SOCIAL ANXIETY – AN IMPORTANT FACTOR IN LEARNING SUCCESS

Abstract

An important aspect of learning refers to the fact that the student is not only a cognitive entity, but manifests affective states, motivations, attitudes that influence learning both directly and indirectly. A prerequisite for the success of learning consists in the determination of the students’ state of readiness, assimilated as the level of psychoeducational development. The results of school learning must be viewed under two dimensions: one is informative and refers to understanding some useful information, some intellectual algorithms; the other is formative, and triggers, both the transformation of the student’s cognitive apparatus, and the formation and development of his/her personality. Social anxiety is a factor that can strongly condition success in learning, being the effect of personal, motivational factors, as well as external factors such as: group values, social representations, the richness, and variety of individual experiences allowed by the social environment (Negovan, 2007). In the present study, we have investigated whether there are significant correlations between the level of social anxiety and the students’ school results. 382 students between the ages of 11 and 14, of which 157 boys and 225 girls, from a secondary school in Bucharest answered questionnaires between April and May 2023. The school is located in the urban area, in Sector 3 of Bucharest, and the secondary school includes 17 classes. The students who attend this school come from the areas that are close to the school, making it a “neighborhood school”. The teachers are concerned with the students’ education that goes beyond the school routine, since the interest is not only in intellectual training, but also in socio-emotional development. The results demonstrate that there is a significant inverse correlation between the level of social anxiety and the students’ academic performance. The results of the present research reflect a concern of the community of teachers that seek to create optimal conditions for students to develop their innate potential for learning.