The Importance of Mindfulness in Learning

Frontiers in Human Neuroscience published a study funded by the Department of the Army, looking into what are some of the roadblocks to learning that we face. Primarily, the study concentrated on what may cause our minds to wander and decrease our attention spans.  Short-term mindfulness training was given to a group of students for a period of time. 

"Mindfulness is a mental mode characterized by attention to present moment experience without conceptual elaboration or reactivity. MT programs offer practices and didactic discussions on how to stabilize and focus attention on one’s present moment experience, as opposed to ruminating about the past or worrying about the future. A common practice offered in MT courses is mindfulness of breathing. Here, the participant is instructed to focus on a selected sensation of breathing (e.g., coolness of air in the nostrils) and maintain attention on that selected object for the period of formal practice. If a participant notices that his or her attention has wandered to off-task thoughts, feelings, sensations, or other internal preoccupations, he or she is instructed to guide attention back to the target object (e.g., the breath). Therefore, this type of training includes explicit instructions to notice mind wandering and respond by redirecting selective attention."

"MT participants had higher task accuracy and self-reported being more “on-task” after the 7-week training period. MT did not significantly benefit the operation span task or accuracy on the delayed-recognition task. Together these results suggest that while short-form MT did not bolster working memory task performance, it may help curb mind wandering and should, therefore, be further investigated for its use in academic contexts."

 You may read more about this in a book written by Goldie Hawn, entitled, 10 Mindful Minutes.  It's written in layman's terms, is very entertaining and informative and I highly recommend it.

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