Publication Date

2014

Document Type

Dissertation/Thesis

First Advisor

Day, Michael, 1956-

Degree Name

M.A. (Master of Arts)

Legacy Department

Department of English

LCSH

Meditation--Study and teaching; Pedagogy; Cognitive psychology; Rhetoric; Educational psychology

Abstract

Amid ever-growing interest in cognition and learning and demands for pedagogy that channels the attention of increasingly distracted and disengaged learners, this thesis explored the effects of a mindfulness meditation practice on students' attentional control, metacognition, and writing apprehension. Students practiced the instructor-led meditation as a class for five minutes each class session, completing periodic surveys about their experiences and writing weekly timed essays. The repeated mindfulness practice allowed students to become familiar with their mental habits and challenged students to work through mental frustrations as they arose. The weekly writing session following the mindfulness practice allowed them to both reflect on and continue the practice while facing common academic-writing-related pressures. This study reveals a strong association between the brief but frequent mindfulness practice and students' attentional control, insight, and apprehension and offers suggestions for implementation as well as future research.

Comments

Advisors: Michael Day.||Committee members: Doris Macdonald; Brad Peters; John Schaeffer.

Extent

130 pages

Language

eng

Publisher

Northern Illinois University

Rights Statement

In Copyright

Rights Statement 2

NIU theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from Huskie Commons for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without the written permission of the authors.

Media Type

Text

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