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With the emphasis on standards in education, maintaining an educational program that meets these standards and is yet fulfilling and meaningful to future educational professionals can be challenging. The faculty at Sam Houston State University (SHSU) is implementing such a program through the use of reflective practice. Reflectivity, in this context, can be defined as focused meditation and has been recommended as a worthwhile skill for professionals to develop. At SHSU, the use of reflection writing is encouraged in all courses. Using reflections in coursework allows students to internalize their learning. It also causes them to realize how the content presented in class is relevant to their role as school administrator. They must not only describe what they have learned in assignments and examinations, but also apply that knowledge in reflecting how this learning affects them. All students must turn in a portfolio as a graduation requirement that must contain an activity from their coursework and a corresponding reflection. Such reflective practice allows university professors to see how well students have internalized the core components of the program. Using reflective practice to assess standards is a method that is easy to implement and highly beneficial for all stakeholders. (Contains 13 references.) (RT)

The focus of this paper is to expand the evidence in support of the use of labyrinths as effective wellness tools. Interest in labyrinths and other ancient religious practices has increased as interest in spirituality has risen. This is in conjunction with better understanding of the mind/body relationship and the impact of stress on the immune system. This study, which incorporates use of a control condition for comparative purposes, is an extension of previous research that supported the use of labyrinth walking as a means of enhancing wellness. The present study, conducted at a liberal arts college in Pennsylvania, assesses whether walking an eleven-circuit labyrinth can be truly beneficial to the wellness of individuals, and also if focused non-labyrinth walking has similar or different effects on individuals' wellness. Results of the study failed to find a significant difference between groups on the overall measure of wellness, raising questions about the specific efficacy of labyrinth walking. Both types of directed walking were associated with significant improvement of the overall wellness index. A brief history of labyrinths and their therapeutic and educational uses is included. (Contains 22 references.) (GCP)

Personal and spiritual transformation is emerging as a great need. Numerous societal and health concerns are beginning to surface as spiritual issues in the eyes of many professionals. A better understanding of the relationship between psychosocial-biological issues and spirituality would enhance professional capabilities. Experiential skills and techniques, such as journaling, meditation, imagery, mindful movement, and massage, can strengthen teaching and learning strategies for behavioral and attitudinal changes. The labyrinth integrates several of these techniques. This paper discusses the use of the labyrinth as a spiritual and meditative tool that can expand insight and open the imagination to transformative growth and development. The classical 11-circuit labyrinth is described in detail, along with the stages of the labyrinth walk and various methods of reflection and meditation used to promote attention to the present moment, insight, healing, or spiritual growth. (Author/TD)

Recent evidence purporting that stress contributes to the development of disorders ranging from depression to cancer to general immunological dysfunction suggests that a concise understanding of stress and stress management techniques is needed in order to develop efficacious interventions. What is needed is an effective, easy-to-learn technique that promotes self-growth while reducing stress. Meditation has been acknowledged as a technique that may fulfill the requirements. Current research on meditation has begun to emphasize the importance of individual differences in cognitive analysis of stress and stress management. In recent years, a number of investigators have reported data indicating profound physiological changes resulting from the practice of meditation. Meditation appears to have several distinct advantages as an aid to personal change. It is a natural and easily learned technique that requires only occasional supervision, which therefore has potential for implementation within the stress management curriculum for college students. The goals of meditation appear to be theoretically similar to Maslow's model of the self-actualized person. While research has indicated a positive relationship between self-actualization and meditation, several methodological problems have been expressed in that research and must be resolved before adequate conclusions can be reached. Since studies report that practitioners of meditation have gained increased emotional stability and reductions of stress as benefits, it may be appropriate to include the instruction of meditation within health education curricula at the university level. (NB)

Investigates the possibilities of self-reflection for the teaching profession by relating the problem the philosophy of Rene Descartes, Immanuel Kant, and Edmund Husserl. Explains that in philosophy reflection has always played a major role, while it has not always had a major role in education. Concludes that it is possible to learn from mistakes and deficiencies. Contains 27 references. (MZ)

Describes the author's spiritual path from the perspective of a person who was raised in a Buddhist tradition and trained in a Western mental health profession. Presents a foundation for the Buddhist concept of mental health and discusses the relationship among counseling, Western developmental theory, and the development of a spiritual path. (Contains 14 references and 1 table.) (Author/GCP)

Presents a case study describing an adult European American male client who experiences spontaneous spiritual imagery while participating in a visualization meditation during a counseling session. The symbolism of the imagery is discussed in light of A. Deikman's (1997) concepts of receptive and instrumental consciousness. (Author/MKA)

Study employs a pretest/posttest control-group design and uses the Teacher's Stress Inventory (TSI), State-Trait Anxiety Inventory (STAI), and the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) to assess the effects of a five-week standardized meditation (SM) class on the perceived occupational stress of full-time teachers. Results support hypothesis that SM significantly reduces teachers' perceived stress even when used only two to five times per week. (Author/JDM)

A total of 24 children, meeting several criteria for being diagnosed as having an attention deficit disorder with hyperactivity, were selected for study. Children were assigned to one of three conditions: a meditation-training group, a progressive-muscle-relaxation group, or a waiting-list control group. Subjects in the training groups were seen on an individual basis for 20 minutes twice weekly for a period of 4 weeks. Meditating subjects sat with eyes closed, breathed slowly and deeply, and repeated the Sanskrit word "ahnam" ("nameless") first out loud and then silently for periods gradually increasing in duration from 2 to 8 minutes. Relaxing subjects tensed and relaxed hands, forearms, biceps, triceps, shoulders, stomach, thighs, and calves in periods increasing from 2 to 8 minutes. Results indicated that both the meditation-training and relaxation-training groups showed significant decreases in levels of impulsivity. No change in impulsivity was found in the control group. In the measures of selective deployment of attention and freedom from distractibility, only meditation training resulted in significant improvement. Parent rating scales reflected a significant improvement in the behavior of children in both the meditation-training and relaxation-training groups. The Locus of Control Scale failed to show significant changes over the course of the study for any of the groups. (Author/RH)

Public secondary school administrators should deduce from the 1985 "New Jersey v. T.L.O." Supreme Court decision that searching students does not violate the Constitutional prohibition against unreasonable searches and seizures when there are reasonable grounds for suspicion. The "Wallace v. Jaffree" case, decided in the same year, implies that "moment of silence" policies do not violate the "establishment" clause of the Constitution so long as such policies support secular objectives and so long as other activities are specified if prayer is specified. In December 1985, questionnaires were sent to 139 administrators in central New York to assess their knowledge of these decisions and to identify their sources of legal information. Eighty-eight percent responded. In addition, selected print media were analyzed to examine how accurately popular and professional media reported these decisions and their implications for practice. According to the questionnaire results, more than 25 percent of the respondents did not know that evidence of misbehavior is required before searching a student; 20 to 25 percent had difficulty in applying legal procedures to actual situations; 52 percent reported that they had little or no information about the constitutionality of moment of silence policies; 21 percent thought that all moment of silence policies were unconstitutional; 29 percent were uncertain concerning their constitutionality; and the main sources of information were professional newletters and journals. The analysis of the sources revealed that the sources were generally both accurate and comprehensive, which suggests that the sources were not responsible for the administrators' misinformation. Included are 11 references and 6 tables. (RG)

Conditions conducive to mindfulness (being fully present and engaged in life as it is actually happening) enhance experiential learning and may be compared to Buddhist traditions of meditation. Among 164 Utah college students who participated in educational outdoor experiences, meditative techniques, such as mindfulness, reduced boredom by stimulating engagement and optimizing the experience. (TD)