Book Description

This study investigated whether training students in self-regulated learning strategies will have a differential effect on the students" test anxiety and their ability to cope with test situations. One hundred and forty two students took the Test Anxiety-Inventory (TAI) as a pretest. Those who scored 50 and above on the TAI were considered test-anxious. The final sample consisted of 79 (34 males and 45 females) second secondary students from two private schools in Si don. Lebanon. The experimental group received training in five self-regulatory strategies that are mostly related to test anxiety: self- instruction, goal-setting and planning, self-monitoring, reviewing records, and organizing and transforming. After the last training session, students in the experimental and control groups filled in the Test Anxiety Inventory as a posttcst and responded to seven questions on coping with test situations. The data was analyzed by using a two-way analy sis of variance ANOVA to investigate the effect of training in self-regulated learning strategies on test anxiety (TAI) scores and the interaction effect of training and levels of test anxiety (high, low). For the coping with test situations questions, the number of individuals* reported thought patterns, steps, and strategies related to test situations were transformed to frequencies. These frequencies, in turn, wrere transformed to percentages computed relative to the number of students in each of the experimental and control groups. The findings in this study show that the training provided was effective in decreasing test anxiety scores. Moreover, students with high and low levels of test anxiety were not affected differentially by the training, finally, students in the experimental group had [letter coping strategies in dealing with test situations than those in the control group. The results of this study were discussed in terms of self-regulation and test anxiety theories.