Research

Contemplative practices, particularly mindfulness, may be a missing ingredient in the kind of whole-student learning that educators have been calling for: a type of education that will prepare students not just for careers but for the rest of their lives. Koru Mindfulness was developed as a four-week stand-alone curriculum to help emerging adults develop a mindfulness practice to support wellbeing. This qualitative study shed some light on what transpired when the Koru program was embedded in a conventional semester-long for-credit elective.

There were three main objectives. First, we aimed to understand how an undergraduate mindfulness course incorporating experiential and didactic learning shaped student experience. Second, we hoped to gain insight into the lived experience of students learning to meditate in a for-credit college course to better understand whether these courses are acceptable and feasible. Third, we explored how a mindfulness course that includes significant opportunities for practice enhances healthy development for emerging adults.

An important aspect of improving education is creating an environment that maximizes learning capability and success. There is a large body of research that has shown a positive association between time spent outdoors and mental well-being. This bettering of mental well-being has a notable positive effect on academic performance for children.

Currently, there is very little experimental research on the mechanism of positive affect as the link between exposure to outdoor green spaces and academic performance. Furthermore, this relationship has not been examined in students above the age of 18. This study aimed to address the gap in current research by experimentally exploring the mechanism of positive affect as the link between exposure to outdoor green spaces and academic performance within a population of university students.

Nominated for the Bob Shukraft Award of Excellence.