Product Submission for Instructor Review #1

Dayana Maria Gonzalez

Department of Education, University of Nevada, Las Vegas

CIG 690 Teachers as Action Researchers

Dr.Kim K. Metcalf

4 March 2023
 The use of assessment is consistent throughout the field of education to measure whether

or not students are understanding the material that is being presented to them. Although one goes

through school for various years and experiences assessment after assessment, test anxiety

continues to be something that many students face–even through their college years. The

Learning Center of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2023) states that test anxiety

is “a combination of physical symptoms and emotional reactions that interfere with [one’s]

ability to perform well on tests.” The question that many ask when knowing this is why it is that

students face test anxiety. Some of those reasons consist of the fear of failing, unpreparedness,

poor history in testing, pressure, and perfectionism. As the correlation between test anxiety and

low test scores has been studied, many have attempted to explain what it is about testing that

makes a student experience high testing anxiety. Jonas W.B. Lang1 and Jessica Lang (2010)

studied the idea that maybe test anxiety exists in part because it is correlated to how prepared a

student is for an assessment. They wanted to understand if maybe it is the fact that a student is ill

prepared and lacks proper skills to perform well that causes them to perform poorly on an

assessment or if there are other factors that played part in the test anxiety that students

experience. Their research indicates that “a skill-deficit explanation is highly unlikely” (Lang &

Lang, 2010) Their findings allow us to come to a new center of focus. That focus is, how

educators can assist students in resolving their test anxiety in hope of seeing them perform better

on assessments?

Before one can attempt to underpin how educators can assist students with their test

anxiety, one must attempt to understand what causes students to experience test anxiety. Omid

Rezaabadi (2016) studied the correlation between one’s social class and their ability to perform

well on foreign-language listening assessments. The participants were separated into two groups,
‘sociable’ social classes and ‘unsociable’ social classes. The ‘sociable’ social class consisted of

those with jobs such as doctors, specialists, managers, professors, and other higher ranked

careers. The ‘unsociable’ social class consisted of those with jobs as servants, drivers, barbers,

farmers, and other labor intensive careers. Rexaabadi’s (2016) results indicated that it was clear

that the participants who were categorized as the ‘unsociable’ social class reported experiencing

more test anxiety over those who were categorized as the “sociable” social class. Reports as such

can bring educators to question what it is about being in a lower social class that causes students

to experience higher levels of test anxiety. Does it stem from understanding and knowing about

one’s identity and the lower social expectations that society has placed on them? Or, does it stem

from the pressure to do better because they are aware that society has an eye on them because of

their social status? Professor Moshe Zeidner (2005) does a phenomenal job of identifying

various things that can contribute to one’s text anxiety, and among his findings he identifies that

students of color tend to experience higher test anxiety over those who are of European descent.

Additionally, researcher David W. Putwain (2007) studied school aged children in the UK,

identifying that test anxiety among students can be predicted based on specific

socio-demographic variables such as their gender, ethnic background and socioeconomic status.

Students who were from a white ethnic background reported lower test anxiety scores over those

who were from other ethnic backgrounds. When research continues to show that students of

European-descent tend to experience less test anxiety over students who are of other ethnic

backgrounds, it leads us to further research why is it that “since 1970…American black

[children] still score below 75% of American whites on almost every standardized test” (Jencks

& Phillips, 1998). What about our Black students’ experiences affect how they perceive tests

that are presented to them?

 Educators and the educational system play a huge role in affecting a student’s experience

in the classroom and assisting them in the process of learning skills and techniques to help them

lower their test anxiety. Juana Gallego-Gomez and her team (2019) studied how music therapy

and muscle relaxation can help reduce the amount of stress that students experience and found

that it is evident that students can experience a decrease in both stress and anxiety, leading to

higher test scores. Additionally, Demet Inangil and their team (2019) conducted a similar study

with Turkish students, also finding very similar results. The implementation of music therapy

and/or movement therapy is a tool that can easily be integrated into the classrooms, even at the

early ages of elementary school-aged children. The question now is, how can we better prepare

teachers to provide these tools for students in the classroom and how can the students positively

be impacted with the implementation of these practices. Currently, students in Clark County

School District are scoring below proficient on state test scores, where in 2022 “nearly [only]

41% of third through fifth grade students were proficient in [reading]” (Greener 2022).

Implementation of programs and practices like these can potentially help us see an increase in

these percentages due to a decrease in test anxiety among the students.

 Citations

Gallego-Gómez, J. I., Balanza, S., Leal-Llopis, J., García-Méndez, J. A., Oliva-Pérez, J.,

Doménech-Tortosa, J., Gómez-Gallego, M., Simonelli-Muñoz, A. J., & Rivera-Caravaca, J. M.

(2020). Effectiveness of music therapy and progressive muscle relaxation in reducing stress

before exams and improving academic performance in nursing students: A randomized trial.

Nurse Education Today, 84, 104217. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2019.104217

Jencks, C., & Phillips, M. (1998, March 1). The black-white test score gap: Why it persists and

what can be done. Brookings. Retrieved March 4, 2023, from

https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-black-white-test-score-gap-why-it-persists-and-what-can-

be-done/

Lang, J. W. B., & Lang, J. (2010). Priming competence diminishes the link between cognitive

test anxiety and test performance. Psychological Science, 21(6), 811–819.

https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797610369492

Putwain, D. W. (2007). Test anxiety in UK schoolchildren: Prevalence and demographic patterns.

British Journal of Educational Psychology, 77(3), 579–593.

https://doi.org/10.1348/000709906x161704

Rezaabadi, O. T. (2016). The relationships between social class, listening test anxiety and test

scores. Advances in Language and Literary Studies, 7(5).

https://doi.org/10.7575/aiac.alls.v.7n.5p.147
Rich, J. D., Fullard, W., & Overton, W. (2011). The relationship between deductive reasoning

ability, test anxiety, and standardized test scores in a Latino sample. Hispanic Journal of

Behavioral Sciences, 33(2), 261–277. https://doi.org/10.1177/0739986311404020

Wootton-Greener, J. (2022, October 17). CCSD students' test scores significantly below district's

goals. Journal. Retrieved March 4, 2023, from

https://www.reviewjournal.com/local/education/ccsd-students-test-scores-significantly-below-dis

tricts-goals-2657586/

İnangil, D., Irmak Vural, P., Doğan, S., & Körpe, G. (2020). Effectiveness of music therapy and

emotional freedom technique on test anxiety in Turkish nursing students: A randomized

controlled trial. European Journal of Integrative Medicine, 33, 101041.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eujim.2019.101041

Zeidner, M. (1998). Test anxiety: The state of the art. New York, NY: Plenum.