Asee peer logo

Meaningful Moments: First-year Student Perceptions of Mindfulness and Meditation in the Classroom

Download Paper |

Conference

2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Baltimore , Maryland

Publication Date

June 25, 2023

Start Date

June 25, 2023

End Date

June 28, 2023

Conference Session

First-Year Programs Division (FYP) - Technical Session 4: Supporting Success 1

Tagged Division

First-Year Programs Division (FYP)

Page Count

15

DOI

10.18260/1-2--43561

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/43561

Download Count

181

Paper Authors

biography

Kathryn Schulte Grahame Northeastern University

visit author page

Dr. Kathryn Schulte Grahame is a Teaching Professor at Northeastern University and the Associate Director of the First-Year Engineering Team at Northeastern University. The focus of this team is on providing a consistent, comprehensive, and constructive educational experience that endorses the student-centered, professional and practice-oriented mission of Northeastern University. She teaches the Cornerstone of Engineering courses to first-year students as well as courses within the Civil and Environmental Engineering Department. She is a recipient of the Excellence in Mentoring Award and the Outstanding Teacher of First-Year Students Award. Her research interests include service learning and work that informs and enhances the teaching of first-year students.

visit author page

biography

Angelina Jay Northeastern University

visit author page

Assistant Teaching Professor

visit author page

biography

Andrew L. Gillen Northeastern University Orcid 16x16 orcid.org/0000-0001-8021-6108

visit author page

Andrew L. Gillen is an Assistant Teaching Professor at Northeastern University in the First Year Engineering Program and an affiliate faculty member to Civil and Environmental Engineering. He earned his Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Virginia Tech and B.S. in Civil Engineering from Northeastern University.

visit author page

biography

Susan F. Freeman Northeastern University

visit author page

Susan Freeman, is a member of Northeastern University's first-year engineering facutly, a group of teaching faculty expressly devoted to the first-year Engineering Program at Northeastern University. The focus of this team is on providing a consistent, engaging and hands-on experience for first-year students, hoping to excite and inspire them in the first step of their journey. There is a strong team, continuously improving on project-based curriculum for the first-year and beyond. Sudan Freeman is also the Associate Dean, Undergraduate Education.

visit author page

Download Paper |

Abstract

In this evidence-based practice paper, we seek to investigate our students’ perceptions of the inclusion of mindfulness practices in the engineering classroom. Mindfulness and meditation involve the art and science of building an awareness of self and developing reflective techniques to promote calmness and stability. There is evidence from the literature that demonstrates positive effects of mindfulness and meditation for well-being.

In engineering education in particular, the cognitive stress of engaging with the curriculum can be high. Past research has found that engineering students do perceive benefits from engaging in mindfulness activities. In engineering design, stress-management also has the potential to improve outcomes while supporting student well-being.

Although the literature around mindfulness and meditation in engineering education suggests positive outcomes for students, there is still a need for more evidence across varied contexts. In this paper, we explore student perceptions around the utility of mindfulness and meditation in a first-year engineering design course.

At a private research-intensive university in the northeast US, first-year faculty acknowledged the stress levels of post-COVID first year students and scaffolded a mindfulness and meditative program nested at the beginning of class.

We administered closed- and open-ended survey questions and used content analysis techniques to analyze the written responses from students surveyed during their first-year engineering design course. While the closed-ended responses were helpful in gaining an overall picture of our students’ perceptions, the addition of an open-ended approach helped to capture students’ authentic feelings about the activities in class. Results initially have been positive and in-line with the results seen in the literature, students resonating with the practices and telling us they are expecting and wanting it every day.

Schulte Grahame, K., & Jay, A., & Gillen, A. L., & Freeman, S. F. (2023, June), Meaningful Moments: First-year Student Perceptions of Mindfulness and Meditation in the Classroom Paper presented at 2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Baltimore , Maryland. 10.18260/1-2--43561

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2023 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015