« Back

Academic Achievement and Transcendental Meditation

Research study shows significantly improved standards in Inner-City Schools after three months.

Transcendental Meditation improved academic achievement amongst low-performing at-risk students by over 40 percent and significantly improved classroom behaviour, according to a large study newly published online in the journal Education.

Struggling students practised TM for 12 min twice daily for 3 months

 

The research was carried out amongst 189 school pupils, aged 13 to 14, in an inner-city school in the USA. The majority of the students were of low socio-economic status and from ethnic minority backgrounds. Only 59 percent reported English as their primary home language. All were performing below the standard grade for their school year at the outset of the study. The school was in the lower half academically of all district middle schools, which teach 10 to 14-year-olds in the USA.

A total of 125 students learnt Transcendental Meditation and practised it for 12 minutes twice daily in the classroom for three months. A further 64 students, who matched the meditating group in demographic, academic and all other factors, formed a non-meditating control group against which the meditators could be compared.

 

Two previous studies by members of the same team of researchers carried out in a fee-paying school in the USA indicated that practice of the Transcendental Meditation programme significantly increased academic achievement scores over a one-year period (Nidich, Nidich, & Rainforth, 1986; Nidich & Nidich, 1989).

The objectives of this present study were to determine whether the same findings could be achieved amongst at-risk urban students in state schools, and to assess whether practice of such a programme can help improve maths and English academic achievement scores in students who were below proficiency (grade) level.

At the end of the three month trial all the students retook their end of year tests.

The results indicated significant improvement in composite scale scores for maths and English amongst Transcendental Meditation students compared to the control group, who overall achieved lower scores than in the original tests.

There was also a difference between groups in the percentage of students who showed a gain of at least one performance grade in maths and English. For the meditating students, 41 percent gained at least one performance level in maths compared to 15 percent of the non-meditating control students. For English, 37 percent of the meditating students exhibited a gain of at least one performance level compared to 17 percent of the non-meditating students.

92 percent of the teachers surveyed reported that they felt the Transcendental Meditation programme was valuable for the school. They generally felt that the students were calmer, happier, less hyperactive, friendlier, and had an increased ability to focus on school-work. Observed changes in the classroom environment included students being more quiet and attentive. They also demonstrated a greater ability to work silently in academic activities.

Staff also reported improvements in the overall school environment, with fewer student fights, less abusive language, and an overall more relaxed and calm atmosphere.

The David Lynch Foundation funded this and 350 other in-school Transcendental Meditation programmes throughout the USA. In the UK the Maharishi School, where all the school students practice Transcendental Meditation in the classroom, has recently become a Free School.

Read more of the Education article:

Academic Achievement and Transcendental Meditation: a Study with at Risk Urban Middle School Students by Sanford Nidich, Shujaa Mjasiri, Randi Nidich, Maxwell Rainforth, James Grant, Laurent Valosek, Walter Chang, Ronald L. Zigler  2011

 


Take the first step ...

find a TM teacher

Find now

Or call 01695 51213