Kevin is a researcher in the Science of Learning and Educational Technology lab at Arizona State University’s Institute for the Science of Teaching and Learning. In 2015 he earned his Ed.M from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in Mind, Brain, and Education. Diagnosed with a reading disability in the 8th grade, he is particularly interested in research at the intersection of cognitive science, reading, and technology. As a former high school mathematics teacher he is passionate about conducting research that is relevant for K-12 and college classrooms. While not thinking about learning he is most likely to be found holding a racquet of some kind, usually on tennis and squash courts.
You’re in the middle of a meeting or driving to work and your mind drifts off to…
…chores on your to-do list, or
…a recent argument with a friend, or
…the grand possibilities of your future life.
You may not even realize you’ve departed on this train of thought until a friend or coworker quips: “Earth to Kevin, are you with us?”
During lectures in high school and college, or while trying to complete a dense reading assignment, I often caught myself failing to pay attention to my immediate environment. Much of the time, I would snap out of this state with the rude awakening that I had no idea what the professor was saying, or even what the last page of text said.
Recently, however, I’ve started to wonder if there are benefits to mind wandering, especially for learning.
For instance, absorbed in my internal world on long solo car trips, I have come up with creative ideas for beginning a blog post. Many of us are familiar with the experience of coming to insights about a tough problem while engaging in a completely unrelated activity.
(The most common place I’ve heard of this happening is in the shower, although I still don’t understand why this is the preferred location for these “ah ha” moments; alas, the research doesn’t seem to offer an explanation for this).
Do my anecdotal observations hold any elements of truth? What do researchers say about the impact of mind wandering on classroom learning? I’ll explore these questions and more in the following sections.
What is Mind-Wandering?
Researchers generally define mind-wandering as a state of “decoupled attention,” where attention is focused inward on self-generated thought instead of on the outside world. Of course, one does not need to be aware of mind-wandering to be mind-wandering.
(As an ironic side note, the potential for unaware mind-wandering makes mind-wandering challenging to study—especially because those who are less aware of their mind-wandering tend to mind-wander more. [1])
Importantly, mind-wandering isn’t a passive state as it may seem from the outside. Instead, it can consist of racing thoughts, deep consideration, and interesting associations. Emotionally, these self-generated thoughts can have a positive or negative valence, and thus even have implications for pathologies like depression. [1]
Benefits of Mind-Wandering
From an evolutionary perspective, it seems logical that mind-wandering must have served a functional, adaptive purpose. After all, given how widespread a phenomenon mind-wandering is, it would not have developed or endured if it always harmed, never benefitted, the species.
In their review of the mind-wandering literature [1], Jonathan Smallwood and Jonathan Schooler suggest several benefits of mind-wandering, including prospection and creativity.
1)Prospection
Often when people mind-wander, they contemplate situations that they might encounter in the future. For instance, a student trying to study the night prior to a big test may be distracted by thoughts of their parents’ or teacher’s reaction to a poor grade.
Even though this student may be distracted by such future-focused thoughts, this prospection might also offer real benefits. For example, the student might suddenly realize that, if she fails the test, the teacher will offer test corrections and extra-help.
That is, prospective mind wandering can produce beneficial insights.
2) Creativity
There has been a lot of discussion in media and education circles lately about designing learning and schooling to promote creativity (see Sir Ken Robinson’s famousTED talk).
Some studies have suggested that mind-wandering can do just that.
For instance, Baird and colleagues [2] gave participants an everyday object—such as a brick—and asked them to think of as many potential uses for it as they could in 2 minutes. Researchers then gave some participants the opportunity to mind-wander, while preventing others from doing so. All participants then repeated their initial assignment: they had two minutes to think of distinct ways to use a brick.
Baird’s first key finding: during the second round, participants who mind-wandered during a mindless task thought of more ways to use a brick than those who had no chance to do so. That is: this mind-wandering promoted creativity.
Baird’s second key finding is perhaps more surprising. When mind-wanderers tried to think of uses for a new everyday object (a shovel rather than a brick), they were no better than those who did not mind-wander.
In short, Baird’s study suggests that mind-wandering boosts creativity in the middle of a cognitive process, not before it. Teachers who plan to promote mind-wandering should keep this scheduling note in mind.
Perils of Mind-Wandering: Reading Difficult Texts
Mind-wandering might benefits student with prospection and creativity, but it includes clear hazards as well.
In a 2013 study [3], researchers Shi Feng, Sidney D’Mello, and Art Graesser investigated mind-wandering and its relationship to reading comprehension.
Interestingly, they found that participants mind-wandered more while reading difficult texts than they did while reading simpler ones.
(This result is somewhat contradictory to some theories of mind-wandering. Reading difficult texts obviously requires working memory, and some researchers believe that mind-wandering needs excess working memory resources to take place.)
Feng hypothesized that readers of complex material could not build a deep and coherent picture of the text’s structure; in other words, they could not form a “situation model” that explained why events occurred or how a process worked.
In brief: text difficulty promotes mind-wandering, which in turn weakens the reader’s mental model and thereby reduces understanding.
This hypothesis helps explain my past experiences struggling to understand difficult information in history textbooks, or in a James Joyce story. Growing up dyslexic, I struggled with reading at its most fundamental level. To add to my woes, I would also find myself mindlessly tracking down a page…only to realize that the chores I was thinking about had nothing to do with the Joyce story I was supposed to be understanding.
Is there anything I could have done to curb my wandering mind and finally appreciate the literary genius of Dubliners without interruption?
How to Stay Focused
One intervention that seems to be promising is mindfulness training.
In a study by Mrazek and colleagues [4], participants completed either a two-week mindfulness program or a two-week nutrition class. Compared to those in the control condition, participants who meditated saw less mind-wandering, and enhanced performance on both reading and working memory tasks.
The authors hypothesized that the mindfulness intervention increased their ability to focus on the task at hand and suppress distracting thoughts [4]. With the numerous other benefits to meditation, it’s definitely worth a try!
(You might check out the many mindfulnessposts by my Learning and the Brain blogging colleague, Rina Deshpande.)
Message for Education
So should we worry about that student who is mind-wandering during a lesson or while trying to read a difficult novel? The research seems to suggest that we should – especially during difficult problem-solving or reading.
However, some research also suggests that we should also recognize the value of task-unrelated, introspective thought, especially when either prospection or creativity will benefit learning [1].
We might also let students know that there is value in taking a break by stepping away from a project to do something less demanding: cooking a meal, or walking the dog. [2]
With the right blend of external focus and self-generated thought, our students can harness the benefits of mind-wandering while also staying focused at the right times to integrate and understand new information.
Smallwood, J., & Schooler, J. W. (2015). The science of mind wandering: empirically navigating the stream of consciousness. Annual review of psychology, 66, 487-518. [Article]
Baird, B., Smallwood, J., Mrazek, M. D., Kam, J. W., Franklin, M. S., & Schooler, J. W. (2012). Inspired by distraction mind wandering facilitates creative incubation. Psychological Science. [Article]
Feng, S., D’Mello, S., & Graesser, A. C. (2013). Mind wandering while reading easy and difficult texts. Psychonomic bulletin & review, 20(3), 586-592. [Article]
Mrazek, M. D., Franklin, M. S., Phillips, D. T., Baird, B., & Schooler, J. W. (2013). Mindfulness training improves working memory capacity and GRE performance while reducing mind wandering. Psychological Science. [Article]
Educators have long hoped that that technology holds great promise to move the educational system away from the 19th century factory model to something more apt for our globalized and digitized society. The internet is rife with articles exclaiming that a revolution is around the corner or that, conversely, the technological advances of our society have not yet transformed schools.
In the past twenty years we’ve seen computers and internet access in schools, digitized white boards, and, recently, one-to-one initiatives with Google chromebooks and iPads. But what have these technological innovations done for learning? Sure, they have increased access to content (think MOOCs), but often they simply move a traditional pedagogical approach onto a computer. Will we ever see a technology that, in and of itself, truly changes the experience of learning?
One technology with intriguing potential is immersive virtual reality (VR). In the commercial world, one of the most exciting technological debuts is that of virtual reality – see the Occulus Rift or Samsung Gear VR. But what immersive technology is actually being researched and developed that could have an impact on student learning? And, most importantly, how will these technologies actually improve learning?
What do we know about VR and Learning?
Sadly, we don’t yet know nearly enough about how virtual reality impacts learning outcomes as compared to traditional, passive presentation methods. This knowledge gap seems to be especially large in relation to building deep, abstract, conceptual knowledge. However, researchers are exploring intriguing possibilities.
Constructing Learning Through Experience
“Constructivist” theories of education argue that knowledge isn’t passively absorbed, but actively built through interactive experiences in the world. A 2011 review article by Mikropoulos and Natsis (1) concludes that VR promotes learning by creating this kind of immersive experience.
As science teachers know, limits in our day-to-day lived experiences often create enduring misconceptions. In the documentary A Private Universe (2), for example, filmmakers interviewed recent Harvard graduates and asked them basic questions about the seasons: why, for instance, it’s warmer or colder at certain times of the year. Surprisingly, many of these graduates struggled to move beyond common misconceptions. (Admittedly I would have answered very similarly.)
Although all these young adults had been told how seasons actually work at several times during their schooling, misleading “evidence” from their day-to-day experiences prevented them from absorbing this scientific information.
Similarly, Marilyn Salzman and colleagues (3) argue that misconceptions about Newton’s laws of motion may be partially attributable to the fact that many of the forces at play are unobservable in daily experience.
Mikropoulos and Natsis’s research suggests that VR can help overcome this experiential deficit. With immersive virtual reality, students can transcend physical limitations and directly experience meaningful phenomena. In this TED talk, for example, Michael Bodekaer (4) shows how VR can be used to learn about DNA replication–a sort of “Honey I Shrunk the Kids” learning experience at the sub-cellular level. He also describes how virtual reality technology can expose students to high tech (and prohibitively expensive) lab equipment and experiments through engaging simulation.
With VR, neuroscience students might virtually experience the release of brain chemicals, and observe the process of synapse formation firsthand. In other disciplines, students could be virtually transported to a historical site or museum that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to visit.
Increased Transfer and Motivation
Interestingly, Chris Dede (5) builds on the idea of the experiential benefits of virtual reality in talking about transfer; because virtual environments allow for interaction and are, ideally, similar to real-world environments, skills and knowledge may be more likely to transfer to real world settings than in a passive classroom experience.
Dede also argues that virtual environments allow students to seamlessly switch between different spatial perspectives, providing a deeper understanding of the phenomenon at play. In “NewtownWorld”, a virtual reality project about Newton’s laws of motion, students are able to both observe a ball in motion from a third person perspective and also take on the perspective of the ball itself. In his study, students who experienced this perspective-switching feature found it to be motivating.
Sensory Immersion
Unlike traditional 2D classroom presentations (pictures, charts, diagrams), VR can provide a 3D, interactive, multisensory experience that may lead to deeper learning. Because of this sensory immersion, students are led to feel that the digital simulation is an authentic experience, eliciting the similar emotions and thoughts as if they were actually in that environment.
Just like navigating and interacting with objects in the real world, immersive VR can provide sensory feedback in the form of vibrations or other forces, and this feedback can help make the learning experience seem more real. Salzman and colleagues2 point out that using haptic (touch) cues to navigate through a multisensory virtual environment could improve learning and memory. They also suggest that this type of experience can improve students’ motivation, enjoyment, and attitudes about learning.
The Social Future of Virtual Reality in the Classroom
As exciting as the technology of virtual reality is, we clearly need more experimental research on its effectiveness for different learning goals. It is telling that the Mikropoulos and Natsis literature review discussed above, which considered VR research over a 10-year period, only found 53 studies.
A recent article by researcher Pierre Dillenbourg (6) highlights an important trend in learning technologies: they are becoming more social. This trend is interesting to think about in the context of virtual reality and digital technologies. I initially had the impression that VR in the classroom would lead to social isolation, with students exploring their own, unique simulated world, not paying any attention to their classmates.
I think many of us can think of examples from our lives that echo this concern. As a native new yorker, one of the most comforting experiences is traveling on the New York City subway system when I am home for the holidays. It is truly a special experience, interacting and existing within a rich range of human life.
Recently, however, the transportation authority has introduced underground cellular service. Combined with the rise of tablet computers and smartphones, I see many travelers (myself included) completely immersed in their devices, oblivious to others. In this state, they could be anywhere in the world, missing the serendipitous interactions that provide rich detail to our lives.
Would virtual reality introduce this kind of detachment and social isolation to the classroom? One of the lines of research in virtual reality and learning involves “multi-user virtual environments” (MUVE) (7). These environments allow students to interact with computerized representations of other human participants. In the platform River City (8), students can chat and interact with their classmates while investigating the environmental impact of pollution. MUVE technology adds an interesting social dimension that should be explored in future research.
The Next Big Thing in Education?
Will the next revolution in school be virtual reality? It’s far from clear what the answer to this question is. Although access to VR technology may well increase, research on learning processes and outcomes is not substantial enough for schools to make these types of decisions. VR will be an extremely interesting area of research and innovation to watch in the coming years; I will certainly be keeping my eyes peeled!
References:
Mikropoulos, T. A., & Natsis, A. (2011). Educational virtual environments: A ten-year review of empirical research (1999–2009). Computers & Education,56(3), 769-780. [Article]
Schneps, M. H., Sadler, P. M., Woll, S., & Crouse, L. (1989). A Private universe. S. Burlington, VT: Annenberg Media. [Video]
Salzman, M. C., Dede, C., Loftin, R. B., & Chen, J. (1999). A model for understanding how virtual reality aids complex conceptual learning.Presence: Teleoperators and Virtual Environments, 8(3), 293-316. [Article]
Bodekaer, Michael. This virtual lab will revolutionize science class. [Video]
Dede, C. (2009). Immersive interfaces for engagement and learning. science,323(5910), 66-69. [Article]
Dillenbourg, P. (2016). The Evolution of Research on Digital Education. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 26(2), 544-560. [Article]
Dunleavy, M., Dede, C., & Mitchell, R. (2009). Affordances and limitations of immersive participatory augmented reality simulations for teaching and learning. Journal of Science Education and Technology, 18(1), 7-22. [Article]
Metcalf, S. J., Clarke, J., & Dede, C. (2009). Virtual worlds for education: River City and EcoMUVE. In MiT6 International Conference (pp. 1-6). Chicago. [Article]
In 1988 psychologist James Pennebaker1 and his colleagues conducted a study with somewhat of a counterintuitive design: 50 college students were randomly assigned to write about either a personal topic or an assigned topic that was far less emotional.
Their hypothesis?
That the personal topic group would have improved immune system functioning and less health center visits (over a period of six weeks) as compared to the assigned topic group (control). Here are the instructions that were given to the former group:
During each of the four days, I want you to write about the most traumatic and upsetting experiences of your entire life. You can write on different topics each day or on the same topic for all four days. The important thing is that you write about your deepest thoughts and feelings. Ideally, whatever you write about should deal with an event or experience that you have not talked with others about in detail.
There is no way that a 20 minute writing exercise could have these types of health benefits, let alone sixweeks after the initial four days of writing….right? Think again. At the six week follow-up the trauma writing group exhibited superior immune function, as compared to the control group, and a statistically significant decline in health center visits, whereas this was not true for students in the control group. Not only was their hypothesis correct but many studies since then have extended their results. The type of writing strategy described above is often referred to as “expressive writing”, an activity where participants put their thoughts and feelings into words.
To put this effect into context it’s important to point out that a large body of research has demonstrated the benefits of disclosing thoughts and emotions2, through both talking and writing in general4, 5. As a specific type of disclosure activity, studies have built on the early Pennebaker findings, exploring the benefits of expressive writing on many health and lifestyle outcomes5, ranging from reducing respiratory problems6 and persistent negative thoughts7 to decreasing the time to find a job8. Studying the benefits of expressive writing across 146 studies, Joanne Frattaroli5 found a relatively small but positive effect. In discussing the size of this effect, she pointed out that while it was not as large as some other studies have suggested, it still can be a powerful intervention considering the fact that is very inexpensive to implement and is not very time-consuming.
Lastly, it’s important to point out that this strategy is not effective for every outcome5. For example, studies on improving body image9 have found no effect. Additionally, negative effects have been found for men with PTSD, leading to more doctors’ visits than the control group10.
What about academic outcomes? Can expressive writing help students learn and perform to their potential?
Interestingly, subsequent studies have also shown benefits for grade point average11, reducing achievement gaps12, 13, and exam performance for those high in math anxiety14, among other school-related outcomes. In the next section I’ll dive a little deeper and review a few studies that applied the expressive writing framework to learning outcomes.
In The Classroom: Math and Test Anxiety
According to Christina Young and colleagues15 mathematics anxiety is “a negative emotional response that is characterized by avoidance as well as feelings of stress and anxiety in situations involving mathematical reasoning”. It is a pervasive phenomenon that affects adults as well as children and adolescents at all levels of mathematics education15. It is also important to recognize that while a little bit of stress is generally healthy and can enhance performance in certain circumstances (see this recent post on the positive side of stress), the presence of mathematics anxiety is associated with poor performance on a variety of mathematics tasks and assessments15, 16, 17. Another factor known as stereotype threat, the burdensome feeling that one’s performance on a specific task will be interpreted through a negative expectation relating to one’s identity, has also been shown to be related to underperformance in STEM fields, especially for underrepresented groups such as women18.
In a 2014 study, Daeun Park and colleagues14 used a very similar paradigm to the classic Pennebaker writing prompt in order to try to curb the negative impact of mathematics anxiety on performance. Prior to taking a 60 question math test, they randomly assigned 80 college students to either expressively write about their deepest thoughts and emotions relating to the looming test or sit with the option to write for 7 minutes. The researchers emphasized their responses would be kept anonymous to encourage students to openly express their thoughts.
The results were fascinating; on problems that Park and colleagues classified as requiring high working memory demands, problems that taxed the system used to temporarily store and manage information relevant to the math problem at hand, students in the control group with high math anxiety were outperformed by those with lower levels of math anxiety. Amazingly, this gap disappeared in the expressive writing condition, with no statistically significant difference in performance on these highly demanding problems between those high and low in math anxiety.
In another study, Gerardo Ramirez and Sian Beilock19 found that the benefit of expressive writing on test performance was only statistically significant for the highly anxious test-takers, not for those lower on that same anxiety scale. Specifically, for students high in math anxiety who did the expressive writing activity, their average test grade was a B+ while those high in math anxiety in the control group averaged a B-. In many ways this is very encouraging: those who are most vulnerable to being negatively impacted by test anxiety may be helped the most by “offloading” their performance-related worries and emotions.
In The Classroom: High-Stakes Test Performance
A study in 2011 by Joanne Frattaroli and colleagues20 explored the effects of expressive writing on graduate entrance exam performance (GRE, MCAT, LSAT) with 104 college students. Nine days before taking their high-stakes test, participants were randomly assigned to either write expressively for 30 minutes about their deepest thoughts and emotions regarding the upcoming test or about what they had done over the last 24 hours. How did the expressive writing group do in comparison to the control group? You guessed it: the expressive writing group performed significantly better on the graduate entrance tests than the control group, 50th versus 41st percentile, respectively. In terms of the individual tests, there were statistically significant effects of the expressive writing group over and above the control group for the MCAT and LSAT but not the GRE. The authors suggested that the null finding (meaning no significant effect) for students taking the GRE could be related to study habits; because the GRE test takers studied less, on average, than their MCAT and LSAT counterparts, the expressive writing activity may have actually reminded them that they were relatively unprepared for the test, negating the positive effects of the task.
An Alternative Approach?
One feeling that I had when I first read about this research is that it all seems so negative. Despite the benefits, many of these studies instruct the participants to focus on stressful situations, including the research on the academic benefits of expressive writing presented above, and it left me wondering what other variations of this were out there? After all, some of the writing interventions report a temporary increase in negative feelings immediately after the activity when the writing activity involved focusing on stressful experiences21.
To begin to answer this question, a study by Laura King21 exploring the effects of expressive writing with a more positive focus showed that writing about one’s “best possible future self” had statistically equivalent health benefits as trauma writing, without the immediate negative emotional consequences of recalling a traumatic event. It was associated with better health and happiness, as compared to the control group, who were told to write about, in detail, what they were going to do that day. To explain these effects, the authors talked about the importance of visualizing one’s ultimate goals and improved emotional regulation. Along these lines, another study using the best possible future self prompt found that it was effective in improving and maintaining positive mood22. In future studies it would be interesting to see if this type of paradigm would be useful in an educational context.
Another approach, especially in the context of stereotype threat, is writing expressively about values that are important to an individual and making meaning of life circumstances in the context of those values14. This was covered in depth in a previous post on this blog.
How Does it Work?
At this point maybe you are convinced that there is something to this activity and that it could be relevant for education. But how exactly does expressive writing lead to all of these benefits? What is the mechanism that could explain how a short writing activity could lead to superior performance on a test like the LSAT that involves a complex array of skills and knowledge?
The short answer – it’s complicated and researchers aren’t completely sure how it works. However, in her review of the expressive writing literature, psychologist JoanneFrattaroli5 identified three of the most prevalent theories, the combination of which could explain the benefits of expressive writing:
Inhibition Theory
This theory proposes that expressive writing works its magic by encouraging participants to offload suppressed thoughts and emotions and consequently decreasing stress and improving health outcomes. This relates to the reasoning that Dauen Park and her colleagues14 used to explain the benefits of expressive writing for reducing mathematics anxiety. As described above, the researchers observed that participants with high math anxiety benefitted most from the writing intervention on problems that were more demanding of working memory. The explanation they offered was that the exercise helped participants let go of worrisome, anxious thoughts, freeing up more cognitive resources in working memory to solve demanding problems. The authors remarked that participants were “offloading” their worries. This reasoning is also supported by studies showing that expressive writing can improve working memory capacity23.
However, one ingenious study casted doubt on inhibition theory by showing that participants benefited, in terms of less doctors visits, from writing about traumatic events that they had not actually experienced but were instructed to write about as if they had24. If participants were actually benefitting in previous studies by disinhibiting their previously suppressed experiences, this could not explain the benefits of writing about a foreign experience.
Cognitive Processing Theory
After analyzing the language used by participants in previous expressive writing exercises, psychologist James Pennebaker observed that the participants who received the greatest benefit from the activity used more causal and insight-oriented words, suggesting that, through writing, participants were arriving at a greater understanding of the experience they were describing25. With this understanding in hand, participants were thought to be better able to manage their stress and realize a benefit from the activity. Pennebaker suggested that telling students to focus on using this type of language in their writing may result in a more meaningful and effective writing experience.
All of us have had the experience of working through our conflicts in relationships as well as internal conflicts. It seems that in that context, both cognitive processing theory and inhibition theory make a lot of sense; first disclosing to someone you trust the thing that is bothering you and then working through it and reaching an insightful moment where you feel better about the issue. This type of process could certainly be happening with expressive writing, the difference being that you are working through issues or ideas on your own, responding to your own language and feedback by adapting what you are writing and thinking.
Self-Regulation Theory
One open question relates to explaining the benefits of the imaginary writing exercise described above. Even if one ascribes to the explanation put forth by cognitive processing theory, what good is gaining insight about an experience you never actually experienced? Self-regulation theory helps us gain some ground in that regard. It proposes that when participants write expressively they are practicing regulating their emotions, even during an imagined experience like the one described above. This may give them more confidence to approach problematic or stressful situations in the future, leading to personal improvements. This explanation sheds more light on the best future self prompt variation, explained in the previous section.
Some Important Considerations
The body of research in expressive writing is surely impressive, with benefits for just about any domain that you can imagine. For those of you thinking about incorporating an expressive writing activity in your classroom, it is important to remember that students need to feel like what they are writing about is personally meaningful21; simply writing about daily activities or unemotional topics doesn’t seem to lead to the same benefits as writing about an emotionally charged and stressful experience or a scenario related to one’s core values and aspirations. In addition, all of the experimental studies I cited above promised the participants anonymity, which is important to consider in terms of students’ willingness to be open and, of course, student privacy.
It is also important to recognize that there are limitations and caveats to using this in your classroom, as with any psychological intervention. For one, it isn’t completely clear if there are benefits to continuing to expressively write throughout the school year as opposed to a short series of writing sessions. Geoffrey Cohen and David Sherman13 remarked that in the value-affirmation writing research there have been studies showing benefits for a series of sessions in year one of an intervention but no additional benefits if the same intervention was repeated in the second year.
Additionally, writing about stressful events is always something to consider carefully, even if it isn’t considered a “traumatic” experience. Eliciting negative emotions in the classroom, could potentially backfire depending on an individual student’s’ prior experiences. In certain contexts, this type of activity could even have a negative effect, as seen in the study on men with PTSD, mentioned earlier in this post. It seems that striking a balance between personal relevance and potentially counter-productive emotional elicitation is an important consideration for teachers thinking about using these exercises in their classroom.
Final Thoughts
When students experience anxiety or stressful thoughts and feelings relating to a prior or upcoming experience their academic performance can often be harmed. Expressive writing, a type of emotional disclosure activity, can help buffer the impact of a stressful academic environment on performance. While there isn’t a consensus on the its exact mechanism, it seems that this is one strategy can be helpful for a variety of outcomes, and is a tool that teachers should consider utilizing when students face obstacles related to phenomena like test anxiety and stereotype threat.
References
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Esterling, B. A., Antoni, M. H., Fletcher, M. A., Margulies, S., & Schneiderman, N. (1994). Emotional disclosure through writing or speaking modulates latent Epstein-Barr virus antibody titers. Journal of consulting and clinical psychology, 62(1), 130. [Paper]
Pennebaker, J. W., Barger, S. D., & Tiebout, J. (1989). Disclosure of traumas and health among Holocaust survivors. Psychosomatic medicine, 51(5), 577-589. [Paper]
Frattaroli, J. (2006). Experimental disclosure and its moderators: a meta-analysis. Psychological bulletin, 132(6), 823. [Paper]
Greenberg, M. A., Wortman, C. B., & Stone, A. A. (1996). Emotional expression and physical heath: Revising traumatic memories or fostering self-regulation?. Journal of personality and social psychology, 71(3), 588. [Paper]
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Earnhardt, J. L., Martz, D. M., Ballard, M. E., & Curtin, L. (2002). A writing intervention for negative body image: Pennebaker fails to surpass the placebo. Journal of College Student Psychotherapy, 17(1), 19-35. [Paper]
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Harackiewicz, J. M., Canning, E. A., Tibbetts, Y., Giffen, C. J., Blair, S. S., Rouse, D. I., & Hyde, J. S. (2014). Closing the social class achievement gap for first-generation students in undergraduate biology. Journal of Educational Psychology, 106(2), 375. [Paper]
Cohen, G. L., & Sherman, D. K. (2014). The psychology of change: Self-affirmation and social psychological intervention. Annual Review of Psychology, 65, 333-371. [Paper]
Park, D., Ramirez, G., & Beilock, S. L. (2014). The role of expressive writing in math anxiety. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 20(2), 103. [Paper]
Young, C. B., Wu, S. S., & Menon, V. (2012). The neurodevelopmental basis of math anxiety. Psychological Science, 0956797611429134. [Paper]
Maloney, E. A., & Beilock, S. L. (2012). Math anxiety: Who has it, why it develops, and how to guard against it. Trends in cognitive sciences, 16(8), 404-406. [Paper]
Maloney, E. A., Schaeffer, M. W., & Beilock, S. L. (2013). Mathematics anxiety and stereotype threat: shared mechanisms, negative consequences and promising interventions. Research in Mathematics Education, 15(2), 115-128. [Paper]
Shapiro, J. R., & Williams, A. M. (2012). The role of stereotype threats in undermining girls’ and women’s performance and interest in STEM fields.Sex Roles, 66(3-4), 175-183. [Paper]
Ramirez, G., & Beilock, S. L. (2011). Writing about testing worries boosts exam performance in the classroom. science, 331(6014), 211-213. [Paper]
Frattaroli, J., Thomas, M., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2011). Opening up in the classroom: Effects of expressive writing on graduate school entrance exam performance. Emotion, 11(3), 691. [Paper]
King, L. A. (2001). The health benefits of writing about life goals. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 27(7), 798-807. [Paper]
Sheldon, K. M., & Lyubomirsky, S. (2006). How to increase and sustain positive emotion: The effects of expressing gratitude and visualizing best possible selves. The Journal of Positive Psychology, 1(2), 73-82. [Paper]
Klein, K., & Boals, A. (2001). Expressive writing can increase working memory capacity. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 130(3), 520. [Paper]
Greenberg, M. A., Wortman, C. B., & Stone, A. A. (1996). Emotional expression and physical heath: Revising traumatic memories or fostering self-regulation?. Journal of personality and social psychology, 71(3), 588. [Paper]
Pennebaker, J. W. (1993). Putting stress into words: Health, linguistic, and therapeutic implications. Behaviour research and therapy, 31(6), 539-548. [Paper]
Ah, April what a beautiful time of year! We have all heard the jingle: April showers bring May…test preparation?!
Yes, that’s right, it’s that time of year again for students and teachers in high schools and colleges across the country. To help students prepare for the end of year and semester exams, instructors assign review packets, create practice tests, and recap many of the key concepts from the year. For students, it’s one of the last academic commitments before their two-month long summer vacation. Many are anxious to perform well and validate their hard work from the academic year.
Enter procrastination (cue ominous orchestral music): students begin to engage in habitual avoidance behaviors, to the disapproval of their teachers. As a result, some students have trouble budgeting their study time, attending after-school extra help or office hours, and spending far less time than they originally intended to spend on their studying. This behavior is often bound up in a surfeit of emotions and confusion, leaving students wondering what to tackle first. Although procrastination is often seen as a negative phenomenon, some students report that it helps their academic performance.
We are all familiar with this phenomenon but what do we do about it? Why do students procrastinate in the first place? What can teachers, students, and parents do to help curb this and get students back on track?
The Basics
Procrastination, delaying the completion of an intended task, is a widespread phenomenon, with 80-95% of college students reporting that they engage in the behavior.1It has been found to be associated with a variety of cognitive, behavioral, and emotional characteristics2 including fear of failure3, anxiety2, and task aversiveness, or the avoidance of a particular type of activity.3 In order to manage these uncomfortable feelings and task demands, students employ a range of coping strategies. Much of the recent research on procrastination underscores the importance of thinking about procrastination as being related to more than just a lack of time management skills.
In one study, procrastination was correlated with both short-term benefits such as reduced stress and long-term drawbacks such as higher levels of stress later in the semester and lower quality academic work4. Even when considering the short-term positive effects of procrastination early in the semester, the total effect of procrastination across the semester was negative. Interestingly, some research suggests that procrastination may increase the further students advance in college!5
Benefits of Procrastination?
As alluded to above, procrastination is often perceived as a negative and unitary phenomenon: all students who delay starting tasks hurt their academic performance, whether it be tests, homework assignments or other school-related responsibilities. However, some research suggests that this story many be more nuanced.
In their model of academic procrastination, Gregory Schraw and colleagues6 identified various adaptive aspects of procrastination, in addition to the maladaptive characteristics that many are familiar with. In their interviews some students reported that they needed the time pressure associated with procrastination in order to reach what researchers call a state of “flow”7,or the engaged experience commonly referred to as being “in the zone”. As opposed to more passive procrastinators, these “active” procrastinators may deliberately delay beginning an assignment because they work more efficiently under pressure.8 Some evidence suggests that active procrastination is associated with less stress and higher grades, as compared to passive procrastination.8 However, other research has failed to find replicate this type of result, muddling our understanding of this relationship.9
Should teachers let students who claim to benefit from delaying assignments continue to procrastinate?
The answer to this question isn’t completely clear and other researchers have argued against the notion that procrastination is beneficial for learning. In a 2015 meta-analysis10, researchers Kyung Ryung Kim and Eun Hee Seo found an overall negative association between procrastination and learning across 33 studies. While it’s safe to say that some students believe that there are positive benefits of procrastination, the important question is whether they would be better off not procrastinating. This research does highlight the importance of thinking about the reasons why students are procrastinating, how they cope with stress, and if they usually succeed under conditions of procrastination. As with many issues in the classroom, understanding individual students is key. In order to begin addressing the complexities of procrastination in the classroom, consider the following strategies:
Cultivate student interest
In a qualitative study of college students’ procrastination behaviors, Schraw, Wadkins, and Olafson6 found that many students attributed their procrastination to being bored. The researchers speculated that these students may have procrastinated to make the assignment more exciting or thrilling, under the pressure of a near deadline. For students who seem to fit this profile, try to think of ways to make the assignment more relevant and authentic.
Break down a task into more frequent deadlines
The theory of temporal discounting (as mentioned in a previous post on rewards) says that people are more influenced by immediately available incentives and may not act if the costs or benefits are too far in the future11, a theory that researchers have tied to procrastination. In order to make the incentives more immediate try to break down the task into smaller chunks and communicate and enforce clear expectations for the completion of those sub-tasks.6 It may also be helpful to talk about the interdependence of the tasks, or how each tasks fits into the larger assignment.12
Encourage students to choose productive environments
It may be useful for students to reflect on the contexts where they are most productive and least distracted and commit in advance to a certain plan.11 Anticipating conflicts before they arise and avoiding certain environments could make it easier to exercise the self-control they need to maintain a consistent study schedule.1, 12
Address the cognitive distortions
One of the leading experts in procrastination research, Joseph Ferrari and colleagues, developed an intervention13 that attempts to reduce procrastination by having students in a group setting reflect on their behavior and coping styles, identify unhealthy or unrealistic thinking patterns, and discuss reasons why it is important to alter their behavior and consider other ways of dealing with procrastination. Coming up with similar activities for your classroom may be useful in addressing some of the underlying reasons why your students are procrastinating.
Other Helpful Resources
The Procrastination Research Group at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canda has a website that lists recent research on procrastination, useful strategies, and other articles on the topic. Dr. Joseph Ferrari, the expert mentioned above, has also written a book on procrastination, for those who want to learn more!
So what about those procrastination specialists that many of us have the pleasure of teaching in our classrooms?! We now know that procrastinators are a complex bunch. They have many different motivations and degrees of academic success, depending on individual circumstances. For teachers confronting this issue in their classrooms (I’d be interested in talking to you if you aren’t!), hopefully these strategies and resources are a helpful starting point improving your students’ academic habits and performing as well as they can on that state test or end of semester exam. We would also love to hear about strategies you have tried and how they worked out! Feel free to leave a comment or share a resource below.
References and Further Reading:
Steel, P. (2007). The nature of procrastination: a meta-analytic and theoretical review of quintessential self-regulatory failure. Psychological bulletin, 133(1), 65. [Paper]
Solomon, L. J., & Rothblum, E. D. (1984). Academic procrastination: Frequency and cognitive-behavioral correlates. Journal of counseling psychology, 31(4), 503. [Paper]
Ferrari, J. R., & Tice, D. M. (2000). Procrastination as a self-handicap for men and women: A task-avoidance strategy in a laboratory setting. Journal of Research in personality, 34(1), 73-83. [Paper]
Tice, D. M., & Baumeister, R. F. (1997). Longitudinal study of procrastination, performance, stress, and health: The costs and benefits of dawdling. Psychological science, 454-458. [Paper]
Ferrari, J. R. (1991). Self-handicapping by procrastinators: Protecting self-esteem, social-esteem, or both?. Journal of Research in Personality, 25(3), 245-261. [Paper]
Schraw, G., Wadkins, T., & Olafson, L. (2007). Doing the things we do: A grounded theory of academic procrastination. Journal of Educational psychology, 99(1), 12. [Paper]
Csikszentmihalyi, M. (1990). Flow: The psychology of optimal experience. New York: HarperCollins. [Book]
Chun Chu, A. H., & Choi, J. N. (2005). Rethinking procrastination: Positive effects of” active” procrastination behavior on attitudes and performance.The Journal of social psychology, 145(3), 245-264. [Paper]
Lee, E. (2005). The relationship of motivation and flow experience to academic procrastination in university students. The Journal of Genetic Psychology, 166(1), 5-15. [Paper]
Kim, K. R., & Seo, E. H. (2015). The relationship between procrastination and academic performance: A meta-analysis. Personality and Individual Differences, 82, 26-33. [Paper]
Ariely, D., & Wertenbroch, K. (2002). Procrastination, deadlines, and performance: Self-control by precommitment. Psychological science, 13(3), 219-224. [Paper]
Tuckman, B. W., & Schouwenburg, H. C. (2004). Behavioral Interventions for Reducing Procrastination Among University Students. In Schouwenburg, H. C., Lay, C. H., Pychyl, T. A., & Ferrari, J. R. Counseling the procrastinator in academic settings (91-103). American Psychological Associtation. [Chapter]
Ozer, B. U., Demir, A., & Ferrari, J. R. (2013). Reducing academic procrastination through a group treatment program: A pilot study. Journal of Rational-Emotive & Cognitive-Behavior Therapy, 31(3), 127-135. [Paper]
Urban, Tim. Inside the Mind of a Master Procrastinator. [Ted Talk]
The Procrastination Research Group, Carleton University. [Link]
Ferrari, J. R. (2010). Still procrastinating: The no regrets guide to getting it done. John Wiley & Sons. [Book]
About Kevin Kent 
