Overcoming Anxieties of Young Learners

With the increasing load of studies there is more pressure on the intellect to comprehend pools of information. Understanding subjects becomes harder when you are faced with the mammoth task of grasping and retaining concepts. This can cause anxiety in learners which can inhibit the desire to learn. How does one go about handling this fear of information overload? While discussing information overload it is necessary to point out that more than information it is the fear of understanding that makes the task seem all the more herculean. As there are timetables in schools students may feel overwhelmed by the experience that is about to ensue. Therefore time management skills become the need of the hour. Although time management is crucial to managing learning it can interfere with the learning process. The need to finish an n number of subjects in stipulated hours causes anxiety in learners. So along with the subjects learners can do with time management skills as well. This is where tutors can help by giving individual attention. Firstly the relationship between time and task has to be firmly established. Learning cannot be counted as a task the same way an activity like washing is for in learning the experience is new and hence difficult to predict. But learning also shares a relationship with time. Understanding this relationship will help young learners plan their studies thus reducing anxiety considerably. Cognitive overload is a subjective experience as what may seem to be not much of a load to one learner may appear to be an overload to another. The need to finish studies on time can cause fear of cognitive overload and the attention tends to go out of focus. Tutors teach students how to demarcate time from learning so that one does not cloud the management of the other. In tuition time management is relatively easy as there is more focused attention and the extraneous factors are easier to do away with. In schools however they are difficult to ignore and even the teacher may become a victim of time management overload if not cognitive overload. This automatically plants fear in students and they feel the cognitive overload that may not be there in reality. A tutor needs to know how to address the anxiety issues that students may face because anxiety interferes with learning and also affects the self belief of learners. There are then two effects of anxiety and they are inhibition and distortion. Online Tutoring and mentoring can help alleviate both so that learning is free from extraneous interference.