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Self confidence writing helps students

A recent article in the New York Times documents that black students in seventh grade performed a series of confidence-building writing assignments and it improved their school performance through the eighth grade.

Researchers doing the study that was published in the journal Science were surprised by the results of the study because the writing assignments were simple 15-minute exercises but had long-term results. The assignments had significant results for black students who had been struggling in class, but made no different for black or white students who were already doing well in school.

The research was conducted by Geoffrey L. Cohen, a social psychologist at the University of Colorado. Dr. Cohen had seventh graders in Connecticut schools do the confidence-building writing assignments three to five times through the school year. It had the children identify values that were important to them and to write why those values were so important. In previous studies, a similar exercise was found to reduce stress and the fear of failure in students.

According to the journal Science, over 2 years, the grade point average (GPA) of African Americans was, on average, raised by 0.24 grade points. The experience was conducted three times with three independent cohorts. Low-achieving African Americans were particularly benefited. Their GPA improved, on average, 0.41 points, and their rate of remediation or grade repetition was less (5% versus 18%).

Dr. Cohen said the writing assignment reminded students that their self worth did not depend on their grades or even a single test or assignment, but on the values they feel are important to their lives.

Dr. Cohen and his co-authors Julio Garcia of Colorado, Valerie Purdie-Vaughns of Columbia University, and Nancy Apfel and Patricia Brzustoski of Yale University, found that the students who benefitted from the assignment felt they were better students than the students who did the control assignment.

Although the issue of race was not mentioned in the writing assignment, the authors of the study feel that the reason black students did better is because they have more anxiety over academic performance because of racial stereotypes. Previous research has shown that reminding minorities of stereotypes can affect their performance on a variety of tests.

According to the article, Dr. Cohen thinks that this kind of writing assignment can benefit all students who are anxious about taking tests, and that is another area of study for the future. For more information, E-mail: cohen.geoff@gmail.com.