Taking Tests Can Be a Breeze Posted by Paul Dennison on May 11, 2013 in Memory, Self-Calming, Stress Release, Visual Skills heartsatplay/ Test taking is required of students throughout their school career. And, according to parents and educators in my courses as well as my own reading in the field of modern education, test-taking anxiety is a major challenge for learners around the world. People of all ages have shared with me about how they froze up or otherwise couldn’t think when faced with an important test. And such tests often become a metaphor for similar life experiences, such as being interviewed or giving a presentation. It’s commonly known that, when stress goes up, mental integration goes out. People can’t perform well or fully access what they know when they’re nervous, worried, or in fight-or-flight mode. Writer’s block and test-taking apprehension result from trying too hard, doubting one’s abilities, or feeling oneself to be under pressure to perform. And in my work, I find that people writing under pressure to perform typically exaggerate one-sided habits of movement, avoiding the midfield where the left and right visual fields should overlap for memory access and information processing. For example, in the photo above, three youngsters are exhibiting movement patterns like tilting the head or putting the face so close to the page that they can’t focus with both eyes at once.1,2,3 I’m reminded of an anecdote related to me by a school principal. She was proctoring an exam for fifth-graders when a child approached her to say that she needed to do some Brain Gym® activities in the hallway outside the room, and asked if she could. The principal advised her that this would be okay, but that the test was timed and she’d need to turn in her paper when everyone else did. The young lady stepped out to the hall for a few minutes to do Brain Buttons, the Cross Crawl, Lazy 8s, and Hook-ups, and soon came confidently back into the room, completed her exam, turned in her paper early, and ultimately received a high score. This child knew she could depend on certain kinds of movement to support her relaxation, reconnection, and information retrieval. As that principal pointed out, this youngster knew how to notice her experience and take care of herself; she knew how to do her best without trying. It’s because of feedback like this that I find great satisfaction in teaching people how to do their best under high-pressure conditions. Doing consistent Brain Gym activities helps classroom learners faced with performance anxiety to self-calm, access their sensory skills and whole-body movement, and do their best. A parent will tell me that she knows her child is bright beyond his years and has the answers, yet he can’t seem to put what he knows down on paper—especially during a test. As a teacher, I often respond that modern education gives too much attention to rote memorization or stamping information in, and has lost the true measure of learning: the joy of exploring the rich world, of feeling and senses, in which one lives. Learning is a different experience altogether when we can see our lives as a context for the easy retrieval of information from memory. This is why learners everywhere can benefit from the 26 simple Brain Gym aids to getting the information out.
Posted on: Wed, 24 Jul 2013 23:55:00 +0000
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