School Counselling Plan for Academic Anxiety: A Case Study

Abstract

It is common for students to experience anxiety related to their assignments or other academic tasks. The objective of the present study was to develop a school counselling plan and to explore its effectiveness in addressing academic anxiety and improving study skills. The study used a single case study research design and the participant was a 12-year-old girl struggling with academic difficulties, time management issues, memorizing lessons, fear of making mistakes while reading and anxiousness. Informal assessment included semi-structured interviews with the informants and the student, behavioral observations, subjective ratings, academic assessments including written, oral, and conceptual evaluations, and formal assessment included the administration of Study Anxiety Scale (SAS) (Maqsood & Ijaz, 2013) and Paired Association Learning Test (PALT) (Mahmood & Sheikh, 1989). The results of the assessment showed a noticeably high academic anxiety, indicating that the client had severe anxiety related to her academic tasks and situations. A school counselling plan was developed keeping in view the idiosyncratic needs of the client. The counselling plan included rapport building, psychoeducation, mind mapping, ABC model, reinforcement, SQ3R, chunking, thought feeling connection, relaxation exercises, star breathing exercises, coping cards, positive coping statements, dictionary concept, activity scheduling, ABC technique for time management, and social skills training. A total number of 12 sessions were conducted. The client's presenting difficulties were improved as per follow-up assessments. This improvement demonstrated the effectiveness of school counseling plan in reducing the difficulties associated with lack of study skills.