Post-Pandemic Challenges: The Use of Mantras on Executive Functioning Skills

Even in the best of times, teaching middle school is full of ups and downs, challenges and successes; but when you throw a pandemic in the mix, it completely changes the experience for both teachers and students. As a middle school music teacher completing a graduate program at Erikson Institute, I wanted to learn more about the pandemic’s effects on students. The result has been an action research project focused on how the pandemic impacted adolescents’ executive functioning skills.

Since returning from remote learning, students have struggled with emotional control, sustaining their attention, and persevering when schoolwork is difficult or uninteresting, which researchers are labeling as the “learning loss” phenomena (Dorn, 2021). These are a few of the many executive functioning skills needed to be successful in middle school. Executive functioning (EF) is the term used to describe cognitive skills that are required for problem-solving, building memory, controlling impulses, and practicing flexibility (Carlson, et al., 2013). Based on this last year of teaching, we need to discuss how to help students build their executive functioning skills before we can bridge any loss in academic knowledge.

Our school has seen an uptick in challenging behaviors this year with more students demonstrating aggressive behaviors not seen before in these numbers. Students are talking back more to the adults in the building, refusing to do assignments, displaying verbal abuse, and even physical aggression toward each other and adults. The difficult adolescent behaviors that I navigated on a somewhat regular basis previously have been multiplied and amplified this year. I wanted to find a solution that would help improve my classroom experience and that of my students.

An Intervention: Overview

Instead of resorting to punitive consequences, I wanted to try an intervention alongside my music curriculum that would help students become more self-aware of their EF skills and in control of their behaviors. I have expertise with mindfulness and meditation and was successfully using these techniques before the pandemic. I have also conducted some research on brain-based techniques of learning, and the two ideas came together to center on mantras. A mantra, which originates from Eastern cultures, means a word or phrase that is repeated to oneself. Psychologists and educators have used mantras or self-talk to help people improve self-regulation and self-management based on the idea that how we feel and act in a given situation depends on what we tell ourselves in the moment (Dawson & Guare, 2010). With this knowledge of mantras, I designed a six-week intervention curriculum for my middle school music students in grades 6 and 8 to help them improve their skills in self-control, perseverance, and attention.

First, I measured the students’ EF skills at the beginning of the curriculum unit and at the end using a self-assessment survey (Appendix A) derived from the work of Dawson and Guare (2010). After I analyzed the pre-survey data, I noted a growth area for each student in these three EF skills:

• Self-control,
• Perseverance, or
• Attention

Most students chose their growth area based on the results of the assessment, but a few students from each class chose a growth area based on their interests. Once they determined their growth area, I taught a lesson on mantras, gave them historical context, and provided examples of mantras being used in pop culture. I am a huge Disney fan, so I used mantras like “Just keep swimming” from Finding Nemo and “Silencio Bruno” from Luca. I then gave them a list of mantras to choose from or allowed them to create their own (see Appendix B). After choosing their mantras, we immediately wrote them down five times in a row on lined paper to reinforce the idea in their head. Over the course of several weeks, I gave mini lessons on the three EF skills and how these skills correlate with the mantras. Then the students reflected on their mantras through journaling exercises (Appendix C), which will be discussed in more detail below.

Executive Functioning Mini Lessons and Reflection Journal

Before teaching the students about each skill, I defined executive functioning and showed them a YouTube video to explain it in more detail (Parent Lab, 2020). I gave them other examples of EF skills including organization, time management, planning, working memory and cognitive flexibility. We talked about why these skills are important in school and beyond: self-control is the ability to control how you respond, especially when stressed or angry; perseverance is never giving up even when things are difficult; and attention is being able to keep your mind focused on one thing at a time. I then taught three mini lessons, one for each of our focus EF skills. Students received an overview of each skill and applied it to an interactive activity. The mini lessons proved to be engaging and successful in helping the students understand EF.

To accompany the recitations of the mantras and EF mini lessons, I created a mantra journal for students to reflect on their journey. There was one prompt per page and each page had pictures and space to write and reflect. The journal also included two pages of calendars for students to record how frequently they recited their mantras during the school day and at home. The students wrote about why they chose their mantras and how the phrases connected with their lives and emotions. We also connected with music and art by having each student choose a song that related to their mantra and then creating a collage that represented their mantra. Here are some examples of student journal entries below.