A study released by the University of Chicago this week suggests that a stress hormone triggered during math testing can affect how high-ability students perform. For some, the hormone causes math anxiety and poor performance. For others, the hormone leads to excitement at the thought of a challenge, heightened awareness, and high scores.
"'We found that cortisol, a hormone released in response to stress, can either be tied to a student's poor performance on a math test or contribute to success, depending on the frame of mind of the student going into the test,' said Sian Beilock, associate professor in psychology at UChicago and one of the nation's leading experts on poor performance by otherwise talented people,
"Students with lower working memory exert relatively less mental effort to begin with, researchers found, so taking a stressful test didn’t drastically compromise their performance. Among people with large working memories, those who were typically the most talented, rising cortisol either led to a performance boost or a performance flop — depending on whether they were already anxious about math,"
This may not be news to some parents of gifted children: your child studies and knows the material, yet bombs the test. Each gifted student handles testing in
his or her own way, just as there are many types of giftedness. Gifted children
, like all children, are emotionally complex, and
can be prone to "overexcitabilites" such as anxiety. Too often, when a child is bright in one area, adults expect them to be bright in all areas. This can lead to a pressure cooker of expectations on the child.
So, what to do
with your overexcitable learner? Help your child with stress relief before a test. Reinforce what they are good at,
support them when they are feeling overwhelmed, and if they struggle with testing, help them to
practice without a clock.
More stress relief tips can be found here.
For even more information, check out the book by Sian Beilock:
"Choke: What the Secrets of the Brain Reveal About Getting it Right When You Have To".
Does your gifted learner sometimes come down with a case of math anxiety? Do you have stress relief tips that have worked for your child? We would love to hear them.
