{"id":6783,"date":"2022-10-16T08:00:29","date_gmt":"2022-10-16T13:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=6783"},"modified":"2022-10-15T08:19:17","modified_gmt":"2022-10-15T13:19:17","slug":"test-anxiety-how-and-when-does-it-harm-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/test-anxiety-how-and-when-does-it-harm-students\/","title":{"rendered":"Test Anxiety: How and When Does It Harm Students?"},"content":{"rendered":"

When our students learn, we naturally want them to\u00a0show us what they’ve learned<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Most schools rely, in varying degrees, on tests. The logic seems simple: if students\u00a0know<\/em> something, they can demonstrate their knowledge<\/em> on this quiz, or test, or exam.<\/p>\n

But, what about students who feel test anxiety<\/strong>?<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

These students might learn<\/em> the material, but not be able to show what they’ve learned — at least, not as well.<\/p>\n

The idea of test anxiety has been around for decades, and a significant pool of research suggests it correlates with measurably lower test grades.<\/p>\n

How do we fix the problem?<\/p>\n

Step 1: Defining the Problem<\/h2>\n

As always, we can’t really\u00a0fix<\/em> a problem until we\u00a0understand\u00a0<\/em>the problem.<\/p>\n

When we consider test anxiety, the explanation seems entirely straightforward.<\/p>\n

Most students feel some degree of stress during tests. That’s normal, and can be helpful.<\/p>\n

Some students, however, feel unhelpfully high levels of stress during tests. Distracted by sweaty palms and intrusive thoughts, they don’t concentrate on the cognitive task at hand.<\/p>\n

In short: test anxiety harms the student\u00a0during the test<\/em>. Teachers can help students by reducing their stress\u00a0in the moment<\/em>. (Yes, we have lots of strategies to do so — see below.)<\/p>\n

But wait!<\/p>\n

What it that theory isn’t true? What if test anxiety muddles cognitive performance at some other time? If that’s true, then our “in-the-moment” strategies won’t help — or, won’t help enough.<\/p>\n

Intriguing Hypothesis<\/h2>\n

How would we test this unsettling question?<\/p>\n

A group of researchers in Germany discovered a thoughtful strategy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Medical students in Germany spend lots of time (like, say, months) preparing for a high-stakes final exam.<\/p>\n

Dr. Maria Theobald worked with over 300 of these students, who used an online learning platform to study. On this platform, these students…<\/p>\n

… practiced problems from previous exams, and<\/p>\n

… took five practice tests.<\/p>\n

She also measured their test anxiety in two ways.<\/p>\n

First, she measured their overall test anxiety, with a standard questionnaire.<\/p>\n

Second, she measured their day-to-day test anxiety, rating their “tension about the upcoming study day” on a 1-5 scale.<\/p>\n

And, of course, she measured lots of other things. (Spoiler alert: Theobald measured students’ working memory<\/em> — a detail that will be important later.)<\/p>\n

What happens when these researchers put all these pieces together?<\/p>\n

Surprising Results<\/h2>\n

Here are the headlines:<\/p>\n

Test anxiety does not harm<\/em> students’ exam performance in the moment<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Instead, it does harm<\/em> their performance during the preparation for the exam<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Why does Theobald reach this conclusion?<\/p>\n

If test anxiety harms students in the moment, then these students should do worse on the FINAL TEST than they did on the PRACTICE PROBLEMS and the PRACTICE TESTS.<\/p>\n

Imagine that a student averaged an 85 on practice problems and an 84 on practice tests, but score a 75 on the final test. We would say:<\/p>\n

“Something strange happened<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It looks like anxiety prevented students from demonstrating the knowledge they obviously have. (They obviously have it because they scored so well on the practice problems\/tests).”<\/p>\n

Theobald’s data, however, did not fit that pattern at all.<\/p>\n

Instead, anxious students\u00a0made less progress during the months of study BEFORE the test<\/em>. And, their final test score was right in line with that earlier (lower) performance.<\/p>\n

That is: anxious students scored 75 on the practice problems and practice tests … and then a 75 on the final exam as well. (These numbers are examples, not real data.)<\/p>\n

So, we find ourselves saying:<\/p>\n

“Hmm. These anxious students scored consistently lower than their peers — both on the final test\u00a0and on the months of practice work they did<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Their anxiety didn’t lower their final score in the moment. It interfered with their learning trajectory as they prepared for the final test.”<\/p>\n

Reader: I did not expect these results.<\/p>\n

What Should Teachers Do?<\/h2>\n

First<\/strong>, we should — in my view — continue<\/em> with stress reduction strategies\u00a0in the moment.<\/p>\n

We’ve got evidence that letting students vent their stress<\/a> improves exam performance. And we’ve got evidence that helping students reframe stress as positive<\/a> (“I’m excited!”) helps as well.<\/p>\n

So, I wouldn’t give up on these pre-test strategies just yet.<\/p>\n

Second<\/strong>, this research encourages us to take the long view. “In the moment” strategies might help some, but longer-term strategies now sound more urgent.<\/p>\n

Because Theobald’s research is so new, I haven’t seen any responses to it — much less research based suggestions.<\/p>\n

But I think of “values affirmation<\/a>” as one potential (let me repeat: “potential”) way to reduce this kind of test anxiety.<\/p>\n

I’ll be keeping my eye out for others. If you hear of a promising one, I hope you’ll let me know.<\/p>\n

Potential Limitations<\/h2>\n

First: an important limitation.<\/p>\n

All research studies include limitations, so it’s no criticism to say this study does too.<\/p>\n

Specifically, this research was done with students\u00a0completing medical school<\/em>. That is: they (probably) have been highly academically successful for decades. They (probably) bring higher levels of motivation than many students.<\/p>\n

And, their test-anxiety profile might not match those of my students, or of yours.<\/p>\n

Until these findings are replicated in other students populations (and cultural contexts), I would rely on professional experience to adapt them to our own settings.<\/p>\n

Second: an important\u00a0non-limitation<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I noted above that Theobald measured students’ working memory. (Long-time readers know: I’m obsessed with working memory.)<\/p>\n

This research team speculated — plausibly — that working memory capacity might mitigate the effects of test anxiety.<\/p>\n

That is: students with more cognitive space to\u00a0think<\/em> might feel less distracted by anxious thoughts.<\/p>\n

However, their data did not support that hypothesis. Students with high working memory are just as troubled by test anxiety as those with lower working memory.<\/p>\n

TL;DR<\/h2>\n

In this study with German medical students, test anxiety interferes NOT with student\u00a0performance<\/em> on the final test, but with their\u00a0learning\u00a0<\/em>before the test.<\/p>\n

If further studies support this conclusion, we should refocus our work on helping those students during the weeks and months before the test itself.<\/p>\n

\n

Theobald, M., Breitwieser, J., & Brod, G. (2022). Test Anxiety Does Not Predict Exam Performance When Knowledge Is Controlled For: Strong Evidence Against the Interference Hypothesis of Test Anxiety.\u00a0Psychological Science<\/i>, 09567976221119391.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When our students learn, we naturally want them to\u00a0show us what they’ve learned. Most schools rely, in varying degrees, on tests. The logic seems simple: if students\u00a0know something, they can demonstrate their knowledge on this quiz, or test, or exam. But, what about students who feel test anxiety? These students might learn the material, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":6787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[74,199],"class_list":["post-6783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-stress","tag-test-anxiety"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6783"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6783\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6789,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6783\/revisions\/6789"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6787"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}