My daughter studies at the University of Toronto. She is appearing for her final exams. She called and excitedly told me about the ‘De-stress fair’ or exam-jam they had on the campus. Students taking exams were allowed to cuddle dogs get foot massages, yoga, ball games and also had water balloon fights. All to reduce exam stress! What a wonderful idea I thought. This had to be my topic for the next column!
Test anxiety is severely disabling to students whose fear of examinations causes cognitive dysfunction. The worst scenario is when it paralyses their thinking and their mind goes blank. The effect of stress on the body is significant. Education systems, which use fear to motivate students to study, can have a devastating effect on the body and mind.
There is considerable research evidence that some children have biological predispositions to high levels of general anxiety, making them more susceptible to the effects of being evaluated. Repeated difficulties with test-taking or other performances tend to lower self-confidence, which in turn can create conditions for more frequent and intense experiences of anxiety. Also, excessive pressure or coercion likely will worsen a child’s anxiety, further impairing performance, self-esteem and motivation.
Despite compelling evidence to the contrary, many teachers and parents still believe that fear of failure, of ridicule or punishment is the prime motivator for students to produce high quality work. The intentional creation of fear remains the most widely used strategy for encouraging academic achievement. How often I have heard parents lecturing their children. If you don’t succeed you will have no future! Teachers saying if you don’t get good marks you will fail.
As Bob Sullo states in his book on ‘The Motivated Students’, fear activates the well-known fight for flight reaction. The body sends more blood to the legs to enable them to run. As a result blood to the brain reduces. Fear prevents the brain from thinking. Often teachers use sarcastic comments to control the class. But sarcasm affects the students’ sense of wellbeing and confidence. It can cause anxiety. The majority of kids who are anxious are not disruptive and are more likely to withdraw and avoid anxiety-producing situations. In extreme cases, they may be seen by teachers as unmotivated, lazy, or less capable than their peers. On the other extreme, some students with performance anxiety may act out, consciously or unconsciously, as a way of avoiding the risk of being embarrassed or failing. Some kids will seek retaliation to sarcasm by disrupting the class while interfering with the learning process. Whichever way fear, anxiety and sarcasm inhibit effective learning.
Biomarker for stress
The Centre on the developing child in Harvard University has clearly stated in their Working Papers, the harmful effect of toxic stress on the developing brain. Circumstances that produce persistent fear or anxiety can disrupt the developing architecture of the brain. If the school or classroom is perceived as a threatening place then learning and social interaction is affected.
When young children are persistently exposed to fear, they associate it with the context and conditions that accompany it. This is called fear conditioning. If they associate studying and academics with fear they will always dislike it and try to avoid it.
Stress, particularly chronic stress can impact the body in several ways. Chronic stress especially releases stress hormones like Cortisol. In fact, Cortisol is a biomarker for stress. It can cause damage to certain parts of the brain like the hippocampus, amygdala and prefrontal cortex. It can negatively affect learning and memory. Behavioural neuroscience research with animals has shown that chronic elevation of cortisol can have a number of detrimental effects, including increased damage to brain cells in areas that support learning, thereby leading to increased impairment in subsequent memory formation. Clearly, the biological response to stress is intimately involved in learning and memory.
Despite all this we still use fear in the classroom. Parents put unnecessary pressure on their children to achieve and make them believe that their future will be bleak without academic success. Fear and anxiety is entrenched in our educational systems that may be damaging our children and may actually cause disability and cognitive impairment.
Dr Rajshree Singhania is a specialist paediatrician, with a PhD in Neuro-Developmental Paediatrics from the UK, who runs a children’s clinic in Dubai.
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