Brittany Thomas
September 15, 2014
ECED 3271
Fall 2014
How Threats And Stress Affect Learning A student’s academic success in school is typically measured based on their individual progress in the classroom. Educators sometimes make the mistake of assuming a student’s achievements coincide with their effort, desire, and ability to learn the required material. These classifications seem simple to us, yet they are much more complex than that. The success or failure of students in school can be directly affected by various factors, which include but are not limited to, socioeconomic status, learning disabilities, or even a lack of motivation. However, the largest contributor of all of these factors is stress. Excess stress and threat has been proven to have a detrimental effect on students’ performance in the classroom. Although educators strive to help students cope with stress there are measures that can be taken to minimize stress and establish a better learning environment for all students. Chronic stress and threats directly affect the brain of students. Stress can derive from issues in students’ home life, relationships, academic, or even physical development. When we stress a hormone called cortisol is released. Chronic stress leads to elevated levels of cortisol, which has harmful effects to our bodies and can lead to memory loss, weakened immune systems, and can also impair students’ ability to sort out what is important and what is not. As a result, if a student is more occupied with worrying about problems at home or school, this will hinder them focusing on curriculum.
Threats in school can also affect a student’s performance in the classroom. Our brains are triggered to respond quickly to fear and threats by shifting our attention directly to the source of the problem, affecting the way we think and feel. Students who experience high levels of threat and stress are typically those who come from households of violence. Students dealing with threats are the most difficult to gain attention from because they are constantly scanning the room for potential predators or prey, which is a result of survivor orientated behavior. Threats may exist in the home, school, or even in the classrooms and it is up to educators to minimize the effects of stress and threats. There are proven stress and threat reduction methods that I would love to incorporate into my classroom. One approach for reducing the stress of students could be to teach stress management techniques and also integrating them with different lessons. Some students experience anxiety and stress from test so instead of assessing students by test formats, students can be assessed through the use of drama, games, or discussions. There was also a study by psychiatrist Wayne London that proved that doing something as simple as switching the lighting in classrooms from fluorescent lighting to natural lighting can have a significant impact on students’ stress level and mood. I will also be aware of threats in the classroom and strive to minimize my own use of threats to students. Instead of threating students with use of punishment for their misbehavior I’ve learned that asking what you want with out adding a threat on the end can be just as effective. To reduce threats among students I will make sure to establish clear classroom expectations and behavior, model them, and enforce classroom rules. Incorporating group activities among students also is a great way to minimize threats and ensures students meet and work with each other in various leadership roles. Stress and threats have a detrimental effect on students’ learning in the classroom. Students are faced with many factors that are stressful to them and can hinder them from learning, whether its socioeconomic issues, violence in their household, or even personal relationships. Threats are also common in student dealing with stress. Although there are stressful issues students cope with that are beyond our control, as educators we must provide an environment where students can learn, be engaged, and feel stress and threat free.

References
Jensen, E. (2005). Teaching with the brain in mind (2nd ed.). Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.