Student choice enters the mindfulness research question
Two small strengths-based mindfulness trials raise a preliminary question about autonomy and the experience of practice.
An October 31 research commentary returns to an August 19 paper on Mindfulness-Based Strengths Practice. The eight-week programme combines mindfulness with attention to character strengths. Its two waitlist-controlled trials included 42 adults in Switzerland and 53 in Italy.
Room for a student’s own decisions
The researchers reported changes in several strengths and in self-reported mindfulness. Overall wellbeing was a more qualified result. In the second study, the programme did not show a clear direct improvement in the overall PERMA wellbeing measure. A statistical indirect pathway linked changes in wellbeing with satisfaction of basic psychological needs, especially autonomy.
That pathway is preliminary. The small, self-selected samples, self-report measures and waitlist comparisons limit the conclusions. Two measurement points in the second trial cannot establish the sequence needed to demonstrate a causal mechanism. The study also cannot isolate mindfulness from the strengths-based material.
For a teacher, autonomy suggests a useful conversation about the choices a student experiences during practice. That is an editorial implication, not evidence that a particular teaching format is superior. The research gives a reason to keep that question open.
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