Project Justification Template – Savvy Essay Writers | savvyessaywriters.net
Project Justification Template – Savvy Essay Writers | savvyessaywriters.net
Justification Statement: Provide sufficient background of the topic area and its relationship to the discipline or field of study that supports the need for, or opportunity to, conduct the proposed project. Describe the issue, situation, problem or opportunity that reinforces the need to implement the study, supported by recent citations from the literature. Briefly explain how the intended outcomes of the project could be used to advance knowledge, understanding or practice in the discipline or field of study. (2-3 paragraphs)
Researchers have provided a broad, conceptual definition of mindfulness. There is a consensus that mindfulness prepares an individual to have awareness of the current moment without judging the experience (Atanes et al., 2015; Kabat-Zinn, 1994; Walker & Mann, 2016). Through mindfulness practice, an individual learns how to control experiences by paying attention to the stimuli, in the present moment, and being aware of how that stimulus contributes to an experience (Harrington & Dunn, 2015). In the practice of mindfulness, an individual learns how to regulate their attention to what is happening in the present moment without making judgment (Atenes et al., 2015). Through this self-regulation, the practitioner becomes open to the internal experiences and external events that exist. Through mindfulness practice, the practitioner achieves an awareness of (1) the physical environment and (2) emotions, thoughts, and actions occurring at the present-moment that are triggered by the environment (Bishop et al., 2004). In modern psychology, mindfulness is used to enhance momentary awareness of processes that contribute to an emotional state leading to maladjusted behavior (Bishop et al., 2004). In the research, there is a connection between being attentive and gaining awareness of the present with a non-judgmental stance (Chesin, et al., 2016; Donald, Atkins, Parker, Christie, & Ryan, 2016; Kabat-Zinn, 1994). It is recognized that mindfulness helps the whole person and influences mental and social factors and psychological symptoms (Schonert-Reichl, & Roeser, 2016). Mindfulness practice results in an improvement of self-control, objectivity, and tolerance while encouraging social connections (Cohen & Miller, 2009; Davis & Hayes, 2011). The outcomes of mindfulness are related to areas such as life satisfaction, emotional and physical health, anxiety reduction, and pain management (Hülsheger, Alberts, Feinholdt, & Lang, 2012). The focus of this project is on the relationship between mindfulness and reduced stress.
Stressful workplaces contribute to absenteeism, tardiness, and low-level job satisfaction that eventually lead to turnover (Langove, Isha, & Javaid, 2016). Crain and Schonert-Reichl (2016) asserted that teaching is the most stressful occupation in human services based on the social and emotional demands found within the occupation. The level of distress is related to high demands from a test-focused approach to education, extraordinarily little control of their work environment, unreasonable administrator expectations, and low-level support from the school district and administration (Wagner et al., 2012). K-12 Classroom teachers (1) carryout weekly plans that are overly scrutinized, (2) manage a classroom of overcrowded students that bring various socio-economic issues to the environment, (3) build and maintain relationships at various levels, (4) work with students who lack intrinsic motivation or a basic readiness to engage in learning, and (5) maintain a culture of discipline within the classroom while experiencing excessive workloads (Hung, Lin, & Yu, 2016; Taylor et al, 2016). As a result, teachers are likely to turnover their job within their first three to five years, and turnover has been as high as 20% in some areas within the United States (Ngotngamwong, 2018). Understanding how to recognize stressful situations and understanding the thoughts, emotions, and associated feelings provides an opportunity for using coping skills to change an individual’s response (Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001). An excess of stress affects how people feel about their well-being, ability to communicate, and associate with others; understanding how to recognize stress provides the opportunity to learn coping skills to change an individual’s response (Maslach, Schaufeli, & Leiter, 2001). An excess of stress also affects how people feel about their well-being, their ability to communicate effectively, and their association with others at work (Monnot & Beehr, 2014).
Purpose Statement: Provide a specific, accurate synopsis of the overall purpose of the project. Align the Purpose Statement to the Justification Statement. In one concise paragraph, succinctly describe the focus, project approach, scope, and intended outcomes of the study. (1 paragraph)
The purpose of this systematic literature review is to examine existing research that implemented mindfulness interventions to improve emotional resilience to stressors that affect performance and retention and to determine which interventions lead to better outcomes and why. The review will result in best-practice recommendations for implementing and evaluating a mindfulness program for classroom teachers. Similarly, according to Lomas et al. (2007), there is a great need to understand how mindfulness-based interventions can be implemented as an educational training opportunity. Currently, no one has explored what specific elements of a mindfulness program work to help educators manage stressors leading to an increase in resiliency. Simply identifying available mindfulness interventions is not enough. It is important to know what works in mindfulness interventions to create, implement, and evaluate a professional development program.
Importance of the Project: Briefly describe the importance of the proposed project, including how the project represents a unique approach to the topic, how results may contribute to theory, knowledge and/or practice in the discipline, and the implications of the study to scholars and practitioners. Identify any knowledge gaps to be addressed by the proposed project. (1-2 paragraphs)
Teaching is known to be a high-stress profession. For decades, teachers have self-reported excessive levels of psychological duress and experienced higher levels of burnout compared to other professions (Ouellette et al., 2017). Teachers are at an elevated risk of experiencing depression and lower subjective well-being resulting from extended work hours and other factors that are unique to teachers (Hung, Lin, & Yu, 2016). These high levels of stress impact physical health and personal relationships.. Investigating the efficacy of mindfulness is important because excessive stress levels result in absenteeism, tardiness, low job satisfaction, high levels of job strain, physiological issues, and added adverse conditions and eventually turnover (Hülsheger et al., 2013; Langove, Isha, & Javaid, 2016). Literature shows that when teachers are stressed, the teacher-student relationship is negatively correlated (Herman, Hickmon-Rosa, & Reinke, 2018; Yoon, 2002). Stress is a major factor in overall teacher affect and their relationships with students. Additionally, studies have shown that perceived stress affects how the individual perceives their satisfaction with life events and their place in society (Rey & Extremera, 2015). Last, it was determined that perceived stress has an effect on a teacher’s mental and emotional health, psychological well-being, and quality of relationships (Bao, Xue, & Kong, 2015). There are both immediate and long-term effects of perceived negative stress. Thus, understanding how to effectively alleviate stress in teachers is an important endeavor.
Proposed Project Approach: Briefly describe the approach for the proposed project, including how the project will be conceptualized, organized and implemented, and discuss how the proposed project will reflect accumulated learning from the student’s academic program. Discuss any proposed data collection methodologies and instrumentation, as well as the study population, as appropriate. Describe how project outcomes will be achieved. (2-3 paragraphs)
The purpose of this systematic literature review is to examine existing research that implemented mindfulness interventions with educators to improve emotional resilience to stressors that affect performance and retention and to determine which interventions lead to better outcomes and why. The review will include articles that focus on the implementation of a program to aid in improving resiliency, stress reduction, and well-being by helping classroom teachers develop mindfulness skills. The subject of this literary review will be programs that have been implemented for teachers that focus on brief mindfulness skills. This study will also attempt to examine why specific programs obtain better results than others in order to recommend best practices for implementing and evaluating a mindfulness program with teachers. If needed, the search will expand to other high stress, high burnout occupations such as social workers, therapist, first responders, etc.
To conduct this systematic review, a specific six-step process will be followed for an exhaustive literature review. The six-step process will include the following steps: Determine clear research questions, set boundaries for inclusion and exclusion criteria, collect studies, assess the studies for relevance to the subject and appropriateness, extract data from the studies, synthesize and analyze the data (Lachal, Revah-Levy, Orri, & Moro, 2017). The research method chosen for this systematic literature review will be a qualitative systematic literature review. The purpose of the review will be to provide a thorough, rigorous review of current research that will be systematically synthesized and analyzed to answer specific questions. Inclusive and exclusive criteria will be determined prior to…
