As Scotland prepares to introduce standardised assessments for pupils as young as 5, new research is raising concerns about the long-term impact of testing on the mental health of children.
The University of Edinburgh findings also suggest that children who are told at school that they perform well because they are intelligent, rather than seeing that their achievements depend largely on effort, may suffer problems with their psychological wellbeing at university.
The research is particularly timely in Scotland, where standardised national assessments will be introduced after the summer at P1, P4, P7 and S3.
Teaching leaders and parents’ groups have previously raised concerns about the strain the tests could put on pupils, although the government has stressed there will be no pass or fail mark, and the exams are not “high stakes”.
The researchers found that students who sail through school believing that they are particularly gifted are not psychologically prepared for the academically tougher environment of university. When they no longer feel as intelligent, the danger is that they may sink into negativity rather than bounce back, according to the findings.
‘Vulnerable to setbacks’
The researchers write: “Children who have grown up being told that they are intelligent, gifted and special (often those who have been identified as high achievers at school) tend to believe that they have a fixed amount of intelligence and are, in fact, the most vulnerable to setbacks.” High-achieving girls are “particularly at risk”, they suggest. The study points to the well-known “growth mindset” work by the psychologist Professor Carol Dweck, of Stanford University in California, as a way of building resilience and making young people less vulnerable to mental health problems.
Her work encourages children to see that intelligence is not predetermined, and that hard work can help them to master concepts seemingly beyond their reach.
However, the University of Edinburgh researchers say testing can leave pupils with the opposite impression. They raise “concerns about the repeated pressure on schools to increase testing and bring in formal teaching and comparative assessment in mathematics and English at a younger age”. Amid this pressure, pupils are in greater danger of developing a “fixed mindset” about their intelligence, which researchers are now linking to “significantly poorer mental health”.
The researchers say it is “crucial that this issue be considered when curriculum and teaching/assessment strategies are developed at the highest (government) level”.
Views of intelligence as either fixed or fluid are “influenced by the type of praise given by parents and teachers and the ways in which we assess young people”, says the research, based on a cohort of 148 University of Edinburgh veterinary students. Vet students tend to have strong academic backgrounds and are susceptible to poor mental health.
‘Unhealthy’ competition
The research shows an association between the participants’ belief that their level of intelligence is fixed - an idea often reinforced by schools’ testing regimes - and their psychological wellbeing. Undergraduates with a belief that their intelligence is “fixed” have “significantly poorer psychological wellbeing” in five out of six areas measured, according to a paper published in the Journal of Veterinary Medical Education.
The researchers call for the impact of common teaching and assessment methods to be communicated better to schools and parents. They believe that educators should focus on giving detailed feedback, rather than using assessments that encourage students to measure success by competing against peers.
Of the students, the researchers write: “Throughout their lives, doing well compared to others is what they have been encouraged to aim for and they believe that this will improve their self-esteem.”
A Scottish government spokeswoman said: “We recognise the impact that anxiety about school work can have on children, which is why health and wellbeing is a key priority of the Curriculum for Excellence.
“All adults working in schools are responsible for supporting and developing mental, emotional, social and physical wellbeing to support successful learning and happy lives.”
She added: “As we have made repeatedly clear, the new standardised assessments are not a return to high-stakes testing - they will simply help check progress in literacy and reading, automatically generating information for teachers on where a pupil is doing well and where further support may be required.”
Mental health problems such as depression and anxiety are becoming more common among UK university students.
