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Cognitive-Behavioural Intervention for Test Anxiety: Could Teachers Deliver the STEPS Program and What Training Would They Require?

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Handbook of Stress and Academic Anxiety

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Abstract

High levels of test anxiety have been shown to be damaging for educational achievement, wellbeing, and mental and physical health. Given the relatively high number of adolescent students reporting high levels of test anxiety, there is a profound need for interventions to equip these students with effective test anxiety management skills. In this chapter, we describe one such intervention (STEPS: Strategies to Tackle Examination Pressure and Stress), the evidence for its effectiveness, and recent work to develop an updated version (STEPS 2.0). We discuss whether school staff could be effective in the delivery of interventions for test anxiety. They are in an advantageous position by virtue of their understanding of the school ecology and, with appropriate training, have the potential to considerably broaden access to test anxiety intervention. We finish the chapter with a consideration of the initial training elements required for school staff.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, Liverpool John Moores University, Liverpool, UK

    David W. Putwain, Emma Rainbird & Christine Roberts

  2. Department of Psychology, University of Essex, Colchester, UK

    Reinhard Pekrun

  3. Institute for Positive Psychology and Education, Australian Catholic University, Sydney, Australia

    Reinhard Pekrun

  4. Department of Psychology, University of Munich, Munich, Germany

    Reinhard Pekrun

Authors
  1. David W. Putwain
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  2. Reinhard Pekrun
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  3. Emma Rainbird
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  4. Christine Roberts
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Correspondence to David W. Putwain .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Integrated Mental Health Care (CIMHC) Federal University of Sao Paulo, São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Luiz Ricardo Vieira Gonzaga

  2. Pontifical Catholic University of Campinas, Campinas, São Paulo, Brazil

    Letícia Lovato Dellazzana-Zanon

  3. University of Sorocaba – UNISO, São Paulo, Brazil

    Andressa Melina Becker da Silva

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Putwain, D.W., Pekrun, R., Rainbird, E., Roberts, C. (2022). Cognitive-Behavioural Intervention for Test Anxiety: Could Teachers Deliver the STEPS Program and What Training Would They Require?. In: Gonzaga, L.R.V., Dellazzana-Zanon, L.L., Becker da Silva, A.M. (eds) Handbook of Stress and Academic Anxiety. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-12737-3_25

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