Facilitating intervention based on an enhanced understanding the antecedents and outcomes of debilitating exam-related anxiety.
Submitting Institution
Edge Hill UniversityUnit of Assessment
Psychology, Psychiatry and NeuroscienceSummary Impact Type
SocietalResearch Subject Area(s)
Psychology and Cognitive Sciences: Psychology
Summary of the impact
An ongoing programme of research has been underway at Edge Hill
University since
2006 to examine the antecedents and outcomes of debilitating exam-related
anxiety.
This research has identified a need for intervention with students at
critical stages
of their educational career (particularly GCSE with the implications for
future life
trajectory in terms of access to further education and training). Findings
have been
used to develop and trial a novel, multimodal, ICT-delivered,
intervention.
Underpinning research
The research underpinning this case study was undertaken at Edge Hill
University
by Putwain, who joined the University in 2006. He has been employed by the
University continuously since 2006 and is currently a Reader in Education.
The outputs reported here have examined how anxiety and fear of failure
may be
critical educational outcomes in their own right and also as robust and
reliable
indicators of lowered educational performance. Models of cognitive
processes have
been derived from experimental cognitive psychology, experimental
psychopathology and health psychology to be usefully applied to the field
of sub-clinical
test anxiety and to performance in educational contexts.
A central and integrative feature of this research is the focus on the
role of worrisome
cognitions which are implicated in both the maintenance of anxiety and in
debilitating
performance outcomes. Our research has examined how cognitive distortions,
underlying biased information processing in affective clinical disorders,
are also
linked to test anxiety. In particular the research indicates that
catastrophic
interpretations of events are a key variable in the disruption of working
memory
resources during performance-evaluative situations (Item 1, Section 3).
This
research suggests that regulation of anxiety prior to and during
examinations, in
addition to the level of anxiety per se, would be a useful site of
intervention.
In a related fashion, we have also examined how biased information
processing may
arise from biases in attentional processes towards threatening
information. Building
on recent advances in the measurement of attentional biases in the
mainstream
cognitive psychology literature, we have published the first study to
demonstrate that
attentional biases towards threat are also present in test anxiety under
performance-evaluative
conditions (Item 4, Section 3). This research suggests that
training of
attentional focus would be a useful focus for intervention.
The interpretation of performance-evaluative situations as threatening is
central to
models of test anxiety. Using cognitive-appraisal models developed and
tested in
the health literature, initially for workplace stresses, a main focus of
the research
programme has been the application of a transactional model of test
anxiety in order
to identify the processes and factors which influence the appraisal of
tests as
threatening and likely to result in worrisome and detrimental ruminative
conditions
(Items 3, 4 & 5, Section 3). These findings suggest how process
variables, such as
avoidant motivation, personal beliefs and attributions, may also be useful
sites for
intervention.
Mainstream models of stress in the health and clinical literatures also
highlight the
important role played by coping processes in determining the likelihood of
detrimental outcomes. Resilience, the ability to withstand pressure and
bounce-back
from setbacks is also key to this process. Following on from our interest
in cognitive-appraisal
models, we have also applied this rationale to test anxiety and
conducted
the first study to examine how academic buoyancy, referring specifically
to resiliency
type effects in an academic context, relates to test anxiety (Item 6,
Section 3). This
research shows how modifying beliefs and processes might reduce test
anxiety and
buffer against debilitating performance effects.
References to the research
This case refers to the work of the highlighted author who has been
employed at
Edge Hill University on a permanent contract since 2006. All items have
been
published in peer reviewed journals (impact factors given below).
1. Journal Article: Putwain, D.W., Connors, E., & Symes, W.
(2010) Do cognitive
distortions mediate the test anxiety and examination performance
relationship?
Educational Psychology, 30(1), 11-26. doi:
10.1080/01443410903328866
Impact Factor 1.031
2. Journal Article: Putwain, D.W., Langdale, H.C., Woods, K.A.,
Nicholson, L.J.
(2011) Developing and piloting a dot-probe measure of attentional bias for
test anxiety. Learning and Individual Differences, 21(4), 478-482.
doi:
10.1016/j.lindif.2011.02.002
Impact Factor 1.507. 5 Year Impact Factor 2.005
3. Journal Article: Putwain, D.W., Woods, K.A., & Symes, W.
(2010) Personal
and situational predictors of test anxiety of students in post-compulsory
education. British Journal of Educational Psychology, 80(1),
137-160. doi:
10.1348/000709909X466082
Impact Factor 2.093
4. Journal Article: Putwain, D.W., & Symes, W. (2011)
Classroom fear appeals
and examination performance: facilitating or debilitating outcomes? Learning
and Individual Differences, 21(2), 227-232. doi:
10.1016/j.lindif.2010.11.022
Impact Factor 1.507
5. Journal Article: Putwain, D.W., & Symes, W. (2011)
Teachers' use of fear
appeals in the Mathematics classroom: worrying or motivating students?
British Journal of Educational Psychology 81(3), 456-474.
doi: 10.1348/2044-8279.002005
Impact Factor 2.093. ISI Journal Citation Reports © Ranking: 2012: 11/51
(Psychology Educational)
6. Journal Article: Putwain, D.W., & Daly, T. (2013) Do
clusters of test anxiety
and academic buoyancy differentially predict academic performance?
Learning and Individual Differences, 27(1), 157-162. doi:
10.1016/j.lindif.2013.07.010
Impact Factor 1.507
Details of the impact
The underpinning research has led to the development of a novel test
anxiety
intervention in the period 2010-2012. This intervention (referred to as
STEPS) was
developed in conjunction with the Assessment and Qualifications Alliance
(AQA),
the largest provider of GCSE and A level examinations in England. It is a
multimodal
and IT-delivered 6 session intervention, designed for use with adolescent
students.
It is novel in two respects. First, as a self-contained IT package
(accessed via CD
or intranet server), STEPS can be used as a personal self-help resource,
used with
small groups with a facilitator or be incorporated into the school
personal, social and
health curriculum for whole classes. It does not, therefore, rely on a
specialist
practitioner for its delivery and is a highly cost efficient solution for
schools. Second,
STEPS has been designed specifically for adolescent students. The IT
platform is
fully interactive and includes didactic quiz-based instruction,
self-reflective exercises
and video diaries from adolescent students. STEPS is the first
intervention for test
anxiety to incorporate these advances and has been trialled in 10 North
West
schools with 3225 students studying for their GCSE examinations. The
outcome
study (which is currently under review) revealed it was successful in
reducing
worrisome cognitions and was considered beneficial by students and
teachers at
participating schools. Details about STEPS can be found and confirmed via
AQA
(Other Sources 1 & 2, Section 5) as well as practitioner-focused
articles we have
used to publicise our work (Other Sources 3 & 4, Section 5).
Interviews with teachers at schools who have utilised STEPS in their
schools during
the 2012-13 academic year (Factual Statements 1 and 2) have explained how
STEPS has been used as a targeted approach with students who experienced a
great deal of exam-related anxiety (identified or self-referred) and/ or
were
underperforming in examinations against their predictions. Students
reported that
they felt that STEPS was easy to use and had helped them cope with their
exam-related
anxieties more effectively. Furthermore, having completed STEPS, those
students who had underperformed on previous examinations made improvements
in their grades. Although teachers recognised that it was difficult to
establish what
improvements may have been solely due to STEPS, decisions had been taken
at
both schools to continue using STEPS. Teachers commented:
"The process is a well-structured, time-effective, student-centric
approach to the
problem of exam stress. I now have a go-to solution that I know materially
benefits
students who suffer from test anxiety." (Factual Statement 1).
"Possibly more importantly, I asked all the students about the less
tangible benefits
of undertaking the course and it was clear that their overall quality of
life had been
greatly enhanced during what would normally be a highly stressful time."
(Factual
Statement 2).
Sources to corroborate the impact
Factual Statements (both address impact on practice, and on
pupils):
1) Learning Coach, King Edward VI Handsworth School for Girls,
Birmingham.
2) SEN teacher, a school in North Wales.
Other Sources:
- The Assessment and Qualifications Alliance, contact details available
on
request
http://cerp.aqa.org.uk/can-we-help-students-manage-and-minimise-gcse-exam-stress p10
- Secondary Education, May 2012, (http://www.sec-ed.co.uk/best-practice/exam-
anxiety),
- Make the Grade, Summer 2012 (http://edition.pagesuite-professional.co.uk/launch.aspx?referral=mypagesuite&pnum=&refresh=8n1E0
Da46r1J&EID=90b4102b-d433-471a-9562-70473af460ac&skip=,)
and Make
the Grade, December 2012 (http://ciea.co.uk/makethegrade/steps-exam-
anxiety/ ).