Abstract
As interest increases in mindfulness in education programs for youth, there is a need to develop reliable measures of the quality of program implementation. This paper describes the development and psychometric properties of a measure that can be used to assess and monitor quality of implementation of mindfulness programs/curricula in typical classroom or out-of-school settings. The Teaching Mindfulness in Education Observation Scale (TMEOS) is a 28-item instrument that integrates qualitative and quantitative aspects of mindfulness instruction. Items focus on procedural adherence as well as aspects of implementation that reflect embodiment during instructional delivery (e.g., alignment with the attitudinal foundations of mindfulness). Reliability and validity data were examined and indicated that the four major scoring domains and key features showed adequate inter-rater reliability and internal consistency. We conclude that observational assessment of multiple dimension of implementation quality, including adherence and process-oriented aspects of implementation such as embodiment, can be reliably used to assess implementation quality of mindfulness programs in education settings. However, adequate preparation and training are critical. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.
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Acknowledgements
The authors would like to acknowledge the contributions of Robert Roeser and Yoonkyung Oh for their helpful suggestions and comments in preparing this manuscript.
Funding
The project described was supported by Award Number R305A140113 from the Institute of Educational Sciences (IES). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the Institute of Educational Sciences or the US Department of Education. In accordance with ethical obligations, Patricia C. Broderick, author and developer of the Learning to BREATHE curriculum, declares a financial interest in the Learning to BREATHE program which is described in this paper. The remaining authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.
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All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards. Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study
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Broderick, P.C., Frank, J.L., Berrena, E. et al. Evaluating the Quality of Mindfulness Instruction Delivered in School Settings: Development and Validation of a Teacher Quality Observational Rating Scale. Mindfulness 10, 36–45 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-018-0944-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12671-018-0944-x