SCAN
A career in teaching means developing constant inquiries that will help us understand our students and the career better than ever before.
As I go through my practicums, I have noticed that many students suffer from anxiety that alters the way that they learn. Since COVID-19, students have become more anxious and struggle in the classroom. The more classrooms I observe, the more I notice that we, as educators, need to find proper techniques to help our students manage their anxiety in order to succeed in the classroom.
what is going on with our students and how do we know?
Through my observations, I have noticed that many students seem more anxious and stressed out. I have noticed that many students have latched on to the anxiety of the unknown. Because of COVID-19, students have developed anxiety around schedules that are not precise. During my first practicum, there was a student that was so anxious about being on time for everything that they would question the teacher when we would do an activity that lasted longer than anticipated. Other students show their anxiety through their unwillingness to leave the classroom, their safe environment. I’ve observed some students redo their work multiple times out of the fear that it wasn’t good enough and that their peers would make fun of them for it. Many students require a lot of support when in comes to their anxiety and often times there isn’t enough support for all of them. So the next question is…
why does it matter?
An inquiry around student anxiety matters because anxiety often becomes a block for our students in their learning. Students who experience anxiety are often anxious about change, and we need to teach them that change is good and support them to manage their anxiety so that they can freely learn. This matters because we do not want our students to be blocked from reaching their potential and exceeding in life.
The real question and my question for my inquiry is…
HOW CAN WE AS EDUCATORS SUPPORT OUR STUDENTS TO FIGHT AGAINST ANXIETY? WHAT TOOLS CAN WE PROVIDE OUR STUDENTS WITH SO THAT THEY CAN MANAGE THEIR ANXIETY AND LEARN FROM IT?
FOCUS
Now that we have completed the scan of my inquiry, the next step is to focus in on establishing the priority of improving student anxiety. In our focus, we are going to think about how we are going to begin answering the questions above. How can we support our students to fight against anxiety? What tools can we provide them with to help manage their anxiety?
Student success is dependant on their ability to focus on the task at hand. For a student that struggles with anxiety, their focus is often interrupted by the anxious feelings they are experiencing during the day. Oftentimes, this anxiety has nothing to do with the task at hand but instead something that may be going on at home or a situation going on in their friend group etc. So how can we help students begin building their tool box in order to best support their struggle with anxiety.
When we think about establishing the priority of improving student anxiety, it means that we have to bring the issues to light. We have to educate our students on anxiety and normalize it, ensure that our students understand that anxiety happens within everyone and it is nothing to be ashamed of. Before that, we must educate ourselves on anxiety and how it occurs through different ages because we need to understand that how one student may show their anxiety could be completely different from how another student shows it. It is important for us as educators to know the tell signs of an anxious student so that when to know when to step into gear and help.
In order for us to begin the fight against student anxiety, we must first bring to light that it is happening and getting worse. We must put our focus on prioritizing ways that help improve our students anxiety.
HUNCH
What is a hunch when it comes to a spiral of inquiry? The hunch is ideas or assumptions one might have about what may have caused what they are inquiring about. So what are my assumptions and ideas you may ask? Well I’ll tell you.
The first contributor, the biggest one I think, to the recent development of student anxiety is COVID-19. Because students had to stay at home under quarantine for a long period of time and had to receive their education from a computer screen via ZOOM, students have developed a decline in social cues. For students, particularly in elementary years, socialization is one of the most essential parts of their education. Yes, they need to learn math and social studies, but how they communicate and interact with others is a crucial skill for them to know for the future. Because of Covid, students were deprived of this skill which in turn probably caused a large population of students to develop anxiety.
Another contributor, I think, is video games. Many students spend hours upon hours playing video games at home, and often this video game usage is unmonitored. This means that some students are playing video games for 18 hours straight. When participating in an activity for so many hours in a day, people tend to develop a crutch to that activity making it hard for them to go through their day without having that crutch. I think that students experiencing anxiety may be missing their crutch of video games and social media. Because they are in school for the majority of the day and are not able to play video games as they would when they are at home, they feel uneasy until they are able to get home and do what makes them the most comfortable.
I believe that these two contributors are the main reasons why students are experiencing anxiety when they are in school. So the question is, how can we help our younger generations from experiencing this?