievement Award for sustained contributions over the course of a career to the non-academic community through research and scholarly activity.
Robert W. Roeser is a Professor of Psychology and Human Development in the Department of Psychology at Portland State University in Portland, Oregon. He received his Ph.D. from the Combined Program in Education and Psychology at the University of Michigan (1996) and holds master's degrees in religion and psychology, developmental psychology and clinical social work. In 2005 he was a United States Fulbright Scholar in India; from 1999-2004 he was a William T. Grant Faculty Scholar; and from 2006 to 2010 served as the Senior Program Coordinator for the Mind and Life Institute (Boulder, CO). Currently, Dr. Roeser's Culture and Contemplation in Education Lab (CaCiEL) at Portland State is devoted to the study of the putative effects of mindfulness and compassion training for teachers and (early childhood and early adolescent) students with regard to health and wellbeing, and the optimization of teaching and learning.