Higher Levels Of Test Anxiety Research Articles

Team Testing for Individual Success

TESTING IS an all-purpose tool in today's school systems, with students frequently being evaluated for grades, advancement, graduation, and college entrance and exit. Because so much of this testing is a game played for high stakes, many students of all ages and ability levels have developed extremely high levels of test anxiety. Teachers use an array of strategies to address the needs of diverse learners and so improve student learning. Why then, don't we use similar methods and strategies when assessing student progress? Wouldn't it seem sensible to test in a fashion similar to the way students have practiced and learned? Yet even as teachers try to teach students in creative, meaningful ways and help them develop a desire for lifelong learning, high-stakes testing is acting in opposition to, even inadvertently defeating, these efforts. We believe that learning can and should be enjoyable, exploratory, meaningful, long-lasting, and filled with discovery. And we also believe that testing can be a part of that experience. Various studies have shown that students who score high on measures of test anxiety will score lower on tests than students whose anxiety scores are lower. (1) More specifically, test anxiety is one of the variables most commonly associated with student underachievement and so poses serious problems for students at all academic levels. (2) Other research has concluded that subjects who are highly anxious when under evaluative stress not only perform at lower levels, but also spend less time on academic tasks. (3) Moreover, highly test-anxious students who do poorly on traditional tests perform at a level similar to their peers on other tasks. (4) This refutes the idea that students use test anxiety as an excuse for their failure to study or for poor study habits. Some people are just not good at taking traditional tests. Some students feel more comfortable expressing information through discussion, presentation, demonstration, and other creative means. We believe that an easy approach to reducing test anxiety would be to use a variety of testing techniques. We do not advocate the removal of traditional testing methods from schools. Instead, we favor of the use of additional evaluation methods that make use of various classroom activities, strategies, and procedures. For Matt, the idea of testing grew out of an observation he made in 2003, while he was teaching English classes for grades 5 through 8. Matt noticed that his students could readily discuss any given grammatical or mechanical idea, so long as they were talking about it or could speak their minds in the classroom. When students were asked to read a sentence aloud and locate its direct object, the majority could accomplish the task with relative ease. When students were asked to identify the characteristics that distinguish a concrete noun from an abstract noun, most of them could do that as well. However, as soon as written tests were distributed, the students' knowledge simply vanished. This discrepancy between students' ability to discuss a topic knowledgeably and their inability to master a written test on the same topic was pervasive--and perplexing. On numerous occasions Matt discussed test anxiety and study skills with his students. He also stressed that effort, not grades, was the key ingredient to success in his class. But the discrepancy persisted. Finally, while he was preparing to administer a test on sentence fragments, it dawned on him that the pivotal component of the discrepancy had to be language. During instructional times, students were allowed to talk. During testing, they were not. So Matt devised a plan whereby his classes could make orderly, authentic use of oral communication through team testing. Amanda was teaching high school English classes of approximately 20 students each. Their range of abilities was wide. Her students seemed to express intelligent solutions and demonstrate excellent retention of all material, as long as they were given a chance to verbalize their answers. …

Differentiation and test anxiety in adolescents

The study tested several propositions about an important construct in Bowen's (Family Therapy in Clinical Practice, Aronson, New York, 1978; Family Evaluation, Norton, New York, 1988) theory of differentiation, using an Israeli sample of adolescents to examine relationships between differentiation of self, family differentiation, test anxiety, trait anxiety and cognitive performance. The main findings were that family differentiation (specifically, adolescents’ relationships with their mothers) was negatively correlated with levels of test and trait anxiety and positively correlated with cognitive performance. All scales of differentiation of self, particularly emotional reactivity and I-position, were negatively correlated with both types of anxiety. Results suggest that differentiation is a meaningful construct for Israeli adolescents, and that less differentiated adolescents may be at risk for high levels of test anxiety and low levels of cognitive performance. Treatment of test-anxious adolescents therefore requires consideration of possible difficulties in individuating and differentiating from their families of origin.

Psychometric Characteristics of Computer‐Adaptive and Self‐Adaptive Vocabulary Tests: The Role of Answer Feedback and Test Anxiety

This study focused on the effects of administration mode (computer‐adaptive test [CAT] versus self‐adaptive test [SAT]), item‐by‐item answer feedback (present versus absent), and test anxiety on results obtained from computerized vocabulary tests. Examinees were assigned at random to four testing conditions (CAT with feedback, CAT without feedback, SAT with feedback, SAT without feedback). Examinees completed the Test Anxiety Inventory (Spielberger, 1980) before taking their assigned computerized tests. Results showed that the CATs were more reliable and took less time to complete than the SATs. Administration time for both the CATs and SATs was shorter when feedback was provided than when it was not, and this difference was most pronounced for examinees at medium to high levels of test anxiety. These results replicate prior findings regarding the precision and administrative efficiency of CATs and SATs but point to new possible benefits of including answer feedback on such tests.

Test Anxiety Among Students Taking Semesterised and Traditional Courses

Abstract A survey was conducted of the test anxiety of 154 second year students of a variety of subjects at a new British university. Half of the sample were studying on conventionally structured degree courses and half on newly semesterised degree courses. It was found that students on semesterised arts and science courses exhibited higher levels of test anxiety than did their counterparts on conventional courses but no such difference was observed for social science and business (including law) students. This finding is contrary to predictions based on a desensitisation model which would predict an attenuation of test anxiety as a result of more frequent testing under semesterised arrangements. A case is made that the character of assessment procedures, and possibly also students’ previous experience of the outcomes of assessment, contribute to an increase in test anxiety in the short to medium term. Any effects of desensitisation may only be evident in the longer term and may be opposed by other factor...

The Relationship Between Test Anxiety and Seriousness of Errors in Algebra

The purpose of the study was to discern via an error analysis the process that underlies the relationship between test anxiety (TA) and mathematics test performance, with gender as a mediator variable. Sarason's RTT questionnaire (as a measure of TA) and a diagnostic test in algebra were administered to 231 junior high school students. Error analysis of the algebra test yielded 35 mal-rules, which were classified into two categories of serious and nonserious errors. The main findings were: (a) TA was related significantly to serious errors and to the total test score, but not to non-serious errors; (b) Students in the low achievement group reported higher levels of TA and committed far more serious errors than students in the high achievement grouping; and (c) The above findings were more pronounced for girls than for boys, yet girls did not differ from boys with respect to achievement grouping and to the measures of test performance. However, girls outscored boys in the emotional component of TA.

Reliability and validity of japanese children's trait and state worry and emotionality scales

There is a belief in both Japan and the U.S. that high levels of test anxiety interfere with performance. However, there are no measures of anxiety (i.e., worry or emotionality) for Japanese childr...

A Cross-Cultural Study of Test Anxiety

This study compared seventh- and eighth-grade students' test anxiety across three independent variables: culture, socioeconomic level, and gender. A self-report mea-sure of test anxiety-the Test Anxiety Scale for Children (TASC)-was given to four samples of students: 91 seventh-grade Chicago, Illinois, inner-city students; 103 eighth-graders from an upper-class section of Weston, Massachusetts; 352 seventh-and eighth-graders from a middle-class section of Holliston, Massachusetts; and 1,144 eighth-graders from Santiago, Chile (who completed a translated version of the TASC). Results showed that high-SES students from both cultures were significantly lower on test anxiety than low-SES students. South American students demonstrated generally higher levels of test anxiety than did North American students. Low-SES females across both cultures scored higher in test anxiety than did low-SES males, but high-SES females and males were not significantly different in test anxiety.

Ethnic differences in test anxiety.

Abstract Test anxiety differences were explored among a sample of undergraduates representing Chinese, Anglo, South European, North European, and Eastern European ethnic backgrounds. Given the stress on academic excellence arising from the Confucian ethic permeating Asian cultures, it was hypothesized that Chinese students would be more prone to exhibit high levels of test anxiety than would their peers from other ethnic traditions. Analysis of respondents' scores on the Test Anxiety Scale indicated that, as predicted, students in the Chinese group scored significantly higher in test anxiety than did students from Anglo or European ethnic backgrounds.

The “mirror” and the “mask”: Self-focused attention, evaluation anxiety, and the recognition of psychological implications

It was predicted that attention focused on the self would interfere with performance on a task that requires recognizing the psychological implications of word associations. In particular, it was expected that the combination of a high level of test anxiety or self-consciousness and experimental testing conditions (i.e., instructions about task importance, unveiling of a mirror, and request for permission to videotape) would produce especially poor performance. Results revealed a main effect of testing condition such that subjects in the experimental condition were less vigilant and less successful in their performance than were subjects in the control condition. The results are discussed in terms of Scheibe’s (1979) concept of the interpersonal prediction mode of sagacity and the “mirror” as a tool for avoiding prediction.

Enhancing the prediction of self-handicapping.

Levels of test anxiety, Type A and Type B coronary-prone behavior, fear of failure, and covert self-esteem were studied as predictors of self-handicapping performance attributions for college women who were placed in either a high- (N = 49) or low- (N = 49) evaluative test or task situation. We hypothesized that test anxiety. Type A or Type B level, and their interaction would account for reliable variance in the prediction of self-handicapping. However, we also theorized that underlying high fear of failure and low covert self-esteem would explain the self-handicapping claims of test-anxious and Type A subjects. The results indicated that only high levels of test anxiety and high levels of covert self-esteem were related to women's self-handicapping attributions.

Prevalence, distribution, and correlates of math anxiety in college students.

While counseling psychologists are becoming increasingly involved in the treatment of math anxiety, little is yet known about its prevalence, nature, or effects. The present study, an investigation of factors related to the prevalence and intensity of math anxiety in college students, utilized 652 subjects obtained from two math courses and one psychology course at a large midwestern university. Results indicated that math anxiety occurs frequently among college students and that it is more likely to occur among women than among men arid among students with inadequate high school math backgrounds. Higher levels of math anxiety were related to lower mathematics achievement test scores, higher levels of test anxiety, and higher levels of trait anxiety. Implications for the identification and treatment of math-anxious students and for the process of educational/vocational counseling are discussed.

CHILDREN'S ACHIEVEMENT EXPECTATIONS AS A FUNCTION OF SOCIAL REINFORCEMENT, SEX OF S, AND TEST ANXIETY

24 8and 9-year-old children of each sex and at low and high levels of anxiety as measured by the Test Anxiety Scale for Children (N = 96) were divided equally into 6 experimental groups according to the type of pretraining (success, failure, or no pretraining experience) and reinforcement condition (social reinforcement or nonreinforcement from 1 of 2 males) in a subsequent angle-matching task. The Ss' achievement expectations were assessed prior to and following the experimental task. Major results were: (a) Following social reinforcement, expectations increased, the effect being stronger for girls than boys. (b) Following nonreinforcement, achievement expectations remained stable for both sexes. (c) Initial achievement expectations correlated negatively with test anxiety for girls. (d) Change in achievement expectation correlated positively with test anxiety for boys in the social reinforcement condition. The sex difference in the facilitating effects of social reinforcement on achievement expectations was considered as being part of a possible Sex of S by Sex of E interaction. It is suggested that sex differences in learning and cognition may be greater than has been recognized. Theorizing on the causes of the negative relation between a high level of test anxiety and children's achievement behaviors and intellectual