ISA TIANHE PYPX 2024
Academic Pressure
Meet The Team
My name is Allen, I am 10 years old, and I have been in ISATH since I was year 3. I am Charles, I am 11 years old, and I have been in this school for almost 5 years. I am Charlotte, I am 11 years old, I have been in ISATH for almost 3 years. I am Rosie, I am 10 years old, and I have been in ISATH since I was 5 years old. Our group focused on academic pressure. We chose this topic because we are all experiencing it and we want every student to learn happily. We also want to inquire about the impact of academic stress on students and how to manage it.
Our
Central Idea:
Academic pressure affects students in different ways.
Our Lines of Inquiry:
1.Academic pressure.
2. The impact of academic pressure on students.
3. Ways to manage academic pressure.
Key and Related Concepts
Summarise your key and related concepts. How are they connected to your project?
1
Form
2
Causation
3
Perspective
4
Behavior
5
Communication
6
Wellness
7
Family
Balanced
We should be balanced because we should both have worktime and rest times so that we won't feel so tired.
Caring
We should improve on our caring skills so we can care about each other in our PYPX.
Open-minded
We haven't been not open-minded right now, but in the future when we have any conflict, we want everyone to be open-minded and to forgive the mistakes that you and your team-mates made.
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Thinker
We should improve on our thinking skills so we can come up with more ideas in our PYPX.
Learner Profiles
Field Trip
In our field trip, we went to ISA Nansha School and had an interview with Keira, Peter, Rodger, and Sunny. These students are highly recommended by Ms. Beth and Mr. Sanders. Our goal was to get to know what academic pressure means to students from different grades.
Our first interviewee was Keira, who is currently studying in high- school. She thought that academic pressure meant a feeling of discomfort because of essays or tests. There are councilors at her school that helped students release their pressure, which she found effective. She said that if you have some amount of pressure, you will be motivated. However, if the pressure gets too much, you will be over-stressed. Keira also mentioned that listening to music, writing lyrics, and singing songs can help students to relax and reduce their academic pressure.
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Peter was the second student we interviewed, and he is also studying in high school like Keira. He defined academic pressure as a feeling of stress when you try to achieve. He feels tired because he cannot fall asleep when he is thinking about the pressure. He thought that academic pressure will affect student’s mental health by depression and disorder. When he is under pressure, he will talk to the councilors in his school to help him release the pressure, and he thinks this is a good method to help him release it. Also, he likes to list down the things that he thinks are the most important and plan the thing in order to help him organize the time well. He said that when students feel stressed, they will get angry easily. He also thinks that a little pressure can make you motivated.
Further on, we interviewed Rodger, a grade 9 student who has just come to this school from a public school. His own understanding of academic pressure is a situation when you did not do well on your academics. He thought that the biggest impact of academic pressure on him is not having enough sleep, because his brain is filled with schoolwork. Rodger also suggested talking to others, exercising, trying hard and forgetting about all the work at school can help you manage pressure.
Lasty, we interviewed Sunny, and he defines academic pressure as nervousness of getting lower grades than his peers and classmates. He thought that his parents gave him some pressure, but he could try to talk to them to solve those problems. He gave us some advice: just follow your own path and do not think about others, and never look down on yourself. He would do his hobbies and play basketball while he felt stressed or under pressure.
After all, we interviewed four students from high school, and we got a lot of useful information from four different backgrounds. Keira and Peter are always learning in international schools. Rodger just came to international school last year, and before last year he was studying in public school. Sunny’s mum and dad are working at an elevated level in the company. They are all different.
Research Essay
Do you experience academic pressure? Is it bothering you? Steve Waugh once said, “The key to handling academic pressure is to enjoy it when you’re confronted with it rather than worry about it too much.” Academic pressure affects us all in both positive and negative ways. You might feel academic pressure when you have too much homework or want to get higher grades than your peers and so on. The positive impacts of academic pressure are increasing motivation, achieving higher grades, and high self–esteem. On the other hand, it may also cause some negative effects. These include increasing levels of stress which causes anxiety and developing a negative attitude towards school and teachers. It can also lead to lower grades because students do not want to learn anymore. In this essay, we will discuss how academic pressure affects students in different ways and some useful tips to cope with it effectively. If you’re experiencing academic pressure now, this essay is perfect for you!
According to the website ‘Transformations Mental Health Therapy’, academic pressure is a situation where students get overwhelmed by educational goals. It is the pressure put on students from extended periods of studying and high-grade expectations. In McCauley’s article, she says that academic pressure is defined as a state of worry caused by a difficult situation. Pressure is a natural human response that makes us face challenges in our lives. Many people experience it everyday, so it’s OK to feel academic pressure as long as you manage it well. Academic pressure can come from various sources. Such as people around you, homework, schools, exams and competitions. Based on ‘What are the effects of academic pressure on students? Answers from Research papers. (n.d.). SciSpace - Question.’ The effects of academic pressure on students' learning performance can vary, depending on different factors. We conducted a survey in class and 42% of students think that most of their pressure comes from exams, tests and homework. So now you know what academic pressure means, so keep reading to find out more about it!
Academic pressure can have both positive and negative impacts on students. We did a survey to gather information about how students feel about their academic pressure in daily life. They were sent to the whole ISA community, with 187 responses. 55% of people surveyed think that academic pressure has a positive impact on them. They feel motivated and get higher grades. 73% of people think that stress is needed to success academically. Surprisingly, more people think that academic pressure affects them in a quite helpful way. We also interviewed four high school students to learn about how academic pressure influences students from higher grades. According to our interviews, two of our interviewees – Peter and Keira, think that academic pressure is necessary for success. Keira mentioned that she thinks that if you have academic pressure now, then you can cope with other kinds of pressure when you grow up, because there is much more pressure when you grow up, like family, money, and so on. Peter thinks that a little bit of pressure will push you forward and make you feel motivated, but not a big deal. On the other hand, about 11% of people think that they feel overwhelmed by pressure, and they feel so stressed. They do not know how to cope with their pressure and are not able to calm themselves down. Additionally, from our interviews, there are negative results too. Just like Keira had mentioned, she will get really confused when she is overwhelmed by academic pressure. Peter also said when he feels stressed, he doesn't know how to communicate with others, and gets angry easily.
If you can manage your pressure, it is affecting you positively. Knowing how to cope with your pressure is especially important. Most of the people surveyed said that they will do their hobbies to help them release their pressure. Also, the results showed that many of them liked to talk to their friends, parents, family members, teachers, counselors and friends. It has been scientifically proved that doing your hobbies such as reading and writing can be amazingly productive because you are relaxed and feel good when you are doing things you like. An interviewee, Sunny, motioned that he likes to play basketball when he is stressed. Study also shows that when you exercise, your body will release endorphins, which can help you calm down. According to the website ‘Managing Academic Stress: Academic Support and Learning Advancement - Northwestern University. (n.d.). Northwestern’, spend some time each day on fun activities that can help reduce your pressure. Lastly, do express your feelings to your friends, family members and teachers to help you manage your pressure. From our survey, 37% of the surveyed people think that their friends are the best to help them manage their pressure.
So, now you see that academic pressure can have a positive impact when you manage it well by finding time to enjoy hobbies, ask others for help, meditate, or try to relax. It can also have a negative impact on you if you cannot cope with it. For instance, increasing stress, unhappiness, lower grades, etc. So, to know how to cope with academic pressure is extremely important. After reading our essay, we hope you can manage academic pressure very well and learn more about academic pressure. In the end this essay, we will leave you with a little thought by Hans Selye, ‘it’s not stress that kill us, it’s our reaction to it.’
Survey, Interview & Action
For our action, we first did a survey and sent it to the whole ISA community. We want to know how people from different grades feel about academic pressure.
Next, we went to ISA Nansha to interview some of the students there:
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As a result of our research, we decided to take action. we made an academic pressure buddy system to help the students that are overwhelmed by academic pressure and help them live a happy childhood.
Charlotte
I have contributed to our team by making the action poster, and manage the time well. We always worked as a team.
Charles
I am very proud of myself, because I contributed to my group and I cooperate with my team mates well.
Allen
I did well in preparing our group's interview questions and finding pictures for the journal etc. However, I think I need to take more responsibilities and focus on my tasks.
Rosie
I have contributed to my group by helping to manage our time wisely, put information on the website and to think about the interview and survey questions. We finished everything on time and we made plans for what we should be doing.
Team Gallery
Now we would like to share a mindful meditation that could help you manage stress.
Bibliography
Throughout our research process, we consulted a wide range of sources, please see the list below:
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Advancement - Northwestern University. (n.d.). Northwestern
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At-Home ABA Therapy for Autism - Ambitions ABA. n.d.
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https://typeset.io/questions/what-are-the-effects-of-academic-pressure-on-students-ud1g3v6g9a
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https://www.google.com/searchsca_esv=fd217a6fdf803106&rlz=1C1CHBD_en__1021__1021&q=videos+about+academic+pressure&tbm=vid&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjCptiU9YaEAxUFzjQHHQgDCkQQ0pQJegQIDhAB&biw=1280&bih=593&dpr=1.5#
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-learning/academic-resource-directory/find-strategies-for-success/managing-your-academic-stress.html
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Managing Academic Stress: Academic Support and Learning
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McCauley, M. P., Minsky, S., & Viswanath, K. (2013). The H1N1 pandemic: media frames, stigmatization and coping. BMC Public Health.
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Mental health worksheets & handouts. (2024, January 31). Mental Health Center Kids.