Confidence Training Means Better Student Retention Presented by (drD) Richard Driscoll, Ph.D. Westside Psychology Knoxville, TN / x106

A Student Experience Allison took the anxiety control training as a high school Junior. Now, 2 years later, she talks about her experiences. See video at: See video next slide. Video begins automatically (if the stars are aligned correctly)

as a high school junior

Can we sum it up? drD on Larry King still alive courtesy of Xtranormal.

Overview

Handicap o 12 percentile points. Highly test-anxious students perform about 12 percentile points below their low-anxiety peers (half a letter grade below), much of which can be attributed to the anxiety impairment. o "Kristin would tutor her friends in algebra at lunch time, and then fail the test the next hour while her friends went on to pass it."

A veritable pandemic ≈ 18% of students have high test anxiety plus another ≈ 18% have "moderately high" anxiety. So maybe a third of our students are more afraid of school tests than they ever were of spooks or ghosts or goblins or anything else that creeps or leaps or flaps around in the dark of the night. The majority of students rate "schoolwork" and "exams" as the major sources of worry and stress in their lives. Over half of college student can identify a time when they were too stressed to do their work. About half of students on academic probation are test anxious.

Benign Neglect As few as one percent of highly anxious students ever receive adequate treatment. Students Seldom Volunteer. Boring. The protocols for counselors are technical, mechanistic, tedious and repetitious and are boring, boring, boring.

Anxiety Control Protocol Recorded Presentation conserves staff time, is easily administered requires only a minimum introduction The Anxiety Control Training is found to lower anxiety increase concentration improve test scores by as much as a half letter grade.

Anxiety Reduction Findings The best cognitive and desensitization protocols yield a 1.0–1.2 SD benefit. The anxiety control training produced an average 1.8 SD benefit in our first 5 studies Note: Links to research are at: TestAnxietyControl.com/researchTestAnxietyControl.com/research

Test Gains The treatment has registered test gains in each of 7 controlled studies.

College Students 18 percentile test gains (three quarters of a letter grade) anxious, compared to placebo controls. Improvement was considerably stronger for the students on academic probation, than for the regular students. 12 percentile gain (half a letter grade) attained by 22 anxious nursing students on standardized testing. 14 percentile gains among 6 probation students

Test Gain Conclusions Two additional studies with middle school students produced 4-6 percentile gains (almost a quarter letter grade gain). Thus, the anxiety control training appears to produce half a letter grade benefit among college students, and about half that much among younger students. Additional research is in progress.

STARS Sequences Simple relaxation is fragile. Replace with Stretch-Tense-Air-Release-relax-Suggestions ( STARS ) sequences Tensed muscles fatigue quickly, and relaxation follows naturally. The active physical involvement is markedly faster, stronger, and more reliable than the simple relaxation suggestions that anchor many anxiety treatment methods. [Participants: **Experience the stretch–tense–air–release~relax– suggestions sequence.]

Interest & Challenge In place of relaxation images… Students imagine an activity which they find interesting or challenging. The sense of mastery provides a much more adaptive outlook than does simple relaxation. [Participants: ** Imagine an interesting or challenging activity, and remember the feelings.]

Conditioning Students next review eight learning, review, and testing scenes… with instructions to find the activities interesting…. each followed by a STARS sequence. Ordinarily, it would be far-fetched to propose that highly test anxious students could take pleasure in anything remotely connected to a test. And yet, in the special sequencing here, students do imagine enjoying learning, organizing, and then showing their mastery on a test. [Participants: ** Imagine a stressful situation in your own life, see yourself doing well at it, remember the experience, and rate the outcome.]

Recorded Administration Rationale The STARS sequences counter even strong surges of anxiety and cannot be overwhelmed or inhibited by anxiety. Therefore, a single recorded protocol can be administered across students with high, medium, or low anxiety responses to the testing scenes. ** Note: All research presented here was conducted with recorded administration.

Does Good Advice Help? In each of these studies, the control group was asked to read several pages of test anxiety advice from a highly regarded University website. The significantly higher scores in the treated groups suggests that the good advice had little impact, and that anxious students need something more.

Unprepared vs. Freaked Test anxious students include: Students who are anxious when unprepared, vs. Students who are too freaked to absorb the material and blank on tests. We expect that good advice helps the unprepared, but not the severely and continually anxious.

Your School Program Q: What can you do with the anxiety control program that you cannot do with something else? A: Treat your ridiculously high numbers of highly test anxious students without sinking your school resources.

Try It Out (step 1) Familiarize yourself with the program. Identify a few test anxious students. Have each of the students review the Training CD. Talk to the students about their experience. It is that easy. You are now ready to administer a larger program.

Screen for Anxiety (step 2) Use the Westside Test Anxiety scale, to identify anxiety impairments It is brief, easy to score, and free to the public. Download at TestAnxietyControl.com/downloads/

Screen Students Remember that few students volunteer, so you must reach out to them. You might screen students at: your counseling center psychology and health classes freshmen orientation remedial assistance programs

Round Up Your Anxious Students Provide an introductory session for anxious students where attendance is expected. Inform students about test anxiety and treatment options. Explain the training, encourage participation, administer the CD training, encourage students to review at home.

Recorded Administration Substantial Advantages Recorded administration eliminates the tedious and repetitious aspects of test anxiety treatment, so anxiety reduction counselors are not required to die of boredom. A recorded intervention vastly reduces the professional resources required, making it possible for a few counselors to arrange treatment for the vast number of test anxious students.

“Live” vs. Recorded You are welcome to provide the training “live,” but be forewarned that it becomes increasingly monotonous. Few counselors use systematic desensitization for just this reason. The recorded version: frees counselors to relate to the anxious students; allows counselors to conduct a sophisticated technical intervention with a minimum of additional training.

CDs You receive 5 CDs with the webinar (titled: Tame Test Anxiety). CDs are inexpensive and can be purchased from: TestAnxietyControl.com Little Tennessee Valley Educational Cooperative, at 865/ Amazon.com or Amazon.com

Did your intervention work? Administrators want to know if a program is producing benefits. Informal assessments: After students review the CD and take a test, ask them if they felt calmer. Administer the Westside scale before and after students take a test, and compare the scores.

Formal Assessment Divide your highly test-anxious students into two similar groups, Treatment and Control. The Treatment group reviews the CD, the control group does not. Compare the test scores after your intervention. Warning: statistics ahead.

Correct for pre- scores The post-intervention scores are accounted for by the pre- scores and the treatment effect. Thus, we should correct for differences in pre- intervention scores. Use multiple regression (or ANOCOVA ) to correct for pre- differences between students. Consult with your statistician.

A Golden Opportunity Test anxiety is our most prevalent academic handicap, and its successful treatment should be a principal objective. Test Anxiety Control Training offers a golden opportunity to benefit our national schooling. Oct 2011

Popular Advice   Recognize two types of test anxious students: ·( I ) Students who are anxious when unprepared, vs. ·( II ) Students who are continually freaked and who blank on tests even when well prepared. Good advice is readily available from various articles and websites. My four favorites here are from · ·U. of Illinois website.

Top Suggestions ( 1). If unprepared, whatever should you do? Be well advised to prepare earlier and more thoroughly. (2). Be healthy: exercise, eat well, get enough sleep. (3). During a test, tense and relax your muscles (more on this?). (4). After a test, reward yourself with something enjoyable and avoid thinking about the test.

Good Advice Simply reading good advice has little impact, as students do not follow through with the suggestion