Brief Self-Compassion Intervention for Beginning Teachers

This study tests the impacts of a brief self-compassion intervention to support teachers in their transition to teaching. The intervention draws from wise intervention and contemplative induction techniques to shift teachers’ interpretations of professional stressors and, subsequently, bolster adaptive mindsets, beliefs, and orientations toward teaching. The study employed a pre-registered, double-blind, randomized controlled 6-month field experiment with first-year K-12 classroom teachers [N=119] from three graduate teacher education programs. Findings showed no main effects of the intervention. However, exploratory analyses revealed significant conditional effects of the intervention based on commitment to teaching. Implications for teacher education and induction programming are discussed.