Journal of China University of Science and Technology Vol.59-2014-04

學生考試焦慮不安之探討 Anxiety in Tests for Students 張柏芳 Bo-Fang Chang 中華科技大學語言中心講師 Instructor, General Education Center China University of Science and Technology

摘

要

本論文的主旨在探討學生對於英語考試焦慮的因應狀態，其最主要的目的是來找尋在 校學生考試焦慮不安的原因，進而探討焦慮不安的原因。原因的發掘需要父母親及學 校老師仔細觀察學生的不尋常的行為或徵兆，並藉由有效的治療方法與輔導或咨詢學 者專家恊助，以求降低或消除這些焦慮不安，讓學生在學習表現上能發揮學習成效， 達到學習目標，並帶給他們美好的學習回憶。 關鍵字: 焦慮不安，治療，專家

ABSTRACT The paper is to discuss anxieties in tests for school students. The issue on anxiety in tests for children will be important in their school life and throughout their life, so apart from finding a variety of reasons in tests, we also explore some symptoms caused by anxieties to show parents and teachers to pay more attention to them and then offer useful ways, tips, and treatments from Psychological experts to parents and teacher to help students lower and get rid of their anxiety in tests in the hope that they can perform well in studies and tests. How we help students lead their happy school life to recall pleasant memories and achieve their goals is what the paper needs to do. Keywords: anxiety、treatment、expert

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Introduction The purpose of the paper is to explore the following aspects about test anxiety in students: (1) the development of test anxiety in children, (2) the effects of test anxiety on children’s performance, (3) the treatment of test anxiety. A new study finds the brain structure associated with processing emotion grows larger among children who have experienced extended stress and anxiety. Stanford University School of Medicine researchers discovered that measuring the enlargement and connectivity of the amygdala can help to predict the degree of anxiety a young child is experiencing in daily life. According to Rick Nauert’s article about child anxiety and stress suggests that prolonged stress changes the structure of the amygdala in the brain – however, this has no significant impact on the stress or mental conditions that might occur later in life. So what is the significance of this – after all what the investigation really shows is that when part of the brain is utilized on a continual basis the relevant area of the brain then grows–which has been known for some considerable years.

Previous Research Causes and symptoms of Test Anxiety in Children written by Natasha Tracy are as follows: Fear of failure. While the pressure to perform can act as a motivator, it can also be devastating to individuals who tie their self-worth to the outcome of a test. Lack of preparation. Waiting until the last minute or not studying at all can leave individuals feeling anxious and overwhelmed. Poor test history. Previous problems or bad experiences with test-taking can lead to a negative mind set and influence performance on future tests. There are some symptoms shown on children’s responses and behaviors: Physical symptoms. Headache, nausea, diarrhea, excessive sweating, shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat, light-headedness and feeling faint can all occur. Test anxiety can lead to a panic attack, which is the abrupt onset of intense fear or discomfort in which individuals may feel like they are unable to breathe or having a heart attack. Emotional symptoms. Feelings of anger, fear, helplessness and disappointment are common emotional responses to test

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anxiety. Behavioral/Cognitive symptoms. Difficulty concentrating, thinking negatively and comparing yourself to others are common symptoms of test anxiety. Test anxiety, according to Sarason’s view, is “an unpleasant feeling or emotional state that has psychological and behavioral concomitants and that is experienced in formal testing or other evaluative situations” (Sarason, 1980: 88). The development of test anxiety in children arises from the outset of the child’s interactions with the parents during the pre-school years and gradually stabilizes during the school years(Sarason, 1980). During the pre-school years, test anxiety partly results from the result of parental reactions to the child’s success and failure. When the child’s performance and achievement cannot meet the parents’ expectations, the parents are disappointed in and reflect their negative feelings on the child, involving repeated devaluation of the child’s performance and achievement, which both contributes to the child’s internalization of test anxiety and leads the child to manage to satisfy parental wishes and to please parents in all situation, especially in evaluative settings. Hill (Hill & Eaton, 1977) focuses on why children become low- and high-test-anxious person relative to child’s success and failure experience during the school years. Low-anxious children generally not merely have a history of success in school but also experience positive interactions with adults in evaluative, by which they both develop a higher motive to obtain success than avoid failure and depend on their own evaluations of their performance for guidance in problem solving (Hill, 1972). On the contrary, not only do high-anxious children experience a poorer history of success in school, they generally suffer somewhat more punitive interactions with evaluative adults. They bring into a higher motive to avoid failure and criticism than to approach success as well as come to rely on external supports from their parents or other adults to effectively deal with evaluation and problem solving. With respect to the relationship between test anxiety and children’ performance, test, test anxiety, based on Sarason’s theory, indexes “an individual difference characteristic related to the quality of children’s performance in evaluative situations”(Sarason, 1980:106) and causes the adverse effects that result from two ineffective factors—“attentional and cognitive deficits” (Sarason, 1980:90). As for attentional deficits, Wine (1971) maintains that the high-test-anxious child cannot perform as well because he divides his attention between internal (self-relevant) and task (task-relevant) cues, in contrast to the low-test-anxious child who concentrates his 189

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attention more fully on the task. Sarason (1960) points out that the high-test-anxious child is “more self-oriented, more self-evaluative, more self-preoccupied, and generally less content with himself than child lower” (p. 404) who is focused on a ‘task-relevant variable” (Wine, 1971:92) in the distribution of anxiety scales. In regard to cognitive deficits, Liebert and Morris suggest that test anxiety is composed of “two major aspects: worry and emotionality”(Liebert and Morris, 1967:976).The worry component is described as cognitive concern over performance. According to the theory(Sarason et al., 1960), the high-test-anxious child is concerned about his ability relative to others and about the consequences of failure, as highly threatening, which arouses anxiety, distracts attention from the task, and result in interference in performance, but the low-test-anxious child does not care about any pressure toward to him or her. Emotionality is the autonomic arousal aspect of test anxiety(Liebert & Morris, 1967; Sarason, 1980). Sarason (1980) thinks the high-test-anxious child attends “more to the autonomic aspects of arousal and less to the task than does the low-test-anxious child” (p. 90). In the case of worry and emotionality relative to the effects on task performance, Morris et al. (1981) assert that the worry component related more negatively to task performance than does emotionality, and Wine(1971:92) also holds that “worry” is more debilitating on task performance than is autonomic arousal. In order to help test-anxious children improve and present their real ability on test performance, the treatment of test anxiety appears to be important. The way to treat test anxiety is by means of relaxation training plus attentional training.

Methods With regard with Tracy’s opinion that there are useful tips available with children if they are anxious about an upcoming exam: To develop good study habits. Study at least a week or two before the exam, in smaller increments of time and over a few days(instead of pulling an "all-nighter"). Try to simulate exam conditions by working through a practice test, following the same time constraints. And to cultivate good test-taking skills. Read the directions carefully, answer questions you know first and then return to the more difficult ones. Outline essays

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before you begin to write. Parents help their kids to Maintain a positive attitude. Remember that your self-worth should not be dependent on or defined by a test grade. Creating a system of rewards and reasonable expectations for studying can help to produce effective studying habits. There is no benefit to negative thinking. In the classroom keep children Staying focused. Concentrate on the test, not other students during your exams. Try not to talk to other students about the subject material before taking an exam. Practice relaxation techniques. If you feel stressed during the exam, take deep, slow breaths and consciously relax your muscles, one at a time. This can invigorate your body and will allow you to better focus on the exam. Stay healthy, get enough sleep, eat healthy, exercise and allow for personal time. If you are exhausted - physically or emotionally - it will be more difficult for you to handle stress and anxiety. With visiting the counseling center, Schools are aware of the toll exams can take on students. They have offices or programs specifically dedicated to helping you and providing additional educational support so that you can be successful.

Conclusion In Bedell’s study, relaxation training, training test-anxious children to relax in the presence of progressively more stressful stimuli, is “as effective in reducing test anxiety as systematic desensitization”(Bedell. 1975:340); furthermore, in a further study (Deffenbacher, Mathis, & Michaels, 1979, see Sarason. 1980:126), Sarason found both relaxation as self-control and a self-control variant of desensitization to reduce worry and emotionality. With respect to the attentional training for treatment of test anxious children, Wine (1971) describes that first of all, the concern with how highly test-anxious children assign their task time suggests treatment in which children are given intensive practice in dealing with tests. Second, task practice should be accompanied by instructions, providing “task-oriented instructions, cues about expected performance”(Sarason, 1980:91), to focus fully on the task and to inhibit self-relevant thinking by using task-relevant strategies. In brief, test anxiety is a kind of psychological tendency in evaluative situations but Wine (1971) thinks it can be reduced or eliminated “if a person is not attending to his test anxiety” (P. 102).

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The findings the paper does about the anxiety of tests for students will help us to explore a variety of studies, including counseling services, how to overcome test anxiety, and what test anxiety scale means, etc. Counseling services assists students in resolving personal difficulties and in acquiring those skills, attitudes, and resources necessary to succeed. Whether are there some test anxiety tips which will help get those nerves settled right before you take the big test? Test anxiety scale can examine the psychometric pro-properties. Exploring the factor structure of the TAS will be a major focus. The paper is eager to guide to other aspects of test anxiety in the future to help students reduce anxiety and increase their motivation in tests and enhance teaching evaluations for teachers.

Reference Hill, K. T., & Eaton, W. O. (1977). The Interaction of Test Anxiety and SuccessFailure Experiences in Determining Children’s Arithmetic Performance. Developmental Psychology, 13, 205-211. Liebert, R., & Morris, L. W. (1967). Cognitive and Emotional Components of Test-Anxiety: A Distinction and some Initial Data. Psychology Reports, 20, 975-978. McCoy, N. (1965). Effects of test Anxiety on Children’s Performance as a Function of Instructions and type of Task. Journal of personality and Social Psychology, 2, 634-641. Sarason, Irwin G. (1960). Empirical Findings and Theoretical Problems in the use of Anxiety Scales. Psychological bulletin, 57, 403-415.(1980). Test Anxiety: Theory, Research, and Applications. New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. Spielberger, C. D., Anton, W. D., & Bedell, J. (1975). The nature and Treatment of Test Anxiety. Emotions and Anxiety: New Concepts, Methods, and Applications. New York: LEA-Wiley. Tracy, Natasha (2011). Test Anxiety in Children. Anxiety-Panic Community. America’s Mental Health Channel Wine, Jeri. (1971). Test Anxiety and Direction of Attention. Psychological Bulletin,76, 92-104.

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