10 marks, 20 marks out of 100 marks… Can you imagine how much better your children’s results would have been, had they been able to avoid “careless mistakes”?
These usually come from a lot of different factors, one of which is test-taking stress and pressure. Wouldn’t you want your children to be more aware of the stress and have the skills to cope with this stress?
A growing body of research has shown that practicing mindfulness can help students with their academic goals and even everyday life.
In her paper “Evidence for the Impact of Mindfulness on Children and Young People” (April 2012), Katherine Weare, Emeritus Professor at the University of Exeter and Southampton, mentioned that “Well conducted mindfulness interventions can improve the mental, emotional, social and physical health and wellbeing of young people who take part. It has been shown to reduce stress, anxiety, reactivity and bad behaviour, improve sleep and self-esteem, and bring about greater calmness, relaxation, the ability to manage behaviour and emotions, self-¬awareness and empathy.”
“Mindfulness can contribute directly to the development of cognitive and performance skills and executive function. It can help young people pay greater attention, be more focused, think in more innovative ways, use existing knowledge more effectively, improve working memory, ad enhance planning, problem solving, and reasoning skills.” (Weare, 2012)
Napoli, Krech & Holley (2005) reported that “The children showed significant decreases in both test anxiety and ADHD behaviors and also an increase in the ability to pay attention.”
We will share more tips about the importance of teaching mindfulness to children, with the important element of relating to the Singaporean setting.