109 Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction for Elementary School Teachers: A Qualitative study effects on pupils and the classroom climate quality. By examining experienced effects on these different aspects, this study contributes to the existing literature by providing insights in how mindfulness effects the mutual connection between elementary school teachers’ personal and professional skills, how this relates to their classroom climate quality and how mindfulness mechanisms might operate which can be important for both the scientific as the educational field. Below, we explain our findings in more details. First of all, it was found that in general teachers were more likely to bring up effects of mindfulness on changed insight and awareness immediately after finishing MBSR, while participants reported more effects on their personal and professional functioning 16 weeks after MBSR. Apparently, developing new behaviour starts after becoming aware of and understanding unhelpful patterns in thinking and behaviour (Tang et al., 2015). It then takes time and practice to adjust the behaviour and even more time to exert its effects on others (i.e. pupils). So, results suggest that the first step in effects of mindfulness can be seen in changes in awareness. In turn, change in awareness may lead to insight and insight may lead to changes in behaviour. This is an important finding, contributing to our knowledge of the working mechanism of mindfulness. When it comes to effects on personal functioning, teachers mentioned that in addition to increased awareness and insights they also experienced more pleasure and appreciation, more self-compassion and self-care in their personal life. As a result they were better able to recognize their limits, to set priorities and to create more moments of rest which in turn led to better sleep and less physical complaints. It can be concluded that teachers experienced improved personal functioning leading to an increase of physical and mental well-being. Next, the improved personal functioning seemed to be helpful in professional functioning as well. First of all increased awareness and insight in teachers’ unhelpful patterns during teaching had a positive effect on their emotion regulation by shifting from an automatic stress reaction to a conscious stress response. These findings are in line with a qualitative study by Sharp and Jennings (2016) on how K-12 teachers applied mindfulness strategies: focusing on present emotions and reframing emotional responses to situations. Teachers in that study reported shifting their emotional reactivity and approach to students by applying mindfulness through, for example, present-centered awareness of emotions and emotional reappraisal of situations. Results of that study suggests that it is a promising approach to support teachers experiencing stress and burnout. Teachers’ experiences in the current study indicate that they applied the same strategies. Another effect on the professional functioning in the current study was that teachers more often consciously paid attention to pupils which allowed them to better see and meet the needs of their pupils. This resulted in a more patient and compassionate attitude towards pupils which in general led to a more open and safe climate (i.e., more attention for emotions and autonomy) and to changes in their lessons (e.g. including mindfulness exercises). It can be 6
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