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RMLE Online
Research in Middle Level Education
ISSN: (Print) 1940-4476 (Online) Journal homepage: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/umle20
The Impact of Mindfulness Training on Middle
Grades Students’ Office Discipline Referrals
Tonnie Martinez & Yuanyuan Zhao
To cite this article: Tonnie Martinez & Yuanyuan Zhao (2018) The Impact of Mindfulness
Training on Middle Grades Students’ Office Discipline Referrals, RMLE Online, 41:3, 1-8, DOI:
10.1080/19404476.2018.1435840
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/19404476.2018.1435840
© 2018 the Author(s). Published with license
by Taylor & Francis
Published online: 12 Mar 2018.
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The Impact of Mindfulness Training on Middle Grades Students’Office
Discipline Referrals
Tonnie Martinez and Yuanyuan Zhao
College of Education
Department of Curriculum and Instruction
Kansas State University
Manhattan, KS
tonnie@ksu.edu
Abstract
Young adolescents who experience stress may also
exhibit negative behaviors at school. Students whose
misbehavior causes an interruption to classroom learning
maybesenttotheoffice and, as a result, lose
instructional time and learning. The goal of this quasi-
experimental pilot study was to determine if mindfulness
training would decrease the number of office discipline
referrals for middle grades students with a high number
of office discipline referrals. The treatment required
students to use a Muse brain-sensing headband paired
with an app to train them to focus on calming and self-
regulating behaviors. Data analysis indicated a
statistically significant correlation between using the
headband for 3 min a week and a lower number of times
students were sent to the office for behavior redirection.
Research with a larger sample size is recommended.
Keywords: mindfulness, middle grades, middle
school, office discipline referrals, student behavior,
student discipline
Introduction
Stress can be defined as a physiological response to the
perception of loss of control resulting from an adverse
situation or person (Jensen, 2009). Early research on
adolescent students and school-related stress indicates that
students may experience stress in the areas of adjustment,
performance, and behavior (Windle & Windle 1996).
Contemporary studies detail more specific stress-inducing
factors that, according to Broderick and Jennings (2012),
include
. . . disengagement from school, alienation from
parents, body image self-consciousness, susceptibility
to peer influence, pressure to engage in sexual activity
and romantic relationships, participation in antisocial
or risky behaviors, and heavy exposure to media that
may mold behavioral expectations at odds with the
values of their families and communities. (p.112)
Students in poverty may experience stress more often and
more intensely than their affluent peers (Almeida,
Neupert, Banks, & Serido, 2005). Military-connected
Color versions of one or more of the figures in the article can be found online at www.tandfonline.com/umle.
This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/
4.0/), which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provide d the original work is properly cited.
© 2018 Tonnie Martinez and Yuanyuan Zhao. Published with license by Taylor & Francis. 1
RMLE Online—Volume 41, No. 3
2018 ●Volume 41 ●Number 3 ISSN 1940-4476
students also contend with the psychological stress and
emotional issues related to moving an average of six to
nine times during their schooling, and the reality and threat
of parental deployment (Chandra, Hawkins, &
Richardson, 2010;Petty,2009;Phelps,Dunham,&
Lyons, 2010).
Students’stress levels may manifest in anger, poor
behavior, violent behavior, and poor classroom conduct
particularly at the secondary level (Feindler, 1995;
Ommundsen & Vaglum, 1991; Prins & Hanewald,
1999). According to the most recent indicators of school
crime and safety report (based on 2007–2008 data), a
high percentage of secondary school teachers reported
that student misbehavior interfered with teaching and
learning in their classrooms (National Center for
Educational Statistics [NCES], 2009). Students whose
misbehavior causes interruption to classroom learning
may find themselves subsequently being sent to the
office for behavior redirection by a teacher seeking
additional support from a counselor, social worker, or
administrator. Such trips to the office can have additional
negative effects for students due to classroom absences
from valuable learning time (Scott & Barrett, 2004).
Alternatives to office discipline referrals for behavior
redirection may positively influence student behavior
(Durlak, Weissberg, Dymnicki, Taylor, & Schelinger,
2011; Pilcher & Poland, 1992). Promising practices
include mindfulness, a psychological construct that is
defined across the literature as purposefully paying
attention to one’s inner and outer experiences, in the
present moment (Kabat-Zinn, 2003). Mindfulness can
create pathways for students to self-regulate emotion
and stress and refrain from impulsive actions (Farb,
Anderson, & Segal, 2012; Ortner, Kilner, & Zelazo,
2007; Sayers, Creswell, & Taren, 2015). Using
mindfulness as a pathway to self-regulation, students
could potentially strengthen their ability to avoid
overreacting, increase their ability to pay attention,
and manage to stay in their classroom learning
environment (Zelazo & Cunningham, 2007).
To better understand the effects of mindfulness on
student behavior, a pilot study was conducted in a
middle school setting. The study investigated whether
Muse brain-sensing headbands could be used to guide
students through mindfulness training and affect the
number of times students were sent out of the
classroom for behavior redirection. It was
hypothesized that students that benefit from
mindfulness training could increase their ability to
remain calm and focused, making it unnecessary to be
sent out of the classroom for behavior redirection,
resulting in missed instructional time.
Theoretical Background
For many years, a common approach to stress reduction
has been to elicit what Herbert Benson (1975,2000))
termed the “relaxation response.”The relaxation
response involves bodily changes when one experiences
a focus on breath and relaxation. This response is a
naturally occurring measure against overstress, bringing
the body back to a healthier balance.
Current literature offers a number of empirical
publications in the field of neuroscience using the term
“mindfulness”to describe a comprehensive theoretical
framework derived of four components that may work
to provide a calmer state: (a) attention regulation, (b)
body awareness, (c) emotion regulation (including
reappraisal and exposure, extinction, and
reconsolidation), and (d) change in perspective on the
self (Holzel et al., 2011). The incorporation of stress
reduction programs, such as mindfulness, into the
school curriculum is associated with improvement of
academic performance, self-esteem, mood,
concentration, and behavior (Ballinger & Heine, 1991;
Dendato & Diener, 1986; Kiselica, Baker, Thomas, &
Reedy, 1994; Napoli, 2004; Shillingford &
Shillingford-Mackin, 1991).
Mindfulness Training Options
The correlation between stress reduction and improved
academic and behavior performance in adolescents
motivated researchers to seek potential tools students
could use for guidance into a more concentrative and
focused state, resulting in a learner that is able to cope
with stressful situations (Langer, 1989,2000;
Beauchemin, Hutchins, & Patterson, 2008; Felver,
Celis-de Hoyos, Tezanos, & Singh, 2015). Of the tools
considered, one emerged that required very little time
or attention from classroom teachers, yet provided
students with an opportunity for self-guidance into
mindfulness: the Muse brain-sensing headband.
The Muse is a wearable device that senses the
electrical rhythms of the brain. Through a Bluetooth
connection, the Muse headband works with an app,
which can be downloaded to a smartphone, tablet, or
computer. When the user participates in a Muse-
guided meditation session, it gives spontaneous
feedback on brain activities during the session. While
practicing with the Muse, the user is required to calm
down and focus on respiration. Using the Muse for
mindfulness training with adults has been correlated to
2 © 2018 Tonnie Martinez and Yuanyuan Zhao. Published with license by Taylor & Francis.
RMLE Online—Volume 41, No. 3
improved attention and reduced somatic symptoms,
such as headaches, pain, discomfort, stress, and so
forth (Bhayee et al., 2016).
To advance understanding in the correlation between
mindfulness training and student behavior, a quasi-
experimental study was planned and conducted to
discover the impact of Muse mindfulness training on
students’behaviors at school. Specifically, the study
investigated the relationship between students’office
discipline referrals and Muse scores. It was
hypothesized that students’Muse scores would
increase while their office discipline referrals would
decrease after 20 Muse practice sessions.
Methods
Participants
The project used a quasi-experimental matched
comparison group design to estimate the impact of guided
mindfulness on office discipline referrals. Random
assignment of the school student population to groups
was not feasible; however, in order to develop comparison
groups, school district data management software was
queried to generate the following criteria: students in
middle grades (7th–8th grade) who averaged five or more
office discipline referrals for two consecutive semesters.
Twenty students with more than five referrals each were
recruited, and their parents signed consent forms. Ten
students were randomly assigned to the treatment group
and ten were assigned to the control group (N=10,seven
females, three males). One control group student was put
on an Individual Learning Plan for special education
services, leaving nine students in the control group (N=9,
four females, five males). There were eight eighth-grade
students and one seventh-grade student in the treatment
group. The control group was comprised of six eighth-
grade students and three seventh-grade students.
Muse Headband and Muse App
The Muse headband is a wearable device that is able
to track brain activity, very similar to the way a heart
rate monitor can capture a heartbeat. The user is
guided through a calming sequence of his or her
choice, either an ocean or a rainforest scenario. The
user then is able to get real-time feedback on how
calm he or she remained during the guided session.
The information is then gathered and stored in the
Muse app that the user has downloaded to a
smartphone, tablet, or computer. By tracking Muse
progress on a personal account, the user is able to
monitor progress after each mindfulness training
session.
Procedures
From October 2016 to March 2017, students in the
treatment group each participated in 3 min of guided
mindfulness training with a Muse once per week during
their eighth class period (a homeroom study period)
from 1:55 p.m. to 2:40 p.m. in an assigned, quiet
classroom. Two students participated in Muse sessions
simultaneously as a graduate research assistant
monitored the room. In total, each participant in the
treatment group completed 20 Muse sessions. The
control group did not participate in any mindfulness
training sessions, but data on their office referrals for
behavioral redirection were tracked and collected.
Twice each week for the duration of the study, the
researcher went on site to the middle school. The
researcher’s routine included setting up two desks with a
Muse headband and an iPad with the Muse app. The
researcher then submitted the participants’time schedules
for Muse practice to the office staff. Each participant was
assigned 15 min to leave their homeroom, participate in
the Muse session, and return to class.
In the first Muse session, students learned about the
Muse devices and the researcher introduced the guided
mindfulness training protocol. Students were
encouraged to find a comfortable position and were
allowed to sit or lie down for the Muse session.
Students were briefed on how the Muse works
together with Muse app to guide them through 3 min
of mindfulness training. Students had their own
individual Muse accounts to record their progress.
During their first Muse session, students used earbuds to
receive guidance from the app on how to concentrate on
their breathing. Nature sounds emitted from the Muse
provided students with spontaneous feedback about their
brain activity. If a student’s mind stayed deeply restful
and calm, they were rewarded with the sound of birds. If
the mind was active, the sound of wind or the ocean
intensified. After each session, the Muse app displayed
the resulting score. Upon completion of the 3-min
practice, participants received a piece of candy as
compensation. Meanwhile, the researcher recorded
students’Muse scores in a password-protected file.
In subsequent mindfulness training sessions, no one
counseled the students or spoke to them, with the
exception of a person who acknowledged their arrival
and told them to sign in. Students did not speak to
each other and rarely arrived at the same time. All
students were able to opt out of the study at any time
for the duration of the project.
© 2018 Tonnie Martinez and Yuanyu an Zhao. Published with license by Taylor & Francis. 3
RMLE Online—Volume 41, No. 3
Measures
Brain waves. Brain waves are the electrical activity
of neurons across the cortex of the brain that can be
recorded via electroencephalography (EEG) (Desai,
Tailor, & Bhatt, 2015). The brain generates activity as
waves or oscillations that are representative in two
states, either active or resting. Within those states,
human beings display five types of brain wave
classifications: alpha, beta, theta, gamma, and delta.
Alpha waves are prominently active when a person is
awake, but they are only moderately active when a
person is relaxed with eyes closed (Desai et al., 2015).
Alpha waves help people to relax and clam down.
Beta waves occur during “a heightened state of
awareness”when people are alert and concentrating
on tasks (Desai et al., 2015, p. 114). Beta activities
correlate with academic performance and emotions.
Theta waves occur in sleep or deep relaxation and can
also relate to the inability to focus; they are prevalent
when a person is depressed. Gamma waves are
energetic waves and relate to the feeling of strong
capability (Desai et al., 2015). Delta waves are
generated in a state of extremely deep meditation and
dreamless sleep (Berman & Stevens, 2014).
The Muse utilizes the EEG system to investigate
neural mechanisms and detect the full range of brain
wave activity. The Muse app analyzes the brain
signals gathered by the Muse headband and divides
the data into three states: calm, neutral, and active
(Interaxon, 2017). The headband is placed over the
ears and across the forehead. The equipment calibrates
by measuring brain waves during two brief exercises:
a word association task and a brief focused attention
task.
Following a calibration period, the app guided each
participant through the nature sounds that would serve
as auditory cues as to whether concentration was
focused or wandering. These auditory cues also were
gamified; participants scored points for maintaining
inward focus on their breathing. Hearing a bird flying
by indicated to users that they were deeply focused on
their breath, which earned them three points for every
second under this condition. Every second of a neutral
state of mind received one point. The accumulation of
points created a final score for each Muse session. The
higher the score, the more focused the student was
during the Muse practice. The Muse app stored each
session score under the student’s individual Muse
account.
Office referral records. An office referral occurs
when a student’s behavior impacts the learning of
other students in a negative way, so much so that
learning stops taking place. The middle school
research site had a policy and procedure for office
referrals. Students misbehaving first received a
verbal warning. If the student did not correct the
behavior, he or she got a “plan time.”The teacher
placed a piece of paper face down on the students’
desk with the word “Warnin g ”printed on the back.
If the student did not correct the behavior at that
time, then the teacher flipped the sheet face up and
the student completed a questionnaire about his or
her negative behavior and how he or she would
correct it. This form was sent home for parent/
guardian signature. If the behavior was not corrected
after that procedure, students were sent to the office.
If the student’s negative behavior posed an
immediate danger to other students or self, the
procedure was skipped and the student was sent
directly to the office.
The district used a data management software package
to keep student records. When a student was referred
to the office, his or her information was entered into
the data management system and coded for record
keeping. Parents/guardians and students had access to
student data through a portal that allowed them to see
attendance, grades, discipline referrals, and other
instances of communication. Office referral data
queried from the building data management system
was used to determine participants for the matched
comparison group design and to estimate the impact of
guided meditation on office referrals. Office referral
data for students in both the treatment group and the
control group were recorded from September 2016 to
April 2017.
Results
Muse Scores
Students’Muse scores were collected for analysis to
measure improvement in the students’ability to be
mindful. Muse scores began at zero and had the
potential to increase or decrease with each session.
Each treatment group participant did 20 Muse
sessions, divided across the second and third
semesters of the academic year, with winter vacation
in between. Thus, Muse scores were grouped into first
half scores and second half scores. The students’
average Muse scores increased from 328 to 390
points. The largest individual increase went from 317
to 424 points—an increase of 107 points. The smallest
increase was 24 points—from 307 to 331 points.
Figure 1 provides data relevant to the first research
question regarding Muse scores. It indicates students’
4 © 2018 Tonnie Martinez and Yuanyuan Zhao. Published with license by Taylor & Francis.
RMLE Online—Volume 41, No. 3
abilities to concentrate during Muse sessions. All
students in the treatment group increased their Muse
scores.
Office Referral Records
Figure 2 depicts the average number of participants’
office referrals recorded from September 2016 to April
2017. In the Muse treatment group, participants’office
referrals dropped significantly from 6.33 to 1.78. In
contrast, students in the control group kept close to
their original number of office referrals, but with a
slight increase from 4.22 to 4.44.
A paired sample t-test was used to analyze students’
office referrals and to explore whether mindfulness
training with the Muse had an impact on student
behavior. The study rejected the null hypothesis [t
(8) = 2.37, p= 0.045 < .05] and found that there was a
statistical significant difference in students’office
referrals after participating in the Muse study.
Referrals dropped from (M= 6.33, SD = 5.05) to
(M= 1.78, SD = 1.09). Cohen’sd= 1.25 suggests that
mindfulness training with the Muse had a large impact
on students’office referrals.
Additional analysis comparing the Muse treatment
group with the control group employed an
independent sample t-test to measure whether students
who participated in Muse sessions and those who did
not were statistically different in their number of office
referrals. There was homogeneity of variance as
assessed by Levene’s test for equality of variances.
The study rejected the null hypothesis [t(16) = −3.68,
p= 0.002 < .05], suggesting a statistically significant
difference on students’office referrals between
students who participated in mindfulness training with
the Muse (M= 1.78, SD = 1.09) and those who did not
(M= 4.44, SD = 1.88). Cohen’sd=1.73 suggested
that Muse practices had a very large impact on
students’office referrals.
An analysis of covariance evaluated whether students’
initial office referrals were influenced by mindfulness
training. The homogeneity of variance was met by
Levene’s test, p= 0.17 > .05. Students’initial office
referral numbers (covariate in this study) had no
significant effect on their behavior at school [F(1,
15) = 2.58, p> .05], which means this covariate did
not influence the students’office referrals in this study.
This result demonstrates that the effect of Muse
practices applies to any student without regard to his
or her former behavior record at school. The study
rejected the null [F(1,15) = 10.47, p= .006 < .05,
partial Eta squared = .41], and found that students who
participated in mindfulness training (M= 1.78,
SD = 1.09) had a smaller number of office referrals
than did those students who did not participate in the
training (M= 4.44, SD = 1.88).
6.33
4.22
1.78
4.44
MUSE GROUP CONTROL GROUP
2016.9-12 2017.1-4
Figure 2. Descriptive statistics of office referrals.
Figure 1. Descriptive statistics of Muse scores.
© 2018 Tonnie Martinez and Yuanyu an Zhao. Published with license by Taylor & Francis. 5
RMLE Online—Volume 41, No. 3
Discussion
This research contributes to understanding alternative
pathways to school discipline besides reliance on office
referrals. Though it is impossible to generalize from a
study with such a small sample size, the study offers
significant insight into a specific strategy—mindfulness
training—for providing discipline support to students.
This strategy is currently not widely represented in
national discourse on student behavior and learning.
Data analysis suggests a strong correlation between
using Muse headbands for mindfulness training and
reducing the number of office referrals for middle-level
students. The implications for this phenomenon could
be far reaching for students in terms of their socio-
emotional and academic growth.
As state departments of education add requirements
for schools to meet standards for social and emotional
growth, this study sheds light on a viable strategy for
students to cope with the demands and stress from
inside and outside school. In exit interviews, students
used words like “calming”and “relaxing”to describe
Muse use. Five students indicated that they could
employ mindfulness session techniques during the
school day without the use of the Muse. Mindfulness
training with the Muse may be able to assist students
in coping with negative stress outside of school. In the
exit interview, one student indicated, “When I am at
home and there is lots of yelling, I can hear the Muse
in my mind and calm down.”
The study also suggests that mindfulness training
could benefit students academically. Students sent out
of their classroom for behavior redirection miss
important academic content instruction. This lost
instructional time exacerbates dropout rates and
achievement gaps. By reducing the amount of time
students are absent from the classroom environment
for office referrals, exposure to academic content is
increased and students are provided with additional
opportunities to increase their academic engagement
and achievement.
Data analysis of Muse scores indicated participants
also were able to grow in their ability to be mindful
over time. All students in the treatment group
increased their average levels of concentration—the
ability to focus inwardly on their breath. The capacity
to be mindful and self-regulate has been studied in
adults (Goyal et al., 2014), but there is very little
research on mindfulness in students. More research is
needed into mindfulness training for students and how
it might be used (a) as an alternative to office referrals,
(b) for students’self-regulation of negative classroom
behaviors, and (c) for helping students cope with
negative stress in and out of school.
Limitations
The study’s results must be viewed in light of several
limitations. The first limitation to the pilot study is
sample size. The limited number of participants
influences the generalizability of the results. Future
work should replicate the study’s procedures and Muse
session protocols with a larger number of participants.
A second limitation is the duration of the study. This
study lasted for two grading periods (one-half of a
semester), and each student participated in 20
mindfulness training sessions. Future research into
guided mindfulness training could require daily
mindful practices; however, the challenge to any school
intervention is the agreement of all stakeholders that the
protocol is not an undue interruption of the learning
environment. In the current study, this challenge was
overcome by utilizing the homeroom period for
mindfulness sessions. A third potential limitation is the
difficulty of controlling for the variability of conditions
present in middle-level schools, and the many
complicated and interrelated factors of students’lives.
Goals for Future Research
To gain a more complete understanding of the impact of
mindfulness training on middle-level students, research
should explore a larger sample of participants,
incorporate more frequent mindfulness training sessions,
and offer sessions of varying durations to determine
which duration produces the greatest effect. Results of
the guided mindfulness training disaggregated by gender
and ethnicity might address the alarming trend of
overrepresentation of African-American and Hispanic
males in office discipline referrals. Additionally, future
work could include teacher participation in Muse
sessions to measure the effect mindfulness training
might have on their perceived stress inside and outside
school. Finally, follow-up interviews months and years
after the study could reveal lasting effect of mindfulness
training on students and teachers.
Conclusion
All students deserve to thrive and learn in an optimal
learning environment. However, negative stress can
cause students to behave in ways that are detrimental
to themselves and others in their learning
environment. When students are unable to self-
monitor and redirect their behavior, they face negative
consequences and are frequently removed from the
classroom. The loss of valuable learning time can have
6 © 2018 Tonnie Martinez and Yuanyuan Zhao. Published with license by Taylor & Francis.
RMLE Online—Volume 41, No. 3
far-reaching consequences that may impact the
trajectory of their lives. This pilot study contributes
toward understanding how guided mindfulness
training may provide students with a strategy that
positively influences their ability to focus and could
correlate to fewer office referrals. With both goals in
mind, this modest pilot study begins a dialogue that
points to the potential of guided mindfulness training
for transforming school discipline from a reactive to a
proactive approach.
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