Development of the Objective Awareness and Mindfulness Measure for Teachers (OAMM-T)
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 teachers’ awareness and how the nature of their awareness relates to their well-being, classroom behaviors, and their students’ 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 2023 and into 2024 we collected teacher recollections of classroom interactions and, with a contemplative expert panel, we developed a codebook and began scoring the teacher recall data.
Currently, we are finishing scoring and will be using natural language processing and machine learning to automate the scoring process and conducting psychometric analysis of OAMM scores.
Funding Source: Mind & Life Institute (PEACE Grant)
Principal Investigator: Zieher
Get Involved
Frequently Asked Questions
- Who can participate?
We have recruited diverse teachers to participate in our study to develop the Objective Awareness and Mindfulness Measure for Teachers (OAMM-T). Though we are no longer actively recruiting teachers, you can still contribute to the ongoing development of the OAMM for teachers. You must be a K-12 classroom or student 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.
- How do I participate and what happens during the study?
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 go to bit.ly/TeacherRecall.
- When is the study?
Teachers started 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?
Since active recruitment has ended, we are no longer offering compensation for participating in the study.
- 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.