Mindfulness i undervisningen? Upplever eleverna det som meningsfullt?

Abstract

In society today we can see an increase of stress and stress related symptoms. This has begun to appear in lower and lower ages and reports show alarming stress symptoms amongst our teenagers. This paper firstly seeks to examine the documented effects of meditation or mindfulness in correlation to stress, learning and concentration for students in high school. Secondly it examines wheather it is seen by students as a meaningful tool. There are several different definitions of meditation and mindfulness and also different kinds of meditations and mindfulness techniques where a few of them are explained in this paper. We have come to understand the importance of mentioning exactly what method is used in the research since the research shows different results depending on technique. However, an exact definition of the difference between the two has not been found. The results from the survey of previous research show that some forms of meditation and mindfulness can for example lower blood pressure, decrease stress hormones, strengthen sense of self, decrease depression and even change the white matter in the brain. No negative effects of mindfulness was proven. Secondly this paper describes the results from an online survey taken in a Swedish high school for this report. Around 150 students got an hour introduction to mindfulness where both results from science were presented and some exercises in mindfulness were included. The study examines wheather the students experience mindfulness as meaningful in school and would like to have it included their lessons. 140 of these students answered the survey about their experiences and viewpoint. The results show that a strong majority of the students experience mindfulness as meaningful and would like to see it included in lessons in school. With respect to both the results of the examined research reports and the result of the survey, the conclusion is that mindfulness with benefit could be included in schools. To have