Some tips for teachers to reduce student anxiety

Almost half of students surveyed last fall at Champlain College St-Lambert said that managing stress and anxiety was already challenging before entering CEGEP.

Counsellors from Champlain gave a presentation entitled Helping Students Manage Anxiety on Jan. 11 at Intercollegiate Ped Day. The survey revealed that 47% of students surveyed are managing stress and anxiety and 20% intended to seek support.

Anxiety is the leading cause of coming to get help, they said. Higher anxiety leads to lower marks. Teachers can look for a lack of engagement and participation, which can be signs of anxiety in students.

Presenters Jane LeBrun, Debra Polomeno, Rebecca Cohen as well as two current Champlain students shared some tips for teachers to reduce the anxiety of their students:

• Normalize making mistakes.
• Be flexible with assignments. For example, a teacher can drop the worst mark out of all the quizzes
• Don’t add to the midterm and end of semester rushes. Try to space out assignments and evaluations.
• Give a student one late pass. In other words, allow a student to submit one assignment late with no questions asked.
• Opt for more quizzes instead of one big evaluation.
• Provide sample evaluations from past years.
• Allow students to make appointments in addition to drop-in office hours.
• Reduce anxiety through course design by creating negative space for catching up.
• The curve of learning in a course needs dips and a big dip at the end of the semester.
• Refer students for support and let them know about college and community resources.