{"title":"Stress Training in the Classroom: Evidence of Learning Transfer and Psychological Gains","authors":"Carol Flinchbaugh, Whitney Moore, Shammi Gandhi","doi":"10.1177/10525629231210532","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Stress is ubiquitous in life and creates a need for effective responses in any domain. In this exploratory study, our goal was to understand better how business students learn and use stress management techniques in the classroom context and how this learning applies to different domains. We used thematic coding and textual analysis of weekly student journal reflections about their use of different stress management techniques over 12 weeks. Moving beyond their use of stress techniques in the classroom, students’ comments suggest that their broad use of tools, led to improved well-being (i.e., increased positive affect, reduced stress, and negative affect) beyond the classroom into other life domains. An analysis of student statements further showed increases in their present-focused cognitive orientation, the key dimension of mindfulness, over time. Their heightened present-focused cognitive orientation seems to stem from their practice of the deep breathing stress management technique. Thus, the results suggest that an explicit focus on students’ stress reduction in the classroom may have important implications for how educators can better prepare students for addressing stress and improving psychological and cognitive gains through applied learning across multiple life experiences.","PeriodicalId":47308,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Management Education","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":2.5000,"publicationDate":"2023-11-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Management Education","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10525629231210532","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"EDUCATION & EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Stress is ubiquitous in life and creates a need for effective responses in any domain. In this exploratory study, our goal was to understand better how business students learn and use stress management techniques in the classroom context and how this learning applies to different domains. We used thematic coding and textual analysis of weekly student journal reflections about their use of different stress management techniques over 12 weeks. Moving beyond their use of stress techniques in the classroom, students’ comments suggest that their broad use of tools, led to improved well-being (i.e., increased positive affect, reduced stress, and negative affect) beyond the classroom into other life domains. An analysis of student statements further showed increases in their present-focused cognitive orientation, the key dimension of mindfulness, over time. Their heightened present-focused cognitive orientation seems to stem from their practice of the deep breathing stress management technique. Thus, the results suggest that an explicit focus on students’ stress reduction in the classroom may have important implications for how educators can better prepare students for addressing stress and improving psychological and cognitive gains through applied learning across multiple life experiences.
期刊介绍:
The Journal of Management Education (JME) encourages contributions that respond to important issues in management education. The overriding question that guides the journal’s double-blind peer review process is: Will this contribution have a significant impact on thinking and/or practice in management education? Contributions may be either conceptual or empirical in nature, and are welcomed from any topic area and any country so long as their primary focus is on learning and/or teaching issues in management or organization studies. Although our core areas of interest are organizational behavior and management, we are also interested in teaching and learning developments in related domains such as human resource management & labor relations, social issues in management, critical management studies, diversity, ethics, organizational development, production and operations, sustainability, etc. We are open to all approaches to scholarly inquiry that form the basis for high quality knowledge creation and dissemination within management teaching and learning.