Teachers’ perceptions of test anxiety identification and prevention in Lebanese schools in the Greater Beirut area -

Abstract

Teachers play a significant role in the education and character development of students. When it comes to test anxiety, teachers have the power to prevent or minimize it, by virtue of their role responsibilities, which include shaping classroom environments, and teaching cognitive, behavioral, emotive, and study skills. According to the American School Counselor Association (ASCA; 2012), teachers are also a key feature in the identification process of students with test anxiety. It is imperative, therefore, that teachers actively play a part in properly identifying students with test anxiety, as well as helping them overcome it through setting up healthy classroom environments and teaching skills to battle test anxiety. The review of the literature has revealed fragmented and scarce documentation of the student behaviors that teachers perceive as telltale identifiers of test anxiety. Furthermore, while the literature indicated a consensus with regards to the belief that classroom environments affect students’ test anxiety, no studies looked into the practices that teachers undertake to ensure an anxiety-free testing environment. A sample of three teachers from Elementary, Middle School, and High School each, from seven schools in the Greater Beirut area, participated in a descriptive study whereby they responded to a questionnaire aimed at investigating their perceptions and actions with regards to test anxiety identification and prevention. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data.