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Meditation – Neuroscientific Approaches and Philosophical Implications pp 381–404Cite as

Mindfulness in German Schools (MISCHO): A Specifically Tailored Training Program: Concept, Implementation and Empirical Results

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Part of the book series: Studies in Neuroscience, Consciousness and Spirituality ((SNCS,volume 2))

Abstract

Research on mindfulness and its relationship with health, distress and well-being has blossomed over the last decades. Although there are many studies highlighting the importance of mindfulness for health-related parameters, empirical research has also started to look into the not primarily health related aspects of mindfulness such as cognitive attention, self-regulation, empathy, social and ethical competence and creative thinking. As many of these aspects are not only related to health but also to social, moral and professional behavior, mindfulness has also become a focus of interest in the educational sciences and pedagogy. In this chapter, we provide some background relevant for understanding the discourses about mindfulness in the context of education and discuss how mindfulness programs may be implemented in school settings and additionally describe the prerequisites for school teachers who want to teach mindfulness. Finally, the development and pilot-evaluation of the Mindfulness in Schools Program (MISCHO, the German program name is AISCHU® – Achtsamkeit in der Schule) is described.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Teaching mindfulness to children at an earlier stage, for example in primary schools and even in kindergarten is nevertheless possible, although the curriculum has to be adapted to the developmental stage (Altner 2009). For example, vivid stories and definite, concrete mental images were found to be most adequate for this age group.

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Acknowledgments

The pilot evaluation study was kindly supported by the German Qigong Society (http://www.qigong-gesellschaft.de/). Niko Kohls work is made possible through the long standing and generous support of the Samueli Institute, Alexandria USA. We are grateful for the support of Marc Wittmann, who has helped us with designing and interpreting the duration discrimination test and provided helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. Jennifer Oyaga, Marcel Dickmann and Alexander Thölke helped with data management.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Elisabethen-Gymnasium Frankfurt, Hessen, Germany

    Vera Kaltwasser

  2. GRP – Generation Research Program, Human Science Center, University of Munich, Munich, Germany

    Sebastian Sauer

  3. Integrative Health Promotion, University of Applied Sciences Coburg, Friedrich-Streib-Str. 2, D-96450, Coburg, Germany

    Niko Kohls

  4. Brain, Mind and Healing Program, Samueli Institute, Alexandria, USA

    Niko Kohls

Authors
  1. Vera Kaltwasser
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  2. Sebastian Sauer
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  3. Niko Kohls
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Correspondence to Vera Kaltwasser .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy, University Medical Center Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany

    Stefan Schmidt

  2. Institute for Transcultural Health Scien, European Universtiy Viadrina, Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany

    Harald Walach

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Kaltwasser, V., Sauer, S., Kohls, N. (2014). Mindfulness in German Schools (MISCHO): A Specifically Tailored Training Program: Concept, Implementation and Empirical Results. In: Schmidt, S., Walach, H. (eds) Meditation – Neuroscientific Approaches and Philosophical Implications. Studies in Neuroscience, Consciousness and Spirituality, vol 2. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-01634-4_20

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