{"id":1386,"date":"2025-04-09T23:27:41","date_gmt":"2025-04-10T03:27:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/?p=1386"},"modified":"2025-04-09T23:27:41","modified_gmt":"2025-04-10T03:27:41","slug":"the-best-and-worst-ways-to-respond-to-student-anxiety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/baldwin-clt-teaching-times\/teaching\/the-best-and-worst-ways-to-respond-to-student-anxiety\/","title":{"rendered":"The Best (and Worst) Ways to Respond to Student Anxiety"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Sarah Rose Cavanagh<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full article available here<\/a>. Excerpts below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

… “Regardless of the cause, faculty members are faced with the dilemma of how to respond to anxiety in ways that are empathetic yet respectful of the learning goals we have set for all of our students. One of the key points of contention is how to deal with anxiety spurred by that staple of the college classroom: the student presentation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Clashing sides argue, on the one hand<\/a>, that student presentations are outdated and perhaps even harmful to those suffering from anxiety, and, on the other<\/a>, that facing one\u2019s anxieties not only can be a productive learning experience but also a potentially therapeutic one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a college instructor who has suffered from lifelong clinical anxiety, I believe that I can speak to the issue from an unusually conversant position.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

… “Midway through my college career I realized that I had accidentally assembled half of a women\u2019s-studies minor, and figured why not earn it officially. In those courses, we read parts of Mary Pipher\u2019s seminal book<\/a>, Reviving Ophelia: Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls,<\/em> and I saw in those pages my life history. We tackled the cultural brainwashing about gender roles that I realized had played a role in the loss of my own voice \u2014 my transition from a boisterous and opinionated child to a reserved, participation-reluctant adolescent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But most important, my women\u2019s-studies instructors took participation quite seriously. The course syllabi regularly awarded something like a third of the grade to class participation, and the instructors announced in the very beginning of the semester that no one would get an A in the class without contributing in class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such pronouncements pit my anxiety against my nerdy pride \u2014 my previous professors would dole out As despite my lack of participation \u2014 and pride won. The first few times I raised my hand and contributed something, I couldn\u2019t hear myself speak at all, so loud was the roaring in my ears. I teared up. I probably turned scarlet. But I participated, and then I participated again. Each time was a little easier. I regained my lost voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My experience maps perfectly on what psychologists know is the most effective treatment for anxiety: controlled exposure in a safe setting.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

… “What my women\u2019s-studies courses offered was not just the demand that I participate but also a classroom environment in which I felt nurtured and valued \u2014 both by the professors and by my fellow students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Developing that sort of classroom is critical. Many experts in the scholarship of teaching and learning have offered research and advice on how to do it:<\/p>\n\n\n\n