Quote:
In recent years, many urban schools have introduced mindfulness and meditation programs to help students manage stress and improve academic performance.
Plan: Introduce mindfulness and meditation programs
Goal: Help students manage stress and improve academic performance
Quote:
Surprisingly, however, several schools that implemented such programs reported no measurable improvement in test scores or behavioral outcomes compared to schools without these programs.
Result: Schools that implemented the program showed no
measurable improvement in test scores or behavioral outcomes as compared to schools that didn't
Pre-thinking (We're trying to find reasons why the program didn't work):
- Maybe the program doesn't work at all?
- Maybe the students didn't take it seriously enough, didn't attend these programs as much as they should
- Maybe the school's environment was so bad that the program's effect was nullified
- Maybe the program wasn't implemented correctly by the school
...
Let's look at the answer choices now:
Remember, we're looking for an answer choice that helps us explain "why the program didn't work"
(A) Students who participated in mindfulness sessions often reported feeling calmer and more emotionally balanced after the sessions.This tells us a benefit of the program, if anything, makes it even more confusing to understand why the program didn't work => Eliminate
(B) In most schools, mindfulness sessions replaced time previously allocated to physical education or art classes.Okay, so maybe physical education and art class helped student improve their academic performance, and now being replaced by a mindfulness program, that effect is gone? But wait, do I know that physical education or art class improved students' performance? Even if it did, how do I know that the mindfulness program's effect was smaller than the effect physical education and art classes had?
Not convinced, will need a lot of outside information to justify this as an answer choice => Eliminate
(C) The mindfulness programs were designed by education experts but implemented by regular teachers with minimal training.Oh great, so this tells us a direct shortcoming the program - it wasn't implemented correctly so it did not have the effect it was intended to have. Sounds good, let's hold on to it.
(D) The schools that implemented mindfulness programs had already shown steady improvements in student performance before the programs.What happened before the programs is irrelevant in helping us determine
why the program didn't have its intended effect => Eliminate
(E) Some parents opposed the mindfulness programs, believing them to be a distraction from core academic subjects.Okay, so parents opposed it, so it got cancelled? Hmm, we don't know if that happened. Also, how many parents opposed it? Some can be any number. We don't know the implications of parents opposing the program => Eliminate
Answer: (C)