This document describes the Mindfulness-Based Interventions Teaching Assessment Criteria (MBI-TAC), a structured tool developed by Bangor, Exeter, and Oxford universities to assess the adherence and competence of MBSR and MBCT teachers across six domains, for use in training programs and research trials.
The MBI-TAC defines six competence domains (curriculum coverage, relational skills, embodiment, practice guidance, interactive teaching, and group facilitation), each rated on a 1–6 scale from 'Incompetent' to 'Advanced,' adapted from the Dreyfus Scale of Competence.
The MBI-TAC cannot capture the full picture of a teacher's competence from a single observation; some key qualities (e.g., reflective capacity, inner process) are not assessable via direct observation alone. Reliability depends heavily on assessor training and familiarity with the specific MBI curriculum being evaluated.
Clinicians running MBI research trials or training programs should use the MBI-TAC with trained assessors (themselves at 'proficient' level) and pair it with qualitative feedback to ensure intervention fidelity. Competence should be assessed across a full 8-session course recording, not a single session, to account for natural variability.
