Students' and teachers' embodiment and mindfulness what do they have in common?
The need for physical, embodied activities in everyday life and communication in technologically advanced societies is gradually disappearing. The lack of physical daily activity may be critical for children's development. Diverse physical activity represents the basis for healthy development and learning. This paper summarizes the main conclusions of a research on beliefs and attitudes of 112 teachers, concentrating on the role of physical activity within learning and teaching methods and integration of movement in the teaching and the effects perceived by the teachers and the pupils. The data obtained were compared in relation to teachers' perceptions of self efficacy and burnout in teaching. The study used quantitative and qualitative research approaches. The main results of the research show that the training on the use of creative movement contributed to the positive attitudes of teachers about learning through movement. After the training, the teachers' attitudes toward the creative movement and the usage of movement in classroom changed in the direction of a holistic and experiential teaching and learning. The positive effects of the method, according to the teachers reflected mainly in the social emotional and cognitive development of children. Likewise, the use of creative movement in practice increased the perception of teachers' self efficacy and decreased feeling of burnout. The results show that the use of movement in learning and teaching contributes to the psychological well being of both pupils and teachers. In addition to the ease of understanding of the subject matter, the integration of the movement into the learning process enables the perception of one's own body, play, directing their thoughts to movement creations, relaxation and relationship with classmates. During the process, children (and the teacher) are more aware of their thoughts, perceptions, feeling, emotions and their body we can talk about the so called state of consciousness at a given moment, typical for mindfulness.