Managing Student Development through Mindfulness Education: An Experimental Study on Meditation Retreat, Mindful Living Education, and Compassion Effectiveness
Kharisma Jurnal Administrasi dan Manajemen Pendidikan November 5, 2025 Burmansah Burmansah, P Heldy Ramadhan Putra, Juni Suryanadi et al.
A Buddhist meditation retreat combined with mindful living education significantly improved mindfulness and compassion among students in Palembang City, Indonesia. In a quasi-experimental study, 120 junior and senior high school students were divided into experimental and control groups. The experimental group attended a structured retreat featuring mindful breathing, insight meditation, loving-kindness meditation, and mindful living activities inspired by Thich Nhat Hanh’s teachings, such as cultivating daily awareness, deep listening, and compassionate communication. The control group showed minimal changes. Post-test comparisons consistently favored the experimental group, suggesting that culturally grounded mindfulness programs can foster emotional awareness and prosocial behavior in youth.