# @edutopia on Instagram

- **Type:** Image
- **Original URL:** https://www.instagram.com/p/CbvfivZMh6L
- **Gondola URL:** https://gondola.cc/posts/20303367-edutopia-instagram
- **Thumbnail:** https://img.gondola.cc/tr:w-,h-,fo-auto/postThumbnails/legacy-do/6c87210b5af221f614d688c2cf91d1838666e5499642bbe34d4aa78c82020fd4.jpg
- **Posted:** 2022-03-30T20:53:04.000+00:00
- **Account Owner:** Edutopia (@edutopia) — https://gondola.cc/edutopia

## Caption

Students need to know their course content to succeed on tests, but how they score on those tests relies on more than just studying—students are also heavily influenced by emotional and psychological preparation, research suggests. "Helping your students identify and circumvent the psychological barriers that hinder progress is part of teaching them how to navigate the emotional terrain of learning," writes Edutopia research editor Youki Terada.

In a 2019 study of 212 Dutch students in grades 4 through 6, researchers found that when students taking a math test silently spoke words of encouragement to themselves that were focused on effort—phrases like “I will do my very best!”—their scores improved.
 
In another 2019 study, students read stories about the fears and doubts that peers who had already graduated to the next grades had harbored, and how building positive relationships with friends and teachers helped them cope. This activity had a positive impact on students transitioning into middle school, as they learned that the anxiety they felt was both natural and common.

And in yet another study, immediately before a test high school students did a 10-minute exercise that emphasized how a little stress can be “a beneficial and energizing force” because it can “sharpen focus and aid memory by increasing oxygen flow into the brain,” Terada writes. Students then completed a writing assignment that “helped the students manage the ‘worried thoughts about the possibility of failure’ that often accompany a test, reducing the number of students failing out of the course by half,” Terada notes, “with low-income students seeing the biggest benefits.”

The takeaway from these studies: Try brief metacognitive discussions or simple writing exercises to help students “recognize the commonality of their fears and prepare emotionally and psychologically for looming challenges,” Terada writes.

Link in bio

#TeachersofInstagram
#StudentSuccess
#StudentWellbeing
#StudentWellness
#Metacognition

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## Tags

studentwellbeing, teachersofinstagram, studentsuccess, metacognition, studentwellness

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