Test Anxiety and Performance in the Framework of the Conservation of Resources Theory

ABSTRACT The assessment of student learning can be seen as an essential component of evaluating the effectiveness of learning while test anxiety is a major predictor of academic performance. The effects of test anxiety on performance have first been explained by the Yerkes-Dodson law and later by interference and learning-deficit models. In order to get a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of assessment on student's test anxiety the conservation of resources theory (COR theory; Hobfoll, 1998) is introduced which does not only stress individuals' perceptions but also takes environmental contingencies into account. More detailed examples of the application of COR theory in the context of different assessment processes on the individual and group level is given. Further, future directions for integrating COR theory into best practice models to enhance students learning development are discussed. KEYWORDS: test anxiety, performance, conservation of resources theory. INTRODUCTION Identifying factors influencing student learning and performance is a major goal for teachers and educational researchers. Test anxiety is a major predictor of performance and various studies have demonstrated its detrimental effect (Zeidner, 1998). Test anxiety can be defined as a students' reaction to testing or evaluating situations. The potential impact seems to differ from how and by whom the assessment is done, in which way it affects the educational career and also how it is perceived by the person assessed. The assessment of student learning can be seen as an essential component of evaluating the effectiveness of learning in an organization. The effects of test anxiety on performance have first been explained by the Yerkes-Dodson law. Other explanations followed the interference and learningdeficit models. The interference model focuses on the mediating role of negative thoughts on the anxiety-performance linkage. According to the learning-deficit model, students with high test anxiety tend to use inadequate learning skills while in the preparation stage of test taking. Due to their theoretical underpinnings, however, all these models look at anxiety in an individualistic manner. In order to get a more comprehensive understanding of the impact of assessment on student's test anxiety the conservation of resources theory (COR theory; Hobfoll, 1998) is introduced which does not only stress individuals' perceptions but also takes environmental contingencies into account. COR theory makes it possible to look at both, teachers and students simultaneously and combines the aspects of psychosocial wellbeing of teachers and students with different categories of assessment. Foremost, the effects of test anxiety on performance have been depicted as a curve by Yerkes and Dodson (1908), the so called Yerkes-Dodson curve. Up to the summit of the curve, anxiety can be adaptive because it motivates students, and improve their functioning. Beyond the optimal level, anxiety is considered maladaptive as it causes distress and impairs functioning. In general, high test anxiety is more closely associated with lowered performance in low-ability students than in their high-ability counterparts (Hembree, 1988). Two key components of test anxiety are cognition and emotion. Liebert and Morris (1967) suggested test anxiety to be composed of worry and emotionality. Worry was conceptually identified as cognitive expression of concern about one's own performance, while emotionality referred to autonomic reactions which tend to occur under examination stress. Negative effects of test anxiety on academic performance have been explained by two models: the interference model (Sarason, 1986) and the learning-deficit model (Naveh-Benjamin, McKeachie, & Lin, 1987). According to the interference model, anxious students are distracted due to worrying and task-irrelevant cognitions and the learning-deficit model proposes that it is students' ineffective study habits during preparation for a test that leads to anxiety and less performance on the test. …