Short-Duration Mindfulness Training with Adult Learners

The adult learner is typically a motivated student who comes to class prepared to pay attention (Ross-Gordon, 2003). They also come with cognitive and emotional stimuli not related to the course's content, which can be distracting especially at the start of a class or following a break (James, 1892; McDermott, 1977). Ways of dealing with the problem of start-of-class attention, and for that matter, attention during class, have been developed for K-12 education, including what might be called 'mindfulness' training for students (Benson, Wilcher, Greenberg, Huggins, Ennis, Zuttermeister, Myers, & Friedman, 2005; Carson, Shik, & Langer, 2001; Napoli, Krech, & Holley, 2005; Ritchhart & Perkins, 2000; Schoeberlein & Sheth, 2009). The success of these techniques is based on sound scientific evidence on how mindfulness activities can and do influence attention (Jha, Krompinger, & Baime, 2007; Kaplan & Berman 2010; Lutz et al., 2009). William James (James, 1892; McDermott, 1977) differentiated between involuntary and voluntary attention. If changes in the environment are sufficiently novel, one may automatically pay attention (i.e., involuntarily), whereas for voluntary or directed attention, some effort is necessary to sustain attention and focus. In the classroom, it is almost entirely directed attention that must be gained if education is to be beneficial. In K-12 education, there has been a general acceptance of mindfulness methods for dealing with directed attention. In the undergraduate area, there have been individual course efforts, including mindfulness as an integral part of the teacher's philosophy (Duerr & Zajonc, 2003) but to our knowledge, there are no general prescriptions for how to obtain attention in a class, especially at the beginning of a class session or following a break during the class. For adult learners, in particular, we found no references to the issue of attention, much less to specific techniques, such as mindfulness, as a way of coping with the problem. Based upon the work of Arthur Zajonc (2009), as well as a presentation done by him at UC Davis Extension in 2009, the authors developed a very simple mindfulness technique to use with adult learners to gain and increase attention at the start of class and following breaks. While there are significant limits to what was accomplished in the study (e.g., only one instructor used the technique with a total of 145 individuals in six courses), the authors think the technique could, nonetheless, be generalized across many different course topics and instructors with similar results. Method Participants Selection All of the 145 participants in the study were adult learners attending university-level leadership and communication courses. The participants were mid- and senior-level managers, divided approximately 60% male and 40% female; ranging in age from 25-65 years; and, with some racial and ethnic diversity in each of the six courses involved in the study. The participants were drawn from six courses taught between December 2009 and February 2010. Participants acted voluntarily and were not paid. Data Collection As indicated above, the genesis of the research design was based upon an exercise that Dr. Arthur Zajonc used in the fall of 2009 while teaching a session on mindful attention for university-level instructors. In brief, the authors took the 10-15 minute version of Zajonc's exercise and truncated it to 60-90 seconds. No elements or steps were eliminated, but each was significantly reduced in amount of time dedicated. For example, in the original Zajonc exercise approximately 3-4 minutes were dedicated to having the participants observe their breathing. In the study, the 3-4 minutes were reduced to 15-45 seconds. The exercise is detailed below (Instructions to participants). A questionnaire was used to collect data for the study and is found in Appendix A. …