"Stress Inoculation"

Whitman, Neal A and others. "Reducing Stress Among Students." Eric Digest. Washington D.C., 1987.

This was a summary digest about a book put out in 1987 that dealt with how to reduce stress among college students. I found this summary to reiterate what other books on stress stated; let the students know what will occur in your course, give meaningful feedback, and acknowledge the fact that stress exists. For a reduced stress environment to occur, teachers need to be proactive and accept the concept that they are mentors to their students. It is important that students don't feel "mismatched" in their classroom environment. Let the students know ahead of time when assignments are due and what will occur in class. In addition, feedback that specifically tells a student how his or her work was and ways to improve it.

Quotes:

-"The key seems to be to make college courses challenging but not threatening." (2)

-"Professors should keep in mind that the goal is not to eliminate all stress but to help students develop a variety of skills to cope with the negative aspects of stress." (3)

-"The guiding principle of stress reduction is 'stress inoculation,' suggesting a preventive approach so that the negative aspects of stress can be avoided."(3)

I hope to be able to access this entire study instead of just the digest version of it because it seems very useful to my action research project of student well-being. This article reinforces the importance of acknowledging the classroom environment in order to allow teachers and students to have control within it. In addition, this concept of specific feedback seems to be a reoccurring them in all aspects of student help.