6. How Threats & Stress Affect Learning

"Threats have long served as the weapon of choice to regulate human behaviour. When schools were optional, threats were less relevant; a student who was upset might have simply left. But today, students find that they must endure threats because their presence at school is mandated by law."

What are common threats we make?

• detention
• lowered grades
• loss of school privileges

These kinds of threats aren't always effective, either. This section of the book examines what happens on a biological level.

Stress

When we get stressed, we put our body through the ringer. These symptoms can include depression, weaker immune system, blood pressure, and importantly: the ability to form both short term and long term memory. Not surprisingly, a stressful environment leads to less academic success.

How can we improve this? One study suggests that we modify our classroom space. An interesting experiment was done to modify the lighting to simulate natural light. The regular light bulbs apparently emit bursts of light and a hum that causes stress. 65% fewer students missed class in the natural lighting room. This research carries over to television, finding that the amount of time kids spend watching TV can produce the same kinds of stress and result in the need to wear glasses years earlier than they should have to.

Stress can also result out of social situations. If they do well at home, but not at school, this can be a stresser. Stress also builds out of the many frustrations that can occur in a day as well. That said, we can't get rid of everything, can we?


DISCUSSION QUESTION: How can we modify our school environment to reduce stress, rather than increase it? Think of reasonable short and long-term goals we can put in place to increase our happiness. Threatening Environments:


Making threats against students in a classroom has a negative effect on their learning. Even harsh comments or sarcasm can trigger these imbalances. Those who have been exposed to regular threats, or even violence in the home, may be harder to get under control. They fidget and move as they are constantly scanning the room for threats or predators. Sometimes this can manifest in rude or inappropriate comments ("Get away from me!") because their brains have adapted to survival-oriented behaviour. If we remove these threats from the environment, students will have more success.


Learned Helplessness:

While fairly rare, if students have come to believe they have no worth, it can be hard to get them to change their minds. If this is happening in your space, the following may have occured:

• Trauma: an uncontrollable event (verbal, physical, psychological) like a shooting at a school
• Lack of control: feel like nothing they could do can change a situation
• Decision: a past decision has greatly negatively impacted their life

Certain traumas can rewire the brain. When this happens, lives are changed. The brain must be rewired once again in order to overcome the problem. Just ONE traumatic experience can rewire the brain and it may take many more to put it back.


How do we reduce stress?

• Manage the conditions that students find themselves in
• offer peer support
• relationship skills
• down time

There are three variables we need to consider: threats from outside of class, threats from other students, and threats from yourself. We may have little control over the first, but we can work to improve the second two.


DISCUSSION QUESTION: How can we modify our classroom and our expectations to reduce threats and stress?