If there’s one thing that everyone in education— from students, to parents, to teachers, to administrators— seems to agree on presently it’s that the recent increase in testing is stressing students out. In fact, in a recent online survey of 22,000 high school-age youth, conducted by the Yale Center for Emotional Intelligence and Lady Gaga’s Born This Way Foundation, one of the most common responses to the question of how do you currently feel in school was “Stressed” (29%). For many students, this stress causes cognitive, emotional and psychological symptoms, which can negatively impact test performance.
Dr. Joseph Casbarro, author of the book Test Anxiety and What You Can Do About It, recently completed a new laminated reference guide for NPR, Inc. on this topic, entitled, Test Anxiety: Strategies to Improve Student Performance. This guide, available in early January 2016, presents a dozen strategies that teachers and parents can use with students to help them overcome excessive test anxiety.
Among the strategies recommended is mindfulness and meditation. The guide describes mindfulness— a state of active, open attention to the present— and offers a quick-start meditation for cultivating mindfulness, as shown below. It also provides links to many additional mindfulness resources. Mindfulness has wide-ranging benefits for children of all ages, as well as adults (teachers, administrators, parents). In addition to the exercise referenced below, check out some of these other excellent resources for beginners.
- Mindfulness Meditation Guided Practices: http://www.mindful.org/mindfulness-meditation-guided-practices/
- Body scan for kids (instructions with audio): www.mindful.org/mindfulness-meditation-guided-practices/#kids
- Guided meditations for teens (audio): http://mindfulnessforteens.com/guided-meditations/
- Five-minute mindfulness guided meditation: www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEzbdLn2bJc
- Mind Space (www.meditationinschools.org) Free resources for teachers to download, including audio recordings, scripts for teachers to read, and even a free app.
Quick Start Mindfulness Meditation
Establish the correct posture (bottoms of feet on floor, straight but not stiff upper body, hands at the top of your legs with arms at side, chin dropped slightly, downward gaze or eyes closed), then simply follow your breath as it goes in and out. When you notice your attention wander, simply return it to the breath, without judgment. Start with a couple of minutes (2-3) then work up to 10 minutes or more (set a timer). Encourage students to practice at home regularly as well.
