2020 SCIENCELINE

Journal of Educational and Management Studies

J. Educ. Manage. Stud., 10(1): 08-21, March 25, 2020

License: CC BY 4.0,

ISSN: 2322-4770

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.51475/jems.2020.2

The comparison of mindfulness techniques teaching effects

on improving teachers' occupational and students' academic

performance

Fereshteh Allipour¹^and Vida Andishmand²

¹MSc, Iran

²PhD, Iran

^Email: fereshtehallipour@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

Original Article

The purpose of this study was to compare the effectiveness of Mindfulness Training on teachers' job

performance and academic performance of students. The present study was a pre-test and post-test

PII: S232247702000002-10

design with control groups. The statistical population of the study consisted of all students and teachers

Rec. 04 January, 2020

Acc. 20 March, 2020

Pub. 25 March, 2020

of Shahid Mahdavi's sophomore non-governmental elementary school in Kerman province in the

academic year 1397-1398. Using random sampling method, 40 teachers from all bases and 40 students

were randomly selected and the subjects of both groups were randomly divided into two experimental

and control groups (each group, 20 students and teachers). Subsequently, awareness sessions were

conducted on them. After completing the training, they were re-tested. The tool used in this research was

the teacher-occupation performance questionnaire 2010 and Pham and Tyler's (1999) academic

performance questionnaire. Data were analyzed using SPSS-24 software and covariance analysis. The

results showed a significant improvement in the teachers' job performance scores and the academic

performance of the students in the experimental group compared with the control group at the level of p

<0.05). The present study showed that mindfulness education can help to improve the occupational and

academic performance of teachers and students groups. From the tables and the results of the research

hypotheses, it is concluded that Mindfulness training in occupational performance has not been affected

by the function of task performance. Mindfulness education has been more influential on the underlying

performance and further increased. Mindfulness education in academic performance exerts much

emotional impact but it has not influenced planning. The impact on moderate motivation will slightly

increase self-efficacy, but little impact on the lack of outcome control. And finally, the result of the

covariance analysis revealed that teaching mindfulness techniques had been more effective on teachers’

occupational performance than students’ academic improvement.

Keywords

Mindfulness techniques,

Academic performance of

students,

Teachers' occupational

performance

2014). Performance can be divided into two groups’ of

functional performance and underlying performance.

A part of the performance that is usually present in

the formal job description is called functional

performance. The underlying function is defined as

the behavior that contributes to the effectiveness of

the organization through the impact on the

psychological, social and organizational fields of work

(Motowidlo 2003, quoted by Khorsandifard, et al.

2016 ). On the other hand, educational performance is

influenced by the various biological, psychological and

social dimensions. Various factors affect the academic

performance of individuals, which According to

education professionals, are divided into individual,

academic, family, and social factors (Zahrakar, 2005 ).

The amount of academic Achievement that is

measured using different course tests is called the

academic performance (Seif, 2013 ). Educational

performance is one of the important indicators in the

INTRODUCTION

Teachers, as human forces are among the most

important factors of education. These factors drive

the wheels of the organization so that it moves

forward. It is obvious that if the organization can

provide the appropriate conditions for them, they can

be expected to have a geart performance. Teachers

are identified as the most important and effective

factors in the school and are responsible for their job

(Baldauf and Cravens, 2002). Job performance is in

fact the amount of efficiency achieved by the person

in the organization including service and

manufacturing functions and is affected by two

factors which are the ability of employees to perform

job duties and the existence of motivation among the

employees, since, if they have the required abilities

and motivations, they will do their works

appropriately (Mohammadi 2011; Arab Faizabadi et al.

Citation: Allipour F and Andishmand V (2020). The comparison of mindfulness techniques teaching effects on improving teachers' occupational and students'

academic performance. J. Educ. Manage. Stud., 10(1): 08-. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.51475/jems.2020.2

8

J. Educ. Manage. Stud., 10(1): 08-21, 2020

assessment of students, using evaluation of academic

5. Valuing the present moment instead of getting

busy doing something.

scores and educational achievement as a criterion for

assessment and selection of people in their occupation

and education (Hashemian, 2013). According to Pham

and Taylor (1999( academic performance has five

components. Self - efficacy, a sense of confidence and

the ability to respond to educational requirements

and activities. Emotional effects, an individual’s

response to a set of emotions such as anxiety that

excites the individual. Planning is the ability to

organize courses timetable according to a specific and

measurable basis and also to manage time to perform

educational tasks. The absence of outcome control is

due to believing that more individual does not lead to

a desired outcome. Motivation is the self - motivation

for studying more and academic motivation to

achieve higher marks, to get a suitable job or just

study to gain knowledge and improve the public skills

and knowledge. It seems that" mindfulness "" is one of

6. Accepting the life facts at any moment,

7. Independence and abandoning (Kabat-Zinn,

2005 ).

Mindfulness based medical recognition requires

specific behavioral, cognitive and strategies to focus

on attention process, which in turn leads to the

prevention of bad temper,, negative thinking,

tendency to disturbing responses and growth of new

pleasant thoughts and emotions (Spinhoven et al.,

2017 ). This tutorial seeks to realize three fundamental

goals which are setting attention, creating awareness,

decentralization, and creating acceptance of present

states and mental states.

This therapy is taught to educate people to be

more aware and behave properly with their thoughts

and feelings. It also helps individuals to look at all the

stimuli that are placed in their consciousness at any

moment without judging and yet with Attention (Day

and Thorn, 2017 ). mindfulness includes various

exercises, such as eating raisins, (eating mindful),

body scan, breathing, exercise of breathing space,

practice of walking with the presence of mind and a

few therapeutic practices that reveal the connection

between the manner, thoughts, emotion, and physical

sensations. All of these exercises forms a kind of

attention to the physical and surrounding situations

in the present moment and reduce the automatic

processes of thoughts (Kaviani et al., 2008). Schools

often justify the use of training programs because it

promotes positive behaviour and improves student's

educational performance, and therefore it seems to be

effective directly and indirectly on students as well

(Britton, 2015).

Teachers will be more likely to pay attention by

performing mindfulness exercises. Certainly, their

ability of teaching and communicating will be

promoted and gets more influential on students.

Therefore, if the training exercises are used by

teachers in the classroom, the attention and focus of

the students will be higher in the classroom, their

tension and anxiety decreases and their academic

performance will improve (Napoli, 2013). On the other

hand, the reason of many students ' education

problems is their lack of attention in the classroom

and during the study. In fact, many of the students

have a physical presence in the classroom, but they do

the variables that can affect teachers

'

job

performance and academic performance of students.

In recent years, the use of mindfulness training

programs for teachers and students is increasing. The

purpose of these programs is to enhance emotional

control (Floko Goldberg 2015; Maloney, 2016 ) and to

improve social relations (Kohilo Ostrik, 2016 ) and is

related to an extended range of cognitive, emotional

and health factors (brown, cresol, ryan, shadowing)

(Brownet al., 2015 ). This kind of training has a great

emphasis on learning through direct experience (Lu et

al., 2017 ). Mindfulness means paying attention in a

specific and purposeful way in present without any

judgment. It’s a kind of consciousness without

judgment, that is indescribable and according to

present time and based on a special experience I'd

someone in a special moment. Moreover, this concept

refers to confession of an experience and accepting it

(Lu et al., 2017 ). The most common definition of

mindfulness is presented by Kabat Zin (2003). He

defines it as consciousness about events which

happen now and here, inside and outside us without

any preconceived conclusions, and without following

a certain Result."

The seven essential elements of mindfulness are:

1. Not judging,

2. Being patient,

3. Having an open mind,

4. Trusting,

9

Allipour and Andishmand, 2019

not have attention when the teacher teaches so they

history and according to the social needs in each

period, there are psychologists, sociologists, and

experts to help teachers and students to improve

their performance; the purpose of this study is to

study the effectiveness of therapeutic effectiveness of

mindfulness on improving the job performance of

teachers and students ' education performance.

face many problems. Therefore, if teachers learn their

training exercises properly and practice them

properly in class, they will be able to improve the

quality of teaching and help the students (Brown and

Oslan, 2015 ). In a study, King and Harris (2017)

concluded that there is a significant relationship

between mindfulness and employees' job satisfaction

and employees' performance (Reb, 2018). In a research

entitled as managers' mindfulness and employees'

METHODOLOGY

This study was a semi - experimental study with pre -

test, post - test and - using a control group. The

population of this study consisted of all the students

and teachers of Shahid Mahdavi elementary school in

Kerman during the academic year of 2010 - 2011. The

students were randomly divided into two groups:

experimental and control groups. The subjects were

randomly divided into two experimental and control

groups.

performance, mentioned

interpersonal justice and employees' stress. The

results showed that there is a positive and significant

a

mediator between

relationship

between

mindfulness

and

job

performance.

The results of the researches by Tuckeyet al.

(2018), entitled as, "is there a relationship between

mindfulness and job management, and job

satisfaction of employees, "showed that mindfulness

is related to job satisfaction. Mettler et al. (2017),

revealed in their research entitled as concentrated

mindfulness and coping with university, that

mindfulness is obviously related to all kinds of coping

such as educational, personal and emotional.

Mesmer-Magnus et al., (2017) also had a research

as mindfulness characteristics in job, a meta-analysis

of personal and professional relationships of positive

characteristics, and found that mindfulness has

relationship with confidence, mental health, and

satisfaction of job and life. Puriarizi et al. (20187), also

found in a research as the effect of mindfulness on

educational improvement and Compatibility , that

mindfulness has a direct and significant relationship

with academic progress and educational harmony .

Afshari and Fathi (2018), also studied the relation

between the sense of solidarity and job satisfaction

with the role of the mediator of emotional

intelligence, and found that there is a positive and

meaningful relationship between mindfulness and job

satisfaction. Additionally, Zarei and Arshad Hosseini

(2018), found that there is a significant difference in

occupational stress and job - efficacy of physical

education instructors and there is a significant

difference between the scores of two groups of test

and evidence in occupational stress and occupational

Data collection tools

Teachers ' job performance questionnaire,

(Darandeh 2010 )

The teachers 'job performance questionnaire,

(Darandeh 2010), included 105 questions that

examined the job performance of teachers in both

field performance and functional performance This

questionnaire is graded in 5 - point Likert Scale from

very low (1) to very high scores (5) . teachers ' scores

of 27 to 45 showed teachers ' low performance, the

scores of 45 to 90 showed teachers ' mediate

performance and scores higher than 90 showed '

high performance of teachers .

The

scores range between 27 to 135. Higher

scores indicate better job performance. By

implementing this questionnaire in the pilot study

with the population of 106 persons, Shariatmadari and

Darandeh measured the reliability of the

questionnaire which was calculated through internal

consistency and cronbach’s alpha method.

The

reliability was calculated by cronbach’s alpha which

was 0.92. In the present study, the reliability of the

questionnaire was determined through cronbach “s

alpha which was 69.0 for the whole questionnaire,

77.0 for underlying performance and 74.0 for

functional performance .and shows a desirable

reliability of this questionnaire for the present study

self - efficacy . According to the importance

teachers and students role in the development of

societies and due to the fact that in any period of

of

10

J. Educ. Manage. Stud., 10(1): 08-21, 2020

Educational performance of Fam andTyler (EPT)

body scan practice was stopped and the exercise of

sitting and focusing on the breathing began, so that

respiration was used as a practice to control

attention."

Sixth meeting: The concepts of strengthening

love and friendship, promoting health and love for

yourself and others were discussed. This session

exercises were like the fifth session of practicing,

including sitting meditation training and practice of

breathing and a revision of home assignment and

recording of pleasing events. Finally, at this session,

the technique of raisins was taught related to how to

eat properly.

The seventh session: In this week, people

generally use techniques of sitting meditation, yoga,

and body scanning. After training, the teachers must

use a combination of all the three techniques.

The eighth session: This week, the teachers are

asked to choose the technique that fits their status

best. They may just choose to sit mindfully or do yoga

or a scan of the body, or two or three of the techniques

or more. What matters is that they use these

experiences and techniques at the end of education

and apply it throughout their lives (Kabat Zinn, 2005).

A short discussion of the obstacles in applying the

methods, reviewing the literature discussed in the

previous sessions, and finally the conclusion and

conducting the post test.

Educational performance of Fam and Tyler (EPT)

1999 was created and standardized by Dortaj for Iran

Society. The questionnaire includes 48 questions that

measure five academic fields: self-efficacy, emotional

effects planning, lack of outcome control and

motivation. A score is devoted to each of these five

factors, respectively 5,4,3,2,1,. a score of less than 53

indicate poor self- efficacy and efficacy and a score of

higher than 85 shows high self-efficacy. The score

below 28 shows weak emotional effects and a higher

than 53 score indicates strong emotional .effects The

score below 6 indicates strong outcomes control. A

score below 14 shows a strong motivation.

The score below 120 indicates ꢀꢁꢁn itacodeꢁroꢂ

ꢀinꢃꢁnꢄorci and higher than 175 shows a strong

academic performance. A score between 121 and 174

indicates the average academic performance. In the

present study alpha Cranach was used to determine

the reliability of the questionnaire in which the values

for the subscales were respectively 0.70, 0.69, 0.65,

0.75, 0.77 and for the whole questionnaire was 0.77

that shows the desired reliability of this questionnaire

in this sample.

The training package of mindfulness techniques

for students and teachers

Mindfulness based training program for teachers

The first session: Introduction of mindfulness

theoretical foundations, conceptualization, and the

necessity of mindfulness, was taught using the raisin

and body scans techniques.

The second session: the concept of stress,

judgment, anger, depression, and practice of

diaphragm breathing was taught.

The third session: providing the subjects in the

field of emotional regulation skills, resilience, self -

solving and positive thinking skills, in this session

(sitting meditation) and body scan with yoga .was

taught.

Mindfulness based training program for students

The first session:

a brief introduction of

mindfulness training, reviewing the performance of

the autopilot and the difference with mindfulness

function, the training of mindful breathing by two

methods of teddy bear and breathing with a pinwheel

and playing wind and cloud game.

The second session: mindful Breathing with

pinwheel, concentration on the tasting, exercise of

mindfulness, referring to the difference between

characterization and judgment and the performance

of seed and butterfly game.

The fourth session:

the basic skills of

interpersonal communication, anger, the skill of self-

expression, and the rules of protest were presented

and Exercise of meditation (mindful walking) was

taught'.

The third session: Playing with the bear, training

three concepts of emotions, physical senses and

thoughts.

The Fourth session:

3 – minute mindful

The fifth session: The concepts in the field of

negative emotional tolerance skills and the emotional

experience of anger were presented. This week the

Breathing training, water glass exercise, playing the

invisible ball game, and training bubble meditation.

11

Allipour and Andishmand, 2019

The fifth session : Playing with the bear , focusing

description by examining a few objects with different

roughness and softness degrees, and the game of sun

and ice cream.

The 10th session: mindful Breathing (Breathing 3

minutes), focusing attention on the sense of smell, the

mindful smell training, practicing bubble meditation,

and the applying the two exercises of mountain state

practices and child status.

attention on hearing ,mindful listening training (the

receiver sound) and playing cat and cow games

(making mirrors).

The sixth session: training mindful breathing

with flowers and candles, focusing on hearing senses,

mindful listening, body scans training, and playing

the jump game.

The seventh session: mindful breathing (three-

minute breathing), focusing on the sense of sight,

mindful viewing training, the first part (drawing),

training the distinction between judging and

describing by examining an object from different

angles and playing the curious mind game.

The eighth session: conscious breathing with

teddy bear, focus and attention on vision, training of

mindful sight, second part (drawing), examining

perceptual errors, performing love kindness

meditation, and performing memory game.

The eleventh session: mindful breathing (3

minutes breathing), an awareness of the body moving,

taking steps mindfully, and practicing a pendulum

movement.

The 12th session: mindful breathing (3 minutes

breathing), a review of the overall mindful drills which

were presented and examining the applicability of

mindfulness to the routine life.

And

finally,

the

conclusion

and

the

implementation of the post test. In this study, in

addition to the use of descriptive statistics, such as

average and standard deviation and variance, the

covariance analysis is used to investigate the

hypotheses of the research.

The ninth session: mindful Breathing (3 minutes

Breathing), focusing the attention on the sense of

touch, learning of mindful touch, exercising to

distinguish the difference between judgment and

Effect

Underlying

performance

Job

Mindfulness

performance

Functional

performance

Self-efficacy

Comparison

Emotional

effects

Effects

Mindfulness

Students’

Planning

Educational

performance

Lack of

outcome

control

Motivation

Figure 1. Mindfulness based training program

12

J. Educ. Manage. Stud., 10(1): 08-21, 2020

Figure 2. Analytical model of mindfulness techniques

Analytical

model

Variables

Index

Components

Not judging

No judging , deletion or confirming about life events

Being patient

Having an open mind

Trusting

Being patient in all life events

Complete understand all the events of life as they happen theory

Complete trust in the ability of achieving mindfulness skills

Mindfulness

Being present

instead of being

Being present in the moment instead of escaping from the

moments

Accepting the

life facts

Not denying the facts, accepting them and preparation for

changes and reforming

Independence

and abandoning

Independence from all the things in life

Optimism, efficiency feeling ,and trusting in success after effort

and high self confidence

Self efficacy

Emotional effects

Planning

Anxiety and test anxiety , feeling of unreliability , low self - confi

the exact planning program for studying , time management in

the exam , acting exactly according to the curriculum , predicting

Educational

performance

Pessimism and no motivation for success in the exam after

effort and study and involving chances in achieving educational

Lack of outcome control

Motivation

worrisome about success in the exam, career prospecting,

interest in reading, wasting time, hard work, no motivation in

preparation for exam, persistence and effort at the time of

testing, motivation to achieve the goal

Efficient use of the course and budgeting and technology and

teaching aids in teaching and paying attention to the tasks assigned

to students.

Complete and correct record of classroom books and continuous

examining of the scores in the process of teaching and learning and

observing the principles of measurement in the assessment.

Encouraging the students to participate in festivals and competitions

Active participation in training workshops and in-service sessions

Functional

performance

Success in teaching and success in performing job tasks

Obeying the rules and regulations of the administration

Job performance

of teachers

Paying attention to the psychological , emotional and personal

differences of students and applying the effective ways of improving

student 's behavior and considering students ' participation in

Creating enthusiasm and attachment of religion and knowledge in

students and the degree of observance of Islamic rituals and norms of

Feeling of job satisfaction and being satisfied with the manager and

colleagues and empathy with the authorities in the curriculum

regulating and

examinations

Underlying

performance

The possibility of teacher talents appearing in the workplace and

feeling of responsibility towards the future of the society and

Innovation and creativity in ways of transferring knowledge to

_{students and job skills to colleagues who are interested in acquiring}13

Allipour and Andishmand, 2019

assumption of normalcy for all research variables is

confirmed because the significance level is equal to or

greater than 0.05.

According to Table 4, scores of people were used in

the pre - intervention implementation in this analysis.

The test results (F= 107.900, P= 0.003) indicate the

effect of learning mindfulness on job performance.

FINDINGS

In this section we will first examine the demographic

and descriptive aspects of the research variables and

then investigate the use of parametric tests and then

investigate the research hypotheses.

Table 1. Descriptive indexes of job performance and

its sub-components before and after the

experimental intervention.

Table 3. The results of Kolmogorov Smirnoff Test and

Shapiro-Wilk W-test to investigate the assumption of

normalcy.

Shapiro-Wilk

W-test

Kolmogorov

Smirnoff Test

Pre

0.323 0.447 4.40

0.367 0.472 4.84

0.312 0.566 4.45

114

135

66

70

27

14

13

20

Job

performance

test

Post

test

Pre

test

Post

test

Pre

Job performance

Pre test

Job performance

Post test

150.

39

885.

998.

809.

565.

663.

658.

710.

*200.

39

147.

198.

113.

014.

164.

152.

150.

169.

162.

176.

230.

*213.

213.

Functional performance

pre test

Functional performance

post test

Underlying performance

pre test

Underlying performance

post test

Educational performance

pre test

Educational performance

post test

Functional

Underlying

0.312 0.567

4.45

0.325 0.445 4.24

0.410 0.662 4.90

48

65

*250.

277.

test

Post

test

39 029.

*240.

263.

39

077.

122.

Table 2. Description of educational performance index

and its sub - components in two groups before and

after the experimental intervention

150.

157.

39

885.

900.

*200.

210.

39

147.

159.

Self-efficacy pre test

Self-efficacy post test

258.

320.

152.

39

285.

663.

540.

541.

*230.

310.

39

146. Emotional effects pre test

190. Emotional effects post test

*118.

118.

146.

Planning pre test

Planning post test

0.300 0.440 2.722 134

0.330 0.479 4.122 175

0.314 0.552 3.009 65

0.320 0.576 3.195 85

120

53

20 Pre test

20 post test

20 Pre test

20 post test

Lack of outcome control

pre test

Educational

performance

150.

152.

39

885.

890.

*145.

147.

39

128.

130.

Lack of outcome control

post test

Self-efficacy

112.

118.

39

445.

759.

*244.

287.

39

112.

117.

Motivation pre test

Motivation post test

53

0.344 0.442 2.609 47

0.428 0.540 4.900 53

28

20 Pre test

20 post test

Emotional

effects

0.312 0.450 1.590

17

11

20 Pre test

Table 4. Covariance test to investigate the

mindfulness training effects on job performance

Planning

0.312 0.451 1.590 23

11

6

20 post test

20 Pre test

20 post test

Lack of

outcome

control

0.304 0.552 3.009

0.307 0.556 3.012

9

13

6

0.350 0.450 3.503 17

0.369 0.479 4.789 24

14

20 Pre test

Motivation

14 20 post test

Job

performance

0.590 0.001 80.509 17761.568

0.588 0.003 107.900 2333.610

1

17761.568

2333.610

Before testing the hypotheses of this research, the

normalcy of the variables must be ensured that the

Kolmogorov Smirnoff Test and Shapiro-Wilk W-test

were used to investigate the variables normalcy.

According to table 3 the results indicate that the

Group

14

J. Educ. Manage. Stud., 10(1): 08-21, 2020

According to table 5, scores of people were used in

Table 5. Covariance test to investigate the effects of

the pre - intervention implementation in this analysis.

The test results (F =80.600 P =0.000) indicate the

effect of learning mindfulness on functional

performance

mindfulness training on functional performance

According to table 6, scores of people were used in

the pre - intervention implementation in this analysis.

The test results (F =129.439 P =0.004) indicate the

effect of learning mindfulness on underlying

performance.

Functional

performance

0.599 0.001 80.509 17761.568

0.599 0.000 80.600 2333.610

1

17761.568

2333.610

Group

According to table 7, scores of people were used in

the pre - intervention implementation in this analysis.

The test results (F =105.900 P =0.003) indicate the

effect of learning mindfulness on educational

performance.

Table 6. Covariance test to investigate the effects of

mindfulness training on underlying performance

According to table 8, scores of people were used in

the pre - intervention implementation in this analysis.

The test results (F =90.207 P =0.002) indicate the

effect of learning mindfulness on self-efficacy.

According to table 9, scores of people were used in

the pre - intervention implementation in this analysis.

The test results (F =985.236 P =0.003) indicate the

effect of learning mindfulness on emotional effects.

According to table 10, scores of people were used

in the pre - intervention implementation in this

analysis. The test results (F =80.509 P =0.00) indicate

the effect of learning mindfulness on planning.

According to table 11, scores of people were used in

Underlying

performance

0.590 0.001 80.509 17761.568

0.664 0.004 129.439 2333.610

1

17761.568

2333.610

Group

Table 7. Covariance test to investigate the effects of

mindfulness training on educational performance

the pre - intervention implementation in this analysis.

The test results (F =112.700 P =0.004) indicate the

effect of learning mindfulness on lack of outcome

control.

Educational

performance

0.570 0.002 69.509 17761.568

0.576 0.003 105.900 2333.610

1

17761.568

2333.610

Group

According to table 12, scores of people were used

in the pre - intervention implementation in this

analysis. The test results (F =102.300, P =0.005)

indicate the effect of learning mindfulness on

motivation.

Table 8. Covariance test to investigate the effects of

mindfulness training on self-efficacy

The results of table 13 show that considering the

pre test scores as covariance variables, mindfulness

training intervention has resulted in significant

differences between the two groups in their job

performance. The intervention degree was (F= 10.21,

P< 0.001, H 2=0, 50), so we can say that mindfulness

causes an improvement in job performance.

The results of table 14 show that considering the

pre test scores as covariance variables, mindfulness

training intervention has resulted in significant

differences between the two groups in their

educational performance. The intervention degree

was (F= 0.001, P< 10.65, H 2=0), so we can say that

mindfulness causes an improvement in educational

performance.

Self-

efficacy

0.595 0.001 80.509 1761.568

0.600 0.002 90.207 2423.610

1

1761.568

2423.610

Group

Table 9. Covariance test to investigate the effects of

mindfulness training on emotional effects

Emotional

effects

0.599 0.002 670.980 14450.998 1

0.697 0.003 985.236 7650.09

14450.998

7650.09

1

Group

15

Allipour and Andishmand, 2019

Table 10. Covariance test to investigate the effects of

mindfulness training on planning

Table14. The results of covariance analysis test of one

variable for the post test scores of educational

performance

Changes

source

0.593 0.000 80.509 17761.560

0.593 0.000 80.509 2333.630

1

17761.560 Planning

2333.630 Group

Covariance

(pre test)

0.34 0.001 16.28 688.69

1

688.69

960.54

Table 11. Covariance test to investigate the effects of

mindfulness training on lack of outcome control

0.43 0.001 10.65 960.54

45.25

Group

Error

Total

37 950.82

39 2599.95

Lack of

16561.844 outcome

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS

0.570 0.001 80.509 16561.844

0.576 0.004 112.700 2063.500

1

control

2063.500

Group

Results of the covariance analyses show that there is a

difference between the job performance scores of

teachers and the student's academic performance by

controlling the pre - test scores. Therefore, it can be

said that mindfulness improves the job performance

of teachers and students ' education performance.

This finding is consistent with Afshari and Fathi,

(2018), Akbari et al. (2017 ), Tuckey (2017), Akbari et al.

(2018), Akbari et al. (2014 ), Brandy et.al (2014). In the

approval of this finding, it can be stated that the

consciousness of consciousness creates its effects

through its mechanisms in the individual's vision of

its performance. It is thought to be able to engage

with informed attention and extend the relevance of

more acceptances to the current experience, and

instead chooses more useful ways to respond, thus

increasing the job performance of teachers. The

consciousness with focusing on realities and attention

based on this and now as well as rejection or denial of

different themes and problems, and in contrast to

their experience, reduces Fred's magnification and

thereby improving his unhealthy behavior patterns

and improving his career performance. This method

reduces anxiety, physiological arousal, anxiety, and

increased job performance by increasing an

individual's awareness of the present - present

experiences and turning attention to the more

efficient cognitive processing and processing of

Table 12. Covariance test to investigate the effects of

mindfulness training on motivation

0.570 0.002 80.698 568.1229

0.596 0.005 102.300 610.546

1

568.1229 Motivation

610.546 Group

Table 13. The results of covariance analysis test of one

variable for the post test scores of job performance

Changes

source

Covariance

)post test (

0.42 0.001 15.21 688.77

1

688.77

0.50 0.001 10.21 960.55

45.27

1

960.55

950.80

2600.12

Group

37

39

Error

Total

16

J. Educ. Manage. Stud., 10(1): 08-21, 2020

information. With practice, students find the ability to

fact is that the functional performance of teachers is

known and monitored by the school director or

inspectors, and also because of holding periods of

service, training workshops and numerous sessions,

which are related to direct job functions of teachers

and also because of the selections of interviews and

entrance exams for which teachers sit in order to get

hired , the majority of teachers who are joined to

schools have the necessary knowledge in terms of

familiarity with the basic tasks of teaching job

(teaching, writing plan, assessment of students,

seniority, etc.) and hence teachers seem to have done

their duty fairly well. Therefore, in this study, after

training mindfulness ,there has been no change in the

engage themselves consciously and persevere in the

face of difficult situations, and be able to remain calm

in front of the problems and problems of their school

and find a rational solution and that process will

improve students ' educational performance.

In the case of this finding, Kabat-Zinn et al.

(2007)stated that mindfulness

is one of the

treatments based on stress reduction and

psychotherapy, in which a mental representation of

things in life that are out of control of human being at

once, is taught through breathing and thinking.

Increasing attention and awareness of the thoughts,

emotions, and trends are some of the positive aspects

of mindfulness, which lead to the co - ordination of

the adaptive behaviors and the positive psychological

states; it even leads to improving the individual's

ability to engage in individual and social activities and

their interest in these activities. These trainings,

therefore, can change people's attitudes towards

accidents and events by improving the mentioned

abilities and encouraging them to participate in

individual and social activities and be effective in

improving their job performance. (Sharf, 2009).

Results of the covariance analyses of one way show

that there is no difference between the functional

performance scores of teachers and groups by

controlling the pre - test scores. Therefore, it is

possible to say that mindfulness does not improve

functional performance. This finding is not consistent

with the results of Afshari and Fathi, (2018),

Janaabadi, et.al. (2016), Rastgoo et.al (2016), Akbari

Amarghan and Amouzegar, (2014), Reb,. (2018).

Tuckey et.al (2017) Mesmer, and Magnus et al 2018

researches. In explaining this finding, it can be stated

that mindfulness is a cure that uses cognitive skills to

increase psychological flexibility. In this approach,

cognitive flexibility is the increase in the ability of the

clients to communicate with their experiences at

present and based on what is possible for them at that

moment, in a manner consistent with the underlying

values. Izadi, et al., (2014). Mindfulness is based on the

hypothesis, that psychological damage is associated

with an effort to control or avoid negative thoughts

and emotions. Zargar et al. (2012)

teachers

' functional performance because the

teachers are always doing it. The results of one-way

analysis of covariance show that there is a difference

between the scores of the subjects in post - test and

control groups. Therefore, it can be said that

mindfulness

can

improve

the

Underlying

performance. In approval of these findings, it can be

stated that the mindfulness training allows one to

gain the opportunity to become more receptive to

others and accept others without undue and negative

judgments. It also encourages individuals to be kinder

and sensitive to the needs of others (Rastgoo et al.

2016). In fact, by increasing the capacity of people in

self - awareness, empathic concern and emotional

regulation, there will be some steps to increase

teachers ' capacity and improve their underlying

performance.

Results of the covariance analyses of one way

show that there is a difference between the student

performance scores of post-test and groups with the

pre - test scores control, so mindfulness can be said to

improve students ' educational performance. In

approval of this statement it can be mentioned that

mindfulness helps the students to study and

understand the subject by creating awareness and

concentration. But this is just one aspect of how it

affects educational performance. By improving

students self - awareness, mindfulness helps students

to recognize their weaknesses and strengths. With

mindfulness training, students learn to be more

present at the moment, to be alert to the inner and

outer phenomena, and develop a nonjudgmental

attitude with acceptance of phenomena, that leads to

their academic performance development. The results

In this study, the effectiveness of mindfulness

on the functional performance of teachers is not

significant, it is likely that one of the causes of this

17

Allipour and Andishmand, 2019

of one-way analysis of covariance show that there is a

and plan the course activities on a specific and

measurable basis as well as appropriate use of time to

perform educational tasks and finally improve their

planning. The fact that this hypothesis, according to

these findings, is rejected, can be justified in this way

that, since planning needs specific and technical, and

needs special training , therefore , if the course of

instruction and reading is not taught to the students ,

there will be no change in this component of academic

performance ,just with mindfulness. But if they have

the necessary related education, their planning ability

will improve. The results of one - way ANCOVA

analysis showed that there is a difference between the

scores of the lack of control of the outcome of the

control groups with the pre - test scores. Therefore, it

can be said that “mindfulness " can improve student

outcome control. In approval of these findings it can

be said that from mindfulness point of view, avoiding

from the experiences, leads to harming. Although,

experiments avoidance has a decreasing effect on

unpleasant experiences, it has destructive effects in

the long_ term and can lead to lack of flexibility and

functional defects. Experience avoidance is formally

defined as attempting to avoid or escape from

thoughts. “Mindfulness enables the person to feel

unpleasant experiences without trying to control

them, and doing so will make the experiences look less

threatening and reduce their impact on one’s life.

Hence, the lack of control improves their life.

Traditional and neglected patterns of negative

thinking are called based on the habit to avoid

problematic situations in one's life. The participants

may be aware of their own negative thoughts and

emotions, and can overcome the negative patterns of

response to the situations, when their functions get

more confident, rational, and more balanced, and thus

they will step forward with more confidence in their

effort to gain success. The results of the one way

covariance analyses show that there is a difference

between the motivation scores of students groups

with the pre-test scores of control group. Therefore, it

can be said that mindfulness improves the motivation

of students. In approval of these findings, it can be

stated that if the students find adequate recognition

about their abilities and assess their positions

correctly, they are more able to reinforce the motives

of success, and they can continue to study with

recognition of the situation in which they can

increase their motivation.

difference between the scores of self - efficacy in post-

test test students and control groups in pretest

scores. Therefore, it can be said that mindfulness can

improve students self - efficacy. In approval of this

findings it can be said that mindfulness training

teaches the students how to view their inner and

outer experiences with awareness and without

judgment.

If we consider self - efficacy as a kind of attitude

toward our abilities, mindfulness can teach us how to

pay attention to the moment without judgment about

the future. And respond to the moment instead of

reaction. By encouraging students to have attention

and awareness of body and mind, students release

their mind from mental preoccupation with anxiety

about how to function in exams. In This way

,

students ' abilities will increase. The results of one -

way analysis of covariance shows that mindfulness

can improve the emotional effects of students with

the control of pre - test scores. Therefore, it can be

said that “mindfulness" can improve the emotional

effects of students .In approval of this findings it can

be said that mindfulness give the students the Chance

to view his environment and experiences again

without

a

judgmental vision and to have

concentration as a cure and guidance to complete

awareness in order to know his environment better

and accept it (Forman and Herbert, 2008).

When a person faces an emotional situation, good

sense and optimism is not enough to control emotion,

but an individual needs to know self - awareness in

these situations and have the best cognitive function.

Mindfulness can be effective in decreasing and

controlling emotions due to profound mental

communication with emotions. The results of one -

way analysis of covariance shows that there is no

significant difference between the scores of pre - test

scores of the groups of control and the pre-test scores,

so it can be claimed that mindfulness can improve the

students planning ability. In approval of these

findings it can be mentioned that “mindfulness” is a

sense of consciousness without judgment that helps

to see and accept emotions and physical phenomena,

as they happens.

Therefore, teaching it to students makes them

accept their feelings and weaknesses, and acceptance

of these feelings will reduce their sensitivity to the

outcome of these symptoms, the ability to organize

18

J. Educ. Manage. Stud., 10(1): 08-21, 2020

With the acquisition of this skill, significant

Although the usefulness of using therapy

techniques with behavioral therapy has been

changes are made on the individual and

interpersonal indicators, so that, they gain a

realistic understanding of themselves and the

world around them and are empowered to control

their feelings and behaviors. They also make more

success in establishing effective, deep and honest

relations with others. Moreover, by improving self

- awareness, mental functions such as accuracy,

attention, reasoning, and learning accelerate and

lead to an increase in academic motivation. The

results of the covariance analysis show that

mindfulness training is more effective on job

performance of teachers. Therefore, it can be said

that the study of effectiveness and comparison of

education is different on the job performance of

teachers and students ' academic performance. It

can be noted that considering the results obtained

in the present study that shows that mindfulness

therapy is more effective on teachers job

performance, it is more likely that it's because

teachers have higher cognitive development, and

it is due to their age. Therefore, the high level of

their understanding of the aforementioned issues

in mindfulness sessions , and that teachers have

more ability to control their thoughts, behavior,

feelings and emotions, which lead to their ability

in planning and discipline, can make mindfulness

treatment more effective for them.

In fact, the mindfulness program is an

organizer of the thoughts, feelings and behavior in

which teachers are more successful due to their

cognitive abilities. On the other hand, it can be

stated that as far as the students are more

involved in education, they are busier in education

and doing homework. This could be a reason why

they have been less able to take advantage of the

mindfulness exercises. And due to the fact that

mindfulness includes two types of formal

exercises (training sessions with a coach) and

informal (repetition and practice of all trained

techniques of formal meetings in real life) so,

teachers who have a higher age and intellectual

development are expected to benefit more from

non - formal exercises, and the effects of training

these techniques are improved in their lives. The

present study has some limitations that are useful to

be mentioned in conclusion of the research findings.

effective and increases the efficiency of the treatment,

it is not available for all people because of high cost

and being time consuming, as well as the

unavailability of mindfulness specialists and coaches.

The lack of ability to monitor practicing the tasks

outside of training sessions (informal exercises) is

another of the limitation of this study.

Finally, given the results of the present study which

shows the effectiveness of training techniques on

teachers ' underlying performance, it is suggested,

managers and school administrators have to help

teachers improve their job performance in a manner

that affects both psychological and social contexts,

and considering the situation to hold the mindfulness

classes for the students before the start of the

educational year. Also, based on the results of this

study, which shows a higher effectiveness of training

techniques on improving the emotional impact of

students compared to other academic performance

initiatives,

school

counselors,

and

school

administrators are suggested to improve the

academic performance of students who are in contact

With a series of emotions such as anxiety and

worrisome causing them to react in a high level, to

imply this method to control the emotional effects of

students. And finally, it can be suggested that, due to

the unavailability of specialist trainers to teach the

techniques of mindfulness, as well as the high costs of

holding the courses, the teachers ' job performance is

better to be the top priority of schools and educational

centers, to improve the effectiveness and train the

teachers who do not have the necessary quality in

their underlying job performance and in case of

financial and technical ability of schools and

educational centers, according to the effectiveness of

this method on components of educational

performance , respectively, its effects on improving

the emotional effects, motivation, self-efficacy, lack of

outcome control, to identify the students with such

problems, and train

them with mindfulness

techniques based on the priority of their educational

problems.

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