7 Tips for reducing student anxiety in the classroom

One of the greatest mental health concerns for young people is anxiety, which is on the rise according to reports by NSCH. Because anxiety can often manifest as disruptive behavior in your classroom, it’s important to think about strategies to keep everybody safe.

1) Building strong connections

“…one major threat to students’ sense of belonging at school is their perception of negative relationships with their teachers.”
~ Andreas Schleicher

It’s easy to cut our losses with difficult students and focus on the students who aren’t difficult to manage in our classrooms. However, those challenging students can be the ones who would benefit the most from developing strong connections with their teachers.

Taking proactive steps to foster better relationships may include:

• Being empathetic towards students
• Calling home to discuss a student’s needs
• Being mindful to treat students equally
• Knowing the signs of anxiety in children and teenagers
• Building a support network (parents/teacher/school/counselor)
• Increasing positive interactions with the student
• Promoting tolerance, respect, and safety in your classroom

If you are fortunate enough to work in a supportive school environment, ask for help if you need it. Reach out to your colleagues or administrative staff for classroom support for students and objectively document concerns on your school’s student records to help develop behavioral support plans.

2) Assigning classwork

For some students, seeing all the work that needs to be done can make them feel overwhelmed and unsure of where to begin. Anxious students will also be reluctant to ask for help, and we can mistake this for laziness and disruptive behavior.

Lesson planning to reduce anxiety can involve:

• Teaching/Modeling relaxation techniques
• Teaching appropriate problem-solving techniques
• Breaking down activities into smaller parts
• Providing more instruction/structure/assistance for struggling students
• Making accommodations when completing activities
• Allowing short breaks
• Ensuring opportunities for success

Remind them that your expectation is for them to make a strong effort in class. Discuss personal goals for the class and encourage them to view their achievement of those goals as a success.

3) Providing advanced warning

Research consistently shows that “when students are low in perceived control, they are more likely to engage in counterproductive behavior…”. Knowing what to expect can really help to reduce a student’s anxiety.

Make sure there are no stressful surprises by:

• Creating a visual activity board/writing a daily schedule
• Providing detailed unit/assessment/test schedules
• Checking in at regular intervals
• Implementing predictable, structured procedures
• Allowing extra time for transitions
• Briefly overviewing tomorrow’s lesson
• Having a signal for when they need clarification

Implementing daily classroom routines can assist whole classroom management because it removes confusion about your expectations. It’s also beneficial to have a tested procedure during challenging times you can confidently fall back on.

4) Reducing fear of failure

Fear of failure and looking stupid can be paralyzing, and has been linked to student disengagement, truancy, and feelings of helplessness. Unfortunately, our education system focuses on testing and obtaining limited skillsets, which can set students up to fail.

Reframing the idea of success as growth and improvement involves:

• Focusing on achievable goals
• Learning from our mistakes
• Developing skills
• Seeing improvements
• Making a good effort
• Perseverance
• Increasing self-belief
• Seeing the relevance of learning

If our students do these things in our classroom, they are succeeding—or more importantly, not failing. Ideally, teachers, parents, and guardians should be working together to achieve this.

Teachers are responsible for:

• Driving this narrative
• Providing the necessary support
• Providing appropriate feedback
• Developing learning strategies
• Evaluating strategies with students
• Working collaboratively with mental health colleagues

Parents are responsible for:

• Talking to their child about their anxiety
• Modeling appropriate behavior
• Setting achievable goals
• Encouraging improvements
• Providing support
• Seeking professional assistance

Understanding the counterproductive strategies students use to avoid completing work due to anxiety about failure can help you teach more positive and productive behaviors to build success.

5) Asking for help

Your goal should be to eventually remove any anxiety that your student has about asking for help during class. Acknowledge that the work is challenging, but with help, they can do it.

Approaching this goal takes time and requires being sensitive to their needs, which may include:

• Using non-verbal cues
• Regularly checking-in
• Writing down the questions they have for you
• Designating short, individual meeting times
• Allowing them to work with a friend

Explain to your students that when they encounter an obstacle, your expectation is for them to voice what precisely they need help understanding. So rather than saying, “I can’t do this.” Instead, “I need help reading this page because a few of these words are difficult.” When your student can solve problems on their own, give them plenty of positive reinforcement to build their confidence and independence.

6) Reframing misperceptions

Statements like “I hate art” often reflect a student’s difficulty with an aspect of the work overtaking their perception of the entire subject and their approach to it.

Once your student identifies specific areas of difficulty that cause anxiety, you can offer him specific strategies to alleviate that anxiety, such as:

• Focusing on existing strengths
• Targeting weaknesses
• Developing skills
• Developing healthy class self-talk
• Comparing perceived to actual task difficulty
• Breaking task components into categories (I like it/It’s OK/I don’t like it)
• Not avoiding the source of difficulty

Responding to your student’s anxiety, rather than reacting to it, allows you to show them that their feelings are valid. This part is tough, but there are steps we can take to handle it!

7) Promoting persistence

“A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new”

~ Albert Einstein

Students need to feel motivated to keep trying even when they aren’t achieving the best results. Teachers who emphasize achieving personal goals can promote feelings of success through effort, as opposed to focusing on graded performance in class.

Encouraging your students to see the value in continued effort can be aided by:

• Using a reward system (listen to music/class movie day)
• Providing accommodations/scaffolding learning
• Awarding bonus grades for effort
• Differentiating assessment items
• Providing fast, genuine feedback
• Using reinforcing language

Teaching students to push outside of their comfort zones helps them grow and become more capable. Just like skills in basketball or football are learned and practiced, their skills in completing classwork and taking exams must also be practiced and developed over time.