Development of the Objective Awareness and Mindfulness Measure for Teachers (OAMM-T)
Funding Source: Mind & Life Institute (PEACE Grant)
Team Members: Almut Zieher, Kylie Anglin, and Corissa Mazurkiewicz
The OAMM-T will be an objective self-report measure designed to measure teacher mindfulness and awareness within the classroom context. The OAMM-T will support researchers in better understanding the nature of teacher’s awareness of external (e.g., student, classroom) and internal (e.g., emotions, thoughts, body sensations) sources of information. Additionally, it will support research to explore how mindfulness and other social and emotional interventions change the nature of teacher’s awareness and how the nature of their awareness relates to their well-being, classroom behaviors, and their student’s experiences and success. With this increased knowledge, the OAMM-T will also be able to support teachers in recognizing changes in their own awareness, including feedback to support development of teacher’s awareness and mindfulness to enhance the classroom environment.
In Year 1 (2023) we will collect teacher classroom recall data and, with a contemplative expert panel, we will develop a codebook and score the teacher recall data.
In Year 2 (2024) we will conduct psychometric analysis and use natural language processing and machine learning to automate the scoring process.
Get Involved
Frequently Asked Questions
- Who can participate?
We are recruiting 432 diverse teachers to participate in our study to develop the Objective Awareness and Mindfulness Measure for Teachers (OAMM-T). To participate you must be a full time K-12 classroom teacher, teaching at least 15 students a day in a U.S. school. We are particularly interested in recruiting teachers with gender and race identities that are typically under-represented in the teaching profession.
We are also recruiting 8 diverse contemplative experts with past K-12 classroom experience to develop the coding system with us and to code the teacher data. We will select a panel that is diverse in terms of gender, race/ethnicity, and type of contemplative practice from a pool of interested experts. Not every interested expert will be included in the panel.
- How do I participate?
All participation will be remote.
Teachers will first learn more about the study and provide consent before moving on to complete an online survey recalling three incidents in the classroom from that day. Teachers must complete the recall sections on a day that they taught. Lastly, they will answer questions about themselves, their school, and their experiences.
If you are interested in learning more about the study and/or participating, please e-mail OAMM@yale.edu with your school email address.
- What happens during the study?
Interested teachers will reach out to OAMM@yale.edu with their school email address to receive an e-mail link to the survey. In the survey, the teacher will learn more about the study; consent to participate in the study; complete the recall survey; respond to items about themselves, their classroom, and their school; and lastly answer questions about your experiences. The recall survey will take approximately 40-50 minutes to complete. We will also ask teachers to share the opportunity to participate in this study with other teachers they know.
- When is the study?
Teachers can start participating in the study Spring 2023 on a rolling basis. The surveys will remain open for data collection after we have gathered enough for our measure development. As of Fall 2023, we are still recruiting teachers to participate.
- How is our information protected?
- All of the data we collect will be held in confidence. Only the researchers involved in this study will have access to information that could identify you. We will share identifiable information with others only if U.S. or State law requires it. We will only use your contact information to send you study related information. When we publish the results of the research or talk about it in conferences, we will not use your name or make it possible for you to be identified, unless you give us additional permission to do so.
- What are the benefits of participating?
- Teachers may not benefit directly from taking part in this study, though reflecting on classroom interactions may be insightful to you. However, we hope that our research will add to the knowledge about teachers’ subjective experiences in the classroom and help the field to better understand how teacher interventions work to support teacher well-being and responsive teaching.
- How are we compensated?
We will give up to 432 teachers a $50 gift card for participating in our study. As a teacher, you will have the opportunity to decline your gift card and allow us to use the money to recruit more teachers who are under-represented in the profession. This will ensure the measure represents all US school teachers.
- I have questions. Can I meet with the research team?
- We are happy to meet with you if you have further questions about the project. Please email OAMM@yale.edu to schedule a time to meet with members of the OAMM team.