The Impact of a Yoga Curriculum Intervention on Pre-Service Teachers’ Perceived Self-Efficacy, Experience, and Value

Abstract

Over the past decade there has been an increase in K-12 schools integrating yoga and mindfulness as a tool for improving children’s overall well-being. However, one of the main barriers to effectively providing such mechanisms in the classroom is teachers ’self-efficacy and preparation to implement children’s yoga. To address this barrier the present study integrated a yoga curriculum grounded in developmentally appropriate practices for children’s yoga as part of a required wellness integration course in a teacher education program. A pre- and post- survey was administered to pre-service classroom teachers (PCTs) to determine the impact of the yoga curriculum intervention on PCTs self-efficacy, experience, and value. Findings revealed that PCTs self-efficacy significantly increased pre- to post-intervention, while experience and value increased at more moderate levels. These findings suggest that PCTs may be more effective, willing, and able to integrate children’s yoga into the classroom when provided opportunities to participate in developmentally appropriate yoga practices embedded in teacher preparation coursework.

Keywords

• yoga
• mindfulness
• pre-service classroom teachers
• teacher education
• well-being

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