Therein lies one of the foremost problems for children with anxiety- the more anxious they feel about a subject, the less they practice it, the worse they do in it, and the more their anxiety increases. The interesting fact shown by the study, however, is not that anxious people fear the task when they are doing it, but only before they start it- the article states that "when these same participants went on to perform the math tasks, they did not experience elevated activity levels in the pain-perceiving parts of the brain... the psychological pain was linked only with the anticipation of the deed, not the deed itself."
So, how can we help students with anxiety do better in the subjects they fear? The article suggests "finding ways to make difficult intellectual tasks more rewarding... [by considering] what motivates professional thinkers, mathematicians, and scientists- the delights of tinkering and exploration... the satisfaction that comes from finding a deeper meaning." Personally, I feel that this is a great stepping stone to making kids feel better in the classroom, especially as one who struggles with anxiety in and out of a school setting, but that this is only a small change that can be made.
What suggestions do you have for students who struggle with anxiety in school? How do you feel about the results of the study? Do you think you suffer more from anxiety by anticipating something or doing it?
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I am the type of person who puts tons of stress on myself all the time. It is getting to the point that I am starting to develop anxiety problems including panic attacks. In school whether is it a final exam or a vocab quiz, I am equally as nervous. However, I find that I am more afraid of what is going to be on the test than the actual test. For example, I am more nervous when I am anticipating, preparing and waiting for the test. Once it is on my desk and I am completely the questions, my anxiety lessens until of course I reach a question I don't know the answer to. Another example is performing on stage. At my dance competitions, I am nervous when I am waiting in the wings but the second I step on stage and hear that music, all of my worries seem to vanish.
ReplyDeleteI feel that anxiety is rooted in the fear of failing. We do not want to let ourselves or others down and therefore we internalize our stress. I think that gaining confidence in yourself and your abilities is the only ways to reduce test anxiety. If you believe in yourself, you eliminate the fear of failing and come to accept your limitations.
Some people say the solution for stress is too not worry about it, however I have found that that only adds to my stress in the end. I think that stress is necessary in order to push us to reach our potential. Basically I think it comes down to the fact that stressing is a better alternative to not caring, you just need to learn to control your stress.
I have seen this in my CCD students. Some kids are not good readers or writers, so whenever those kids are working on a task involving reading or writing they tend to get off track. They ask a lot of questions or talk to their friends to avoid doing the task because they think that they are doing it poorly, whereas kids who are good readers and writers quickly finish without procrastinating.
ReplyDeleteI have also noticed that "finding ways to make difficult intellectual tasks more rewarding" is also very true. If I tell a kid who struggles with writing that he will get a candy if he finishes, he will buckle down and finish the task.
Ultimately, I think that if I avoid putting pressure on them to do tasks they find difficult, they will become more comfortable and will be able to overcome their anxiety
I agree that it is more stressful when you are anticipating taking a test or doing homework than when you actually are taking the test or doing the homework. I always feel anxious before taking a test or doing schoolwork like writing an essay. I usually think about how much work it seems to be and how hard I think it is, but once I start answering questions and writing, I find that it is not as hard as I thought it was, and I relax. I think that before a test or assignment, we focus on how overwhelming it seems, but once we start, we realize that it can be done. I also agree with Christine that anxiety can be caused by a fear of failing. I think many of us put pressure on ourselves to do well on every test and assignment, which makes us anxious. I think the best way to deal with this anxiety is to be positive and remember that sometimes things are easier than they look.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with what Christine has to say. In school, I feel like there is a lot of pressure put on the students. I think that everyone has been scared for a test before, no matter what the test it. I personally think that the anticipation is worse than the actual test itself. I think that the fear of not knowing the information or failing the test gives me anxiety.
ReplyDeleteI think that one way that we can avoid this anxiety may be to come up with different ways to measure student's intelligence. I personally think that I would learn a lot more if I wasn't always stressing about the test I have in the next class or only copying down the information for the test.
For younger children, I agree with the fact that rewarding children can help them complete tasks. When I babysit, the youngest child has trouble reading. I know that when I tell him that he can have candy after he finishes his reading homework, he completes it much faster. Although this anxiety study doesn't surprise me, I think that it will take a lot of change to reduce the anxiety that we face today.
I really agree with what T-knee said. I don't get that much anxiety before tests, but there's been plenty of times when I've had anxiety before I run races. It can be really overwhelming and totally throw off a performance. I think that all kinds of anxiety, in school, sports, and social events, all stems from the same problem. I think anxiety is a result of us feeling that we have to succeed, and if we fail, there will be a major consequence for us. I've found that the best way to manage anxiety is to focus on the actual process and not the end result. For me, this means focusing on just giving my best effort in a race, rather than on a certain place I hope to come in. For someone with anxiety in school, I think the best way to stay calm is to focus on the actual process of studying hard and doing your best on the test, rather than focusing on a certain grade you want to achieve, which just puts more pressure on yourself.
ReplyDeleteMost importantly, I think it's really important to remember why you are doing something. Today, there is so much focus on being #1 in everything we do and there is a lot of pressure to succeed, which leads to anxiety. This ends up taking a lot of fun out of activities we engage in. I think it's important to remember that you are doing something because you like it, and that you are never forced to do well in it. This example works better for a sport than in school, but it still works with the idea that students should focus on learning to gain more knowledge, instead of working for a certain grade.
I did not find it surprising that people experience more anxiety in anticipation than in actually performing the act. Countless times I have sat down to take a test feeling almost sick from how nervous I am. It is only after I begin taking the test that I forget my qualms and simply focus on the task at hand. Before a task, there is time for thought. There is time to consider all the possible outcomes, all the possible risks. But once you begin, there is no thought. It is all action.
ReplyDeleteI agree with what Caroline said that most of the anxiety we feel about something is because of why we are doing it. We don't feel anxiety about going out with our friends. But we feel anxiety before a sporting event because we have a goal: to win. I think it is important for people to take time to breathe before a stressful task, to relax and put the fear out of their minds. Most of the time, the events are not as important as they seem at the time. Even the SATs, perhaps one of the most stressful events in a teenager's life, are not as important as they seem. Mistakes on the SATs are repairable: you can have a great resume otherwise or you can take them again. People need to remember that everything they fear walking into a stressful situation is never as bad as what they experience during it.
I didn't find it surprising that people make themselves anxious just thinking about doing something they don't want to do and therefore, become worse and even more anxious at whatever that may be because of lack of practice. As an after-care counselor in an elementary school, one of my jobs is to assist the children with their homework after school. A little girl who I work with, Maddie, really struggles in school. Because she doesn't do well in grasping concepts, she hates doing her work. And, because she doesn't do her work, get falls even farther behind in class, making her even more resentful of her work, and so on. However, once I get Maddie to buckle down and focus (sometimes with the help of an extra bag of chips and juice box), she can finish her homework in about a half hour. Doing the homework isn't really the problem, it's getting her to start.
ReplyDeleteI think this is also true of myself. I usually write my best essays late at night. This is not because I attempted to start at 10 PM, but because I usually waste huge amounts of time stressed before I actually get started. After I have freaked out about how I have no idea what to write and that I'm just going to fail anyway and I actually get to work, I can write my essay start to finish in about two hours with little trouble. Like Maddie, once I get down to work I am absolutely fine - it's the anticipation that causes the anxiety.
Like every other IHA girl, I work myself to the point of anxiety before a test. I could know the information backward and forward and still freak myself out about it. It is not so much the actual test that scares me it is the anxiety of not knowing what is on it. For example, I have one teacher that tells us, there will be one of this kind of problem, two of this kind of problem and the definition of this on the test. I am less anxious for that test since I know exactly what will be on it. Also, like Christine, I am more worried before the test than when I actually get it which proves that I am usually worried for no reason. My anxiety level parallels with the difficulty of the past tests in that class not so much associated with my best and worst classes. For example, math is my best subject, yet I still get anxious for those tests, more so than I do for the classes I am not the best at. I definitely think that there is more anxiety from anticipating something than from actually doing it. If I am thrown into something I can usually handle it, yet if I knew about it in advance I would make up thousands of different scenarios in my mind how it could go wrong.
ReplyDeleteI think that this article is completely true. I know that before tests at IHA I become very anxious and almost terrified to take the test. This was the worst for me in Freshman year. Before coming to IHA my grammar school teachers told me how hard it was, students who were already at IHA warned me about the hard teachers, and then on the first day of school teachers told me that if I was the top of my 8th grade class I probably wouldn't be the top here. Add all of this up and you have me as a freshmen, stressed beyond belief before a simple reading check quiz. This only lasted a month or two before I figured out that I could do it and I wasn't going to fail every test, but there are kids who have these problems everyday in school. My advice to them is not to give up, ask your teachers for help, and take practice tests. I started online practice tests and quizlets in high school and they made taking the actual tests so much easier. It takes the stress level down a few notches and might make you more confident to take the actual test.
ReplyDeleteIt is really unfortunate that students have anxiety over tests because most of them begin to hate school or that subject. I love learning and school, I guess that makes me a geek, but I feel bad for the people who don't love school only because they think they aren't good at it.
I think anxiety in itself is a really fickle thing, and a lot of time varries from person to person, which is what makes it so hard for teachers to handle students with anxiety problems. Many of them try to cover it as an umbrella result, by offering extra help days, or trying to keep an open communication with their students, letting them know they can email them or talk to them at any time about any issues they're having- that might not always work, though, as anxiety is so personal. I know friends who, no matter the teacher, might just be terrified of talking to them out of the fear that they'll think they're stupid, or silly, or whatever.
ReplyDeleteIt's really hard with us because we do go to IHA, where so much is stressed on grades and performance, rather than what you learn overall. That's totally one of the problems, how much pressure is put on us and reminded of us all the time, it'd be a feat to NOT think about all the things we have to do, and how worried that can make us overall. That's another thing, people trying to understand the difference between overall anxiety, and knowing when to rationalize- loads of my friends think they're just worried about a test or a project until suddenly they're sick out of their minds because their immune system took a hit from the proper, actual anxiety issues that came from their schoolwork.