Implementing an Expressive Writing Intervention for Test Anxiety in a Large College Course

Test anxiety is a widespread problem that negatively impacts student performance. The mechanism proposed to explain the deleterious effect is that anxious thoughts occupy space in working memory, thus diminishing cognitive capacity. Expressive writing is an intervention shown to decrease the impact...

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Autores principales:	Jennifer H. Doherty, Mary Pat Wenderoth
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	American Society for Microbiology 2017
Materias:	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Biology (General) QH301-705.5
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/1fefd9fc71644cfeaee6d50189ac2a2f
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:1fefd9fc71644cfeaee6d50189ac2a2f2021-11-15T15:04:06ZImplementing an Expressive Writing Intervention for Test Anxiety in a Large College Course10.1128/jmbe.v18i2.13071935-78851935-7877https://doaj.org/article/1fefd9fc71644cfeaee6d50189ac2a2f2017-09-01T00:00:00Zhttps://journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/jmbe.v18i2.1307https://doaj.org/toc/1935-7877https://doaj.org/toc/1935-7885Test anxiety is a widespread problem that negatively impacts student performance. The mechanism proposed to explain the deleterious effect is that anxious thoughts occupy space in working memory, thus diminishing cognitive capacity. Expressive writing is an intervention shown to decrease the impact of test anxiety. For this intervention, students respond to a prompt directing them to write-down their thoughts and feelings regarding the upcoming exam. To investigate the feasibility of using this intervention in college courses and to discern our students’ thoughts about taking exams, we implemented the intervention in our large introductory biology course. The prompt was placed on the cover page of each exam and students were given five minutes to write. Students were then instructed to rip off, crumple up, and throw the page into the closest aisle and begin the exam. Even though they could not start the exam early, students only spent approximately two minutes writing. Clean up of papers was reasonably accomplished during the exam. Interestingly, crumpling and throwing papers seemed to dissipate tension and created a more relaxed atmosphere in the classroom evidenced by laughing and paper airplanes. We assigned the anonymous student writing into categories (e.g., doodling, pep talks, course content, anxious) as we were interested to see the variation in student responses and monitor if student feelings changed over time. We suggest instructors consider using this intervention to decrease the impact of test anxiety. We found the implementation logistics manageable and reading students’ thoughts made us more empathetic with our students’ experiences.Jennifer H. DohertyMary Pat WenderothAmerican Society for MicrobiologyarticleSpecial aspects of educationLC8-6691Biology (General)QH301-705.5ENJournal of Microbiology & Biology Education, Vol 18, Iss 2 (2017)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Biology (General) QH301-705.5
spellingShingle	Special aspects of education LC8-6691 Biology (General) QH301-705.5 Jennifer H. Doherty Mary Pat Wenderoth Implementing an Expressive Writing Intervention for Test Anxiety in a Large College Course
description	Test anxiety is a widespread problem that negatively impacts student performance. The mechanism proposed to explain the deleterious effect is that anxious thoughts occupy space in working memory, thus diminishing cognitive capacity. Expressive writing is an intervention shown to decrease the impact of test anxiety. For this intervention, students respond to a prompt directing them to write-down their thoughts and feelings regarding the upcoming exam. To investigate the feasibility of using this intervention in college courses and to discern our students’ thoughts about taking exams, we implemented the intervention in our large introductory biology course. The prompt was placed on the cover page of each exam and students were given five minutes to write. Students were then instructed to rip off, crumple up, and throw the page into the closest aisle and begin the exam. Even though they could not start the exam early, students only spent approximately two minutes writing. Clean up of papers was reasonably accomplished during the exam. Interestingly, crumpling and throwing papers seemed to dissipate tension and created a more relaxed atmosphere in the classroom evidenced by laughing and paper airplanes. We assigned the anonymous student writing into categories (e.g., doodling, pep talks, course content, anxious) as we were interested to see the variation in student responses and monitor if student feelings changed over time. We suggest instructors consider using this intervention to decrease the impact of test anxiety. We found the implementation logistics manageable and reading students’ thoughts made us more empathetic with our students’ experiences.
format	article
author	Jennifer H. Doherty Mary Pat Wenderoth
author_facet	Jennifer H. Doherty Mary Pat Wenderoth
author_sort	Jennifer H. Doherty
title	Implementing an Expressive Writing Intervention for Test Anxiety in a Large College Course
title_short	Implementing an Expressive Writing Intervention for Test Anxiety in a Large College Course
title_full	Implementing an Expressive Writing Intervention for Test Anxiety in a Large College Course
title_fullStr	Implementing an Expressive Writing Intervention for Test Anxiety in a Large College Course
title_full_unstemmed	Implementing an Expressive Writing Intervention for Test Anxiety in a Large College Course
title_sort	implementing an expressive writing intervention for test anxiety in a large college course
publisher	American Society for Microbiology
publishDate	2017
url	https://doaj.org/article/1fefd9fc71644cfeaee6d50189ac2a2f
work_keys_str_mv	AT jenniferhdoherty implementinganexpressivewritinginterventionfortestanxietyinalargecollegecourse AT marypatwenderoth implementinganexpressivewritinginterventionfortestanxietyinalargecollegecourse
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Implementing an Expressive Writing Intervention for Test Anxiety in a Large College Course

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