Evidence on meditation and academic achievement is scant: only three published studies, with the strongest from TM programmes on standardised test scores¶

Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study (2 entries) · review r2 · q2 · i2 medium
Currency · newest study 2015 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person

Subclaims¶

q2 i? Only three published studies have examined meditation and academic achievement; the review concludes insufficient evidence has accumulated to answer the effectiveness question for this outcome. → Lea Waters 2015 q2 i2 Nidich et al. (2011) reported strong significant improvements in English and Math California Standards Test scores for 125 students after 3 months of twice-daily 12-min TM practice versus a randomly assigned control group (composite d=.79, math d=.85, English d=.44). → Lea Waters 2015 (2)

Evidence¶

Lea Waters 2015¶

Lea Waters, Adam Barsky, Amanda Ridd, Kelly Allen. (2015). Contemplative Education: A Systematic, Evidence-Based Review of the effect of Meditation Interventions in Schools. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-014-9258-2

q2 · i? · review · r2

The review's summary of the academic achievement literature: only three studies exist, two using standardised tests and one using student self-assessments; effect sizes were calculable for two studies, with Cohen's d ranging from 0.44 to 0.83.

"In summary, research into school meditation programmes is still in its infancy, and only three published studies have examined the relationship between meditation and academic achievement."

Lea Waters 2015 (2)¶

Lea Waters, Adam Barsky, Amanda Ridd, Kelly Allen. (2015). Contemplative Education: A Systematic, Evidence-Based Review of the effect of Meditation Interventions in Schools. Educational Psychology Review. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10648-014-9258-2

q2 · i2 · review · r2

The review reports this non-random experiment trial (Table 2 lists it as non-random experiment trial). Table 3 prints the effect sizes: composite d=.79, math d=.85, English d=.44 (dIGPP, SDpost). The review attributes the finding to Nidich et al. (2011).

"Nidich et al. (2011) reported strong significant improvements in English and Math scores on the California Standards Test for 125 sixth- and seventh-grade students who underwent 3 months of twice daily (i.e. before and after school) 12-min TM practice in comparison to a randomly assigned control group."

Discussion¶

Related Claims¶

• Transcendental meditation programmes showed a higher percentage of significant well-being effects than mindfulness-based and other meditation types, possibly due to settings and delivery — related
• School meditation programmes foster small improvements in well-being, more consistently reducing negative outcomes than promoting positive ones — related
• School meditation studies show significant improvements on several cognitive functioning measures, though effects vary by measure and study — related
• Targeted school-based interventions for Grades 7–12 students with or at risk of academic difficulties have positive, statistically significant short-run effects on standardised reading and maths tests (ES = 0.22) — related
• Meditation shows significant but predominantly small effects on social competence, with teacher-facilitated programmes showing more significant effects — related
• Programme characteristics — longer duration, higher frequency, teacher delivery and older students — were tentatively associated with more significant well-being effects — related
• Across 15 school meditation studies, 61% of calculable effect sizes were statistically significant, with most effects small — related
• Before this review, available evidence for jigsaw effectiveness was scant and mixed, with neither meta-analysis nor systematic review — related