160 • ii: MindFulnESS in EduCATing FOR SElF-REgulATiOn And EngAgEMEnT
Manualizing: detailing the Practice
Researchers and practitioners serve the larger effort to share and study mindfulness when
they detail the interventions that they are doing (Greenberg & Harris, 2012). There are many
aspects to the intervention that should be detailed including the “dosage” (e.g., frequency
and duration of each session, the length of the overall intervention, and home practice;
Cook-Cottone, 2013), exactly what specific activities are part of the intervention (e.g., focused
meditations, guided meditation, metta meditation, body scans), and teacher specifics
(e.g., training of teachers, experience of teachers, supervision). The highest form of detailing
the intervention is creating a manual that details specific statements, intervention activities,
assessment points, and resources. Manuals should be updated and revised during the early
years of an intervention. A formally published manual should be well vetted via feedback
from those who have implemented the program. With a detailed account of what was done,
other researchers and practitioners can replicate the program and assess how well it works
in other areas with other populations (Greenberg & Harris, 2012). Here is a list that includes
many of the specifics that should be detailed during an intervention (Zeller et al., 2014):
- The theoretical basis for the study (Greenberg & Harris, 2012; Zeller et al., 2014)
- The specific intervention details (e.g., activities, types of mindfulness taught and led,
leader statements and scripts, steps of implementation; Greenberg & Harris, 2012; Zeller
et al., 2014) - Dosage (e.g., frequency, duration, and length of each aspect of the intervention—15 min-
utes guided meditation [with script], 20 minutes mindful stretching [with sequence], and
10 minutes body scan [with script] for 10 weeks, three times a week during homeroom;
home practice; Greenberg & Harris, 2012; Cook-Cottone, 2013) - Teacher details (e.g., training, experience, support, supervision; Zeller et al., 2014)
- Treatment or intervention integrity (e.g., a checklist or more detailed accounting system not-
ing the aspects of the program and how effectively they were implemented at each session) - Program context (e.g., the room, distractions, challenges, time of day, competing programs)
Types of Outcome Measures
As you will see in the research detailed in the following, there are many ways to explore
the effects of mindfulness. Some researchers are looking at health and well-being and their
measures assess those constructs. Other researchers believe that the important effects are
on student engagement and academic success. Accordingly, they measure and assess those
areas. There are many other perspectives that researcher have taken. If you look back to
Chapters 1, 2, and 3, you will see a variety of outcomes that are believed to be associated
with constructs such as mindfulness—stress reduction, improved health, reduced impulsiv-
ity, emotional regulation, self-regulation, and academic functioning. In good research, the
outcomes are measured by assessment tools that can effectively detail the changes in the
variable from pre- to posttest, and at follow-up.
Often when research is presented in popular culture and even in textbooks, the quality or
type of the measures used is not discussed. The field of assessment is an evolving field and the
measures used to detect changes associated with mindfulness practice are sometimes as young
as the mindfulness field itself. Other research measures are tried, tested, and well-established,
yet the details are too much for a press release or Facebook post. In these cases, the quality