Running head: Meditation in the classroom 1

Meditation in the classroom:

Reducing math anxiety and raising student focus
Sarah Hoerr
Endeavor Elementary and Middle School
Seventh Grade
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Abstract
Math anxiety can affect many students of any gender or socioeconomic background. One
method used to help students reduce their math anxiety is by employing different mindfulness
techniques in the classroom. The most common method used is meditation, where students
practice clearing their mind and releasing stress. This study tested to see if meditation could be
used to reduce math anxiety and raise student focus. A 7th-grade math class had guided
meditation sessions to soothing music for 5 minutes, with the final session taking place before a
quiz. The results from this study showed that the students themselves felt that meditation helped
them to pay more attention in class as well as reducing their math anxiety. The meditation
session quiz scores were significantly higher than the two previous quizzes. This shows that
meditation can help students to focus better in class and help them to reduce their math anxiety.
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Reducing math anxiety through meditation in the classroom

Meditation, along with other mindfulness techniques, has started to be used in the
classroom. Some schools are using techniques to reduce bullying by teaching students to be more
self-aware (Foody & Samara, 2018). Others are using them to reduce stress and anxiety in
students (Aly, 2018). In schools “where meditation is built in as a regular part of a school
programme” there is more opportunity for “it to be of lasting benefit” (Levete, 2001, p.28).
There is evidence to support the use of meditation to increase the students’ ability to focus as
well as reduce anxiety and has been shown to help, specifically, with math anxiety. A student
who suffers from math anxiety is more likely to “have lower grades, be less fluent in
mathematics, avoid enrolling in mathematics courses and prefer procedural mathematics courses
that are not conceptually driven” (Aly, 2018). This will cause them to have limited prospects for
future careers. Meditation has been shown to “help an individual’s cognition and mitigate their
anxiety” (Aly, 2018). Besides reducing anxiety meditation has been proven to have other
physical and psychological benefits including: “lowered heart rate, relaxed muscles, improved
motor skills, increased clarity of thought, increased creativity, imposed self-confidence” (Mann,
2001, p.35). It has also shown to improve a student’s “sustained concentration…meta-cognition,
executive functioning, and working memory” (Waters, Barsky, Ridd, & Allen, 2014, p.122).
Could meditation be used to reduce math anxiety and raise student’s ability to focus?

Literature Review

As students progress through school they are not only learning their different subject
material, they are also learning different life skills such as self-regulation. In “The potential of
meditation in education” author Caroline Mann discusses what meditation is and how its benefits
could be applied to the classroom. One of the effects of meditation is that the body enters a state
of relaxation. Through meditation, students would be able to regulate their emotions and learn
how to manage stress. According to Mann’s research, meditation can also help students to train
their minds to pay closer attention to details and to be able to focus for longer periods of time.

Geillan Aly’s “Mathematics anxiety and meditation” presents research conducted on how
meditation can affect math anxiety. Math anxiety is so common that it has been classified
separately from test anxiety and general anxiety. Students suffering from math anxiety tend to be
disengaged from the lessons more often. Meditation has been found to calm an individual’s
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mind. This can be achieved through a number of techniques including breathing exercises and
calming visualizations. Through the use of meditation, it was found that students did lower their
math anxiety levels when compared to the control class.

While Aly’s article shows that meditation can work to reduce math anxiety, the question
is raised, what would happen if meditation and other mindfulness techniques were employed
throughout the school? This question was answered in Shaina Cavazos’ article “Schools combine
meditation and brain science to help combat discipline problems”. The article describes how one
school is using mindfulness techniques, such as meditation, to reduce problem behaviors from
students and to help them learn to regulate their emotions in a more productive manner. Every
morning at the start of class the school takes one minute to meditate. This one-minute meditation
allows students to clear their mind and focus on the day to come. Students are also encouraged to
practice deep breathing exercises to increase the oxygen in the blood, lowering their blood
pressure, and helping to slow their heartbeat. By calming the body, the mind also starts to calm
allowing students to think more clearly and productively.

Over the years many studies have been done to corroborate the evidence that meditation
can help individuals. There seems to be plenty of evidence that meditation can indeed reduce
math anxiety and raise student focus. The experimental part seems to be finding which method
would work best for most students in a class.

Methods

In this quasi-experimental study, seventh-grade math students participated in meditation

sessions to answer the question: Can meditation reduce students’ mathematics anxiety and raise
student focus?

One seventh grade math class of 25 students participated in the study. Starting
shortly after the start of the new trimester, students would participate in a class-wide meditation
session on teacher approved days. The daily classroom routine would not change from the
previous trimester nor would how the lessons were taught. On the teacher approved days a 5-
minute meditation session would be led at the start of class, several days were chosen with the
final session taking place on a quiz day. The meditation sessions included guided deep breathing
exercises and soothing music. Before the meditation sessions started the students were given a
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pre-meditation survey (Appendix A). This asked about their general feelings on math as well as
how they felt about different types of math problems (i.e. algebra problems v. word problems).
The meditation sessions would be the start of class on previously agreed days. At the end of
class, students were asked to place a marble into one of three boxes. The boxes were labeled
Helped, Not Sure, and No Help. This allowed for instant feedback on how the students perceived
the usefulness of that day’s meditation session (Appendix B). Finally, after the day after the final
meditation session, the students were given a post-meditation survey (Appendix C). It included
questions on whether their feelings on meditation or mathematics had changed. It also asked
whether they believed that meditation had helped to reduce their math anxiety and/or to help
them focus better. While the surveys and session formative assessment provided feedback from
students on whether they felt that meditation was helping, it was also important to see if it
affected their grades. The teacher provided the grades for the two quizzes from the last trimester
to be used as a baseline. The grades from the quiz that started with a meditation session were
used to see if there was a difference in class average after the use of meditation (Appendix D).

Results

Based on the post-meditation survey, out of the 24 surveys turned in 8 stated that they
Strongly Agreed that meditation had helped to reduce their math anxiety while 7 were Neutral
and 1 Disagreed. For the question on whether meditation helped them to pay more attention, 9
Strongly Agreed against the 4 Neutral and 1 who Strongly Disagreed.

For the question of whether their feelings towards math class had changed 14 of the students
answered that yes, their opinion of math had changed, some explaining that they feel more
relaxed when coming to class. Of the remaining students, 6 stated that they felt the same about
math and 3 have changed their opinion a little.

The Marble Assessment showed that at the end of a class that had started with meditation,
most students felt that the session had helped in some way. It must be noted that the count on
March 25 was adjusted. The original count was 26 marbles in Helped, 2 in Not Sure, and 1 in No
Help. After sharing this count with the teacher, it was realized that there were only 20 students in
the class that day. The Not Sure and No Help totals stood, while the Helped number was adjusted
down to 17. It was assumed that the meditation session went so well that student enthusiasm led
them to overvote.
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Based on the quiz scores there was a noticeable difference between the pre-meditation
quizzes and the meditation quiz scores. The quiz taken on December 13 was taken by 23
students, was out of 10 points with an overall class average of 62.27%. The February 4 was taken
by 23 students out of 20 points had an overall class average of 63.69%. The first quiz of the new
trimester was taken on April 9 after four meditation sessions. Out of 15 points with a 2-point
extra credit question, the overall class average was 81.5% a definite increase over the last two
quizzes.

Limitations

The results of this study are reported with the understanding that the limitations of this
study may have affected the outcome. The study is classified as quasi-experimental due to
several variables being outside the study’s control. There was an experimental group but no
control group. Although the same class prior to the meditation session could be used as a control
situation. The days for meditation were as consistent as possible but the sessions were not done
with the regularity that would have been more preferred. There was also one occasion where the
meditation session was interrupted due to announcements from the office. It must also be
acknowledged that while the quiz scores were significantly higher and while the meditation may
have helped it, the higher quiz scores could also be due to the students being more comfortable
with the material.

Recommendation

The form that meditation takes could be adjusted based on the personalities and
temperaments of the students and teacher. For some classes, the deep breathing exercises, as
tried here, may work best. For others, they may try a physical form of meditation such as
stretching or a moving meditation. There have been several studies that have shown that the
different mindfulness techniques, such as meditation, can lead to improvements in a classroom.
Based on previous research and in this study, it would be recommended for teachers to employ
some form of meditation in their classroom. Teachers should try different methods to see which
would work best in for their class and then tailor the kind of meditation to which form would be
most productive.
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Acknowledgments

The author gratefully acknowledges the support provided by Debbie Hough especially for
her guidance, her classroom and, most importantly, her time. The author would also like to thank
Endeavor Elementary and Middle School for allowing her the opportunity to complete this study
and the 7th-hour 7th-grade math class for their hard work, their honesty, and most importantly,
their openness to trying something new.
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APPENDIX A

Results from Pre-meditation survey

APPENDIX B
March 8, March 11, March 22, April 9,
2019 2019 2019 March 25, 2019 2019
17 (26 marbles were in the box, only 20 students were
in the class) (the students put all of the marbles into
10 12 the help box regardless of how many students were in
Helped marbles marbles 5 marbles the class) 15
Not 7
Sure marbles 1 marble 1 marble 2 marble 3
No
Help 1 marble 0 marbles 0 marble 1 marble 7

APPENDIX C
Post-Meditation Survey
Results from the post-meditation survey
APPENDIX D
Google sheet with quiz Scores.
Running head: Meditation in the classroom 9

References

Aly, G. (2018). Mathematics anxiety and meditation. In Proceedings of the 40th annual meeting
of the North American Chapter of the International Group for the Psychology of
Mathematics Education (pp.946-949). Greenville, SC: University of South Carolina &
Clemson University

Foody, M. & Samara, M.M.S. (2018). Considering mindfulness techniques in school-based anti-
bullying programmes. Journal of New Approaches in Educational Research, 7(1), 3-9.
https://doi.org/10.7821/naer.2018.1.253

Levete, G. (2001). Meditation as it is practiced in education. In Meditation in schools: Calmer

classrooms (pp.27-32). London, United Kingdom: A&C Black.

Mann, C. (2001). The potential of meditation in education. In Meditation in schools: Calmer

classrooms (pp.33-38). London, United Kingdom: A&C Black.

Waters, L., Barsky, A., Ridd, A., & Allen, K. (2014). Contemplative education: A systematic,
evidence-based review of the effect of meditation interventions in schools. Educational
Psychology Review, 27(1), 104-134. https://doi:10.1007/s10648-014-9258-2