| Description |
In this era of escalating social, political, health, and environmental strife and problems, the lives of children and teens (and adults, alike) have become more stressful, busy, and inundated by electronic screen time, with conversely less time passed outside in nature. A significant amount of recent research has focused on the impacts of mindfulness and mindfulness-based programs on school children, as well as on the impacts of nature contact for children. The purpose of this qualitative case study research was to combine the two-to determine the effects of doing a series of mindfulness-based lessons and activities with two classes of elementary children outdoors in a natural setting at a private Montessori school. Impacts on individual students' selfregulation, pro-social behaviors, environmental ethics or relationship to nature, and the overall classroom community or culture were investigated. Student and teacher surveys, student; journals, class ethnographic interviews, teacher interviews, teacher and researcher observations, as well as some visual methods were all utilized for data analysis in this study. The impacts revealed were largely positive, influencing all six dimensions of a systems-based model of wellness, and arranged into three main themes concerning communication, awareness or consciousness, and mindful action towards self, others, and nature. |
