The purpose of this study was to examine how student perceptions of mindful teaching are associated with changes in students’ mindfulness, self-compassion, and compassion for others across a single high school year. We hypothesized two pathways of effect: a direct path whereby when high school students perceive their teachers as demonstrating mindful qualities, they are more likely to emulate these qualities, and an indirect path whereby mindful teaching affects student outcomes by providing an environment that fulfills the developmental needs of students. To test these hypotheses, a short-term longitudinal study of high school students (N = 599) was conducted in which student outcomes from the beginning to the end of the school year were regressed on perceptions of mindful teaching at the beginning of the year and school need fulfillment during the midpoint of the school year. Results revealed support for the indirect path: student perceptions of mindful teaching predicted changes in student perceptions of school need fulfillment, which then predicted changes in students’ own mindfulness, self-compassion, and compassion for others over time. Results are discussed in terms of how mindful teaching might represent a kind of social affordance for students, one in which the needs of students are seen and fulfilled, and, as a result, one in which the students may be more willing to emulate and internalize the qualities of their teachers.
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