AN ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACT OF THE INNER EXPLORER MINDFULNESS PROGRAM ON THE ACADEMIC GROWTH OF ELEMENTARY STUDENTS

Students experience many stressors that impact their academic achievement and overall well-being. Therefore, schools must explore methods to help students address stressors and to focus on academic learning. In the age of school accountability for academic growth and stagnant or shrinking budgets, schools must explore options that are fiscally possible and have a limited impact on school schedule. Mindfulness is a practice that claims to help students focus in on the learning environment at school in cost-effective and manageable ways.
The purpose of this quantitative study was to analyze the impact of participation in Inner Explorer, an audio-guided, online, mindfulness-based intervention on the academic growth of students. Specifically, the researcher aimed to examine the impact of Inner Explorer on elementary school students in traditional classrooms and to also analyze the impact on students with disabilities. The study consisted of 378 students in second through fifth grades across two schools. A split-plot analysis of variance was used to gauge the impact of Inner Explorer on academic growth for all students and to focus on students with disabilities. Findings suggest that student participation in the Inner Explorer program did not have a significant impact on academic growth. In addition, students with disabilities did not gain academically because of participation in the Inner Explorer program. While previous research suggested a positive relationship between mindfulness and students’ well-being, results of this study did not demonstrate a large-scale impact on academic growth. However, there were aspects within the data that can be attributed to participation in the Inner Explorer program. Further analysis of the impact of mindfulness on academic performance would require a more in-depth research approach spanning a longer timespan than that used in this study. In addition, the concept would best be researched using a larger sample to explore the impact on sub-groups of student populations.