Mindfulness & Compassion Key Factors Improving Teachers Wellbeing

This pilot study evaluated the effect of a 20-week, 90-minute professional teacher development program, Call to Care – Israel for Teachers (C2CIT), on 19 different measures of wellbeing. The program centered on developing caring – receiving care, developing self-care and extending care to others, with the ultimate aim of fostering a community of care in the classroom.

Curriculum content was framed within theory of attachment, with didactic material and practices included that related to mindfulness, compassion, self-compassion, gratitude and a growth mindset. A total of 44 teachers from two middle-class schools participated, with one school serving as the control arm. Significant improvement on most of the measures, stress, self-compassion, mindfulness, rumination and empathy, teachers’ sense of efficacy, were found
in comparison to the control. Only anxiety and burn-out showed no effect, perhaps due to the low baseline levels observed. While this study had a small sample, no active control and did not include randomization, the results add to the growing body of research documenting positive impact of intensive mindfulness training on teachers’ well-being.