A Well-being Training for Preservice Teachers (PST)

University of Wisconsin (UW)

Status: Completed

Conditions: Well-being; Burnout, Professional; Stress, Psychological; Self-regulation; Psychological Adjustment

Treatments: Behavioral: novel mindfulness-based well-being training

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02544412

L&S/PSYCHOLOGY/PSYCHOLOGY (Other Identifier)

2014-1263

A487400 (Other Identifier)

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this project is to study whether a mindfulness-based training program supports self-regulation, resiliency, effective classroom behaviors, and persistence in teaching.

Full description

Participants in this study will be undergraduate pre-service teachers already enrolled in the Early Elementary Certification Program (EECP) in the School of Education. This competitive admission program is four semesters long and consists of 4 certificate granting areas. Over the course of 2 years (i.e., 4 semesters), the investigators will recruit a total of 8 cohorts; 2 from each certificate granting area. Participants will be recruited during their second semester in the program for enrollment during the third semester (i.e., enrollment first semester of senior year). Cohorts will be match randomized by cohort type, ensuring that 4 cohorts are randomized to treatment and 4 cohorts are randomized to teacher education as usual, and that one of each type of cohort is randomized to treatment and control, respectively.

All participants will complete a battery of self-report and behavioral tasks, as well as undergo a standardized classroom observation prior to the start of the intervention, immediately after the intervention, and at follow-up (5-8 months post intervention). Follow-up testing will occur during the final month of the final semester in the EECP program, a time during which participants will be full-time student teaching, training that best approximates in-service teaching. The qualitative component of this study will involve participants partaking in approximately four-hours of interviews (either group or individual based on a hierarchal sampling criterion), before and after the intervention period. In addition, all student EECP records will be qualitatively analyzed (i.e., supervisor notes, state certification portfolios). Each September for three years post-graduation, participants will be contacted and instructed to complete an online survey consisting of self-report inventories and information about whether they are continuing to teach and if so, the name and district of the school they currently work.

Participants randomized to treatment will receive 1.5 hours of mindfulness training for 8 to 10 weeks during their third semester. Thirty minutes of this will occur during mandatory cohort seminar time, with the remaining one-hour after the end of cohort seminar time. In addition, during the intervention period they will participate in two 4-hour "Days of Mindfulness." In total, intervention participants will receive about 21 hours of instruction in mindfulness over the intervention period. During the following semester (4th semester), intervention participants will receive 15 minutes of mindfulness "booster" practice each week as part of their mandatory cohort seminar.

This novel mindfulness based intervention is incorporates elements of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (Kabat-Zinn, 1982), as well as contemplative practices that might be defined as social connectedness practices or constructivist practices (Dahl, Lutz, & Davidson, 2015). The curriculum has been developed by experienced mindfulness teachers (>10 years teaching experience, on average), all of whom have extensive meditation histories and most of whom have long-term experience as classroom teachers. The training will consist of formal and informal mindfulness meditation practices.

Enrollment: 98 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Undergraduate students in good academic standing entering their third semester of one of the following teacher education certificate programs (Early Education ESL, Middle Education SPED, Middle Education Content, Middle Education ESL). Note that good academic standing is a requirement for continuation in the certification program.

Exclusion criteria

• A history of schizophrenia-spectrum, bipolar disorder, or other psychotic disorders

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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98 participants in 2 patient groups

Intervention Group

Experimental group

Description:

A novel mindfulness-based well-being training for preservice teachers will be employed. The intervention will be held once a week for 8-10 weeks. Two 4-hour "days of mindfulness" will also be implemented during the intervention period. The intervention will involve training in a range of attentional and constructive (Dahl, Lutz, \& Davidson) contemplative practices. During the follow-up period participants will receive weekly 15 minute "booster" trainings.

Treatment:

Behavioral: novel mindfulness-based well-being training

Control Group

No Intervention group

Description:

Teacher education as usual. These participants will continue with the prescribed teacher training regime established by the Early Education Certification Program at the university.