ML Education Research Network I

The Mind and Life Education Research Network (MLERN I) was formed in 2006 to create a multidisciplinary intellectual forum dedicated to exploring issues at the intersection of mind, brain, education and contemplative practice. This intersection was very novel; there was little in the way of systematic developmental-educational thinking in the Buddhist traditions despite interesting sets of practices such as debate in the training of young monks. Because of this, a primary agenda of MLERN became scientific and intellectual dialogue and discovery. A primary goal of the network for the entire three years was to explore, from various scientific, applied and contemplative perspectives, with various assembled groups of individuals, questions such as:

• Do any contemplative resources regarding mental training for children and adolescents in the Sanskritic traditions of India exist?
• What does science tell us about the prospects for the cultivation of self-regulatory skills such as impulse control, and interpersonal skills such as empathic listening in children, adolescents, and emerging adults through various kinds of mental and physical training?
• What are the social-emotional, attentional and interpersonal skills young people need today, in addition to their academic skills and knowledge, to be successful, happy and socially-responsible members of school first, and society and the global community later? How can we cultivate these same social-emotional, attentional, and interpersonal skills in educators and parents so they can serve as positive role models for young people in these regards?
• Might contemplative practices have anything to offer with respect to the mental training of “21st century skills” in young people and educators and parents alike – those that foster calming and centering, concentration, clarity, compassion, and interpersonal and intercultural ease of presence?
• How can we design age-appropriate measures of these kinds of 21st century skills so we can measure their development all across the lifespan and in the context of interventions that employ contemplative practices?
• What are promising extant programs for children, adolescents, emerging adults and educations that could serve as “testbeds” for the development of measures and preliminary studies of the efficacy and effectiveness of such programs?
• What are the risks and cautionary tales of history we should be aware of as we explore the idea of introducing mindfulness and compassion practices in secular cultural settings like public schools?

Three Pilot Studies Were Funded as part of MLERN I:

1. Amishi Jha, Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania
   Developing age-appropriate attention and working memory measures for use in mindfulness-based training with children and adolescents
2. Mark Greenberg, Ph.D., Penn State and Tamar Mendelson, Ph.D., M.A., Johns Hopkins University
   Feasibility and preliminary outcomes of a school-based mindfulness intervention for urban youth
3. Robert W. Roeser, Ph.D., Portland State University and Kim Schonert-Reichl, Ph.D., University of British Columbia
   Testing the acceptability, feasibility and effectiveness of a mindfulness-based professional development program for public school teacher

Interesting work. To know more read on as this is extremely relevant to our times in that it it revolutionize the current system of education, that is being imparted in our schools.