In today's world, success at school is becoming increasingly important. From the earliest grades, students are made aware of the importance of grades and academic achievement. Academic achievement is very important for employment opportunities and future careers, so students are exposed to the pressures and demands of evaluative situations from parents, school and society at large. In such an environment, students often suffer from anxiety disorders, which are among the most common mental health problems in children and adolescents. They manifest themselves in various forms, such as separation anxiety, generalised anxiety and other forms. A common cause of anxiety disorders is excessive worry about failure/success at school, fear of teachers and the stress of written and oral knowledge tests. In this master's thesis, we focus on test anxiety as one of the specific forms of anxiety in school, i.e. students' anxiety about exams and assessments. Despite the extensive research in this area, the problem of test anxiety in students with dyslexia, which is considered one of the most common specific learning difficulties associated with reading and writing difficulties, is still less researched. Numerous studies have identified a link between dyslexia and test anxiety, with test anxiety being a possible secondary consequence. Many students with dyslexia face daily obstacles and problems at school that prevent them from succeeding despite their potential. The consequences can be seen in low self-esteem, which leads to a negative self-image.
The main aim of the master's thesis was to investigate the research, identify and compare the level of test anxiety between students with and without dyslexia in relation to their self-esteem. The sub-objective is to find out how teachers assess students' self-esteem and test anxiety and to compare the students' self-assessment with the teachers' assessment.
In the empirical part of the master's thesis, the self-image and the degree of test anxiety as well as the differences between the two groups of students were analysed and compared with the teachers' assessment. We used a survey technique with two scales: the Children's Test Anxiety Scale (CTAS, Wren and Benson, 2004; Slovenian adaptation and translation: Rajšp, 2016). Test anxiety scale for children – CTAS and Piers-Harris Self-Concept Scale (Piers-Harris Children's Self-Concept Scale; PHCSCS; Piers-Harris, 1969 Slovenian adaptation: Lamovec, 1994). Based on the student rating scales we also created two scales for teachers. We analysed a sample of 6th to 9th grade students (N = 136) and a sample of teachers (N = 63). Students were evenly paired by grade, each pair consisting of one student with dyslexia and one classmate without dyslexia. Each student in the sample was also assessed by their teacher, who rated their level of test anxiety and self-esteem.
The results of the master's thesis show that the self-esteem and test anxiety of students with dyslexia differ from the self-esteem and test anxiety of students without dyslexia. The self-esteem and test anxiety of students with dyslexia also differ from the self-esteem and test anxiety of students without dyslexia as assessed by teachers. We confirmed the correlation between self-rated self-esteem and students' test anxiety and the correlation between teacher-rated self-esteem and students' test anxiety. However, the correlation between self-esteem rated by teachers and self-rated self-esteem was weaker. However, the correlation between the students' self-assessed test anxiety and the teachers' assessments was not apparent or recognisable from the results.
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