Efficacy of psychodrama on test anxiety among secondary students

ABSTRACT

The present study focuses on the efficacy of psychodrama on test anxiety of students among secondary school, with reference to students suffering from mathematics anxiety. Five secondary school pupils, aged 15–18 years, took part in 10 group sessions of 90 min, held weekly over a period of about 6 weeks. The changes generated by psycho¬drama therapy in the pupils’ problem areas, such as, high stress levels before tests, impaired working memory, low self-esteem and motivation to learn mathematics, were measured with the help of the Personal Questionnaire (Elliott and Shapiro, Simplified personal questionnaire procedure, 2012) and the Self-efficacy scale— Mathematics, two quantitative measuring instruments, and with the Client Change Interview, a qualitative measuring instrument. The results of the data collected in¬dicate that psychodrama treatment brought forth significant changes in some pupils’ problem areas, thus, test anxiety.



Keywords Psychodrama • Mathematics anxiety • Mathematics self-efficacy • Working memory • Motivation to learn mathematics • Personal questionnaire • Self-efficacy scale—mathematics