The Effect that Fear of Public Speaking Has On NNMC Students’ Performance in Classes

1. The Effect that Fear of Public Speaking Has On NNMC Students’ Performance in Classes Oliver Gallegos Northern New Mexico College Department of Integrated Humanities and Social Sciences; Psychology Concentration • Students of public speaking will report having more thoughts about dropping out of school. • Students who are asked to read aloud in the classroom will report cases of being nervous and afraid to read. • Students involved in competitions will report experiencing anxiety during a competition. • Students will report anxiety during class presentations. • Null hypothesis: Fears of public speaking, competition, presenting, and/or reading allow do not affect student academic achievement in the class. Results Ethics and Discussion Abstract • All respondents were notified that any and all feedback provided on the survey is anonymous, confidential and voluntary. • The dependent variable for this research is whether or not math and public speaking student reported fear of participation affecting their performance within the classroom. See Table 2 for percentages on this dependent variable. • In analyzing the quantitative data, 18 respondents disagreed experiencing some sort of anxiety during a test, while the other 12 respondents agreed with experiencing anxiety. The average rating for this data was 2.57% indicating that a large amount of respondents do have anxiety when it comes to test taking. • The qualitative research indicated that 16 respondents agreed that they have previously experienced a bad situation when reading aloud in the classroom. This qualitative data supports one of my hypotheses which states that students who are asked to read aloud in the classroom will report cases of being nervous and afraid to do so. • This research will have an exploratory purpose to investigate students at Northern New Mexico College who suffer from phobias that prevent them from participating in, and around, college classes • A purposive sample was used in the sample selection process for all Northern New Mexico College classes that were surveyed • The total number of respondents is N=30 • The qualitative research indicated that 19 respondents agreed that they have previously experienced a bad situation when reading aloud in the classroom. Conclusions • The N size is small so this data are suggestive rather than confirmatory. It is really interesting that the main hypothesis of this study was contradicted by the data. • The main hypothesis was that the fear of public speaking would affect the student’s performance in class, and that the purposive sample of public speaking class as compared with a math class would express more fear and more avoidance. • This data do not support the hypothesis. Instead, the null hypothesis must be accepted, that fears do not affect student performance. • More research needs to be done, with a larger sample size to confirm. • One suggestion is that perhaps students enrolled in public speaking class reported less fears and performance inhibitions because they were enrolled in a public speaking class which helped to allay their fears. Data Collection and Methods Introduction • This research will investigate students at Northern New Mexico College who suffer from phobias that prevent them from participating in, and around, college classes. Since phobias can be linked to psychological disorders, that fit into numerous categories of psychological research including: current, classical, and abnormal research studies. • Sigmund Freud is the classical theorist of the classical conditioning of phobias. • Panic disorders are experienced by students before college and may become worse upon entering college. Due to this students may show significant change in their behavior. Students must be aware of the symptoms of panic disorder and treatment available for it. When the disorder is untreated during crucial time, student life can have serious consequences. Students may isolate themselves from others; they may have difficulty in attending classes or drop out of school completely (ADAA, 2011). • This is a one shot case study, utilizing survey methods of data collection. • A purposive sample was used in the sample selection process for all Northern New Mexico College classes that were surveyed. • Two classes were chosen to survey using a purposive or judgment sampling. The sample size for this research is N=30. • One class that participated in filling out surveys for my research was public speaking ,course #20393, surveyed on February 25 2014 at 9:00 a.m. The Instructor- for the class was Frederick Goshom. • The next class that participated in filling out surveys for my research was basic algebra, course #20238, surveyed on February 27 2014 at 10:00 a.m. The instructor for the class was Orlando Leyba. • Table I: Include Sample chart or table • While the N size is small therefore this data are suggestive rather than confirmatory. • I feel that a purposive sample, also commonly called a judgmental sample, is one of the best for my data collection because participants are selected based on the knowledge of a population and the purpose of the study. The subjects are selected because of some characteristic. In this case because students are actively attending college courses. • All quantitative questions were implemented and measured using a Likert scale. References Theory • Babbie, Earl R. The Practice of Social Research. 13th ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning, 2013. Print. • ADAA. (2011). Information for Parents: Helping a College Student with an Anxiety Disorder. Retrieved from http://www.education.com/reference/article/Ref_Information_Helping/ It is my theory that students who are affected by phobias are more likely to drop out of college. Phobias can possibly be the number one reason college students do not complete their declared degrees. I feel that students let the fear of competition, test taking, public speaking, and other phobias associated with college get the best of them. Acknowledgements Hypotheses • students who report higher fears of public speaking will report lower grades in speech classes. • Students who report higher fears of public speaking will report lower grades in conversation classes. • Students who report higher fears of public speaking will report having missed class due to a required public speech. I would like to thank Orlando Leyba and Frederick Goshom instructors at Northern New Mexico College for allowing me the opportunity to survey their classes. Also axcknowlege the Student Success Center and its staff for allowing us access to a computers all semester.