INSPECCIONES Y PRUEBAS

We identify three prominent research objectives of studies applying relaxation exercises techniques within the learning environment: improving the students’ psychological state, the students’ physiological state or the students’ academic achievement. While some studies have focused on all three aspects ( e.g. Barber, 1982; Matthews,1983; Benson et al., 2000; Deckro et al., 2002 ), there are also studies which have looked at one or two of the identified objectives (e.g. Johnson, 1982; Britton and Virean, 1999).

Several studies have suggested that there is a positive relationship between relaxation exercises and students’ performance within the classroom environment. Barber (1982) reported that relaxation sessions in a college management class led to some academic acceleration, improved morale in students' daily lives. Johnson (1982) found that short term relaxation exercises training improved 6th grade children’s spelling scores. The same pattern was observed by Gamble et al. (1982), who studied the effects of relaxation and music upon creativity in adults. They found that the experimental group exposed to both music and relaxation exercises showed the greatest improvement in creativity when compared to the comparison group and the music only experimental group.

Similar outcomes were observed in Matthews’ (1983) study. The study consisted of 532 grade seven students in 10 elementary schools who each received 15 minutes of relaxation training every day for a period of nine months. He concluded that there was a positive correlation between relaxation exercises as the independent variable and children’s self-concept, discipline and achievements. In another study, Britton and Virean (1999) demonstrated that relaxation and positive affirmation intervention significantly decreased test anxiety in college students. A slightly different approach has been used in a Hollywood school in the USA. They incorporated yoga instruction into the physical education class as a means to ease tension in stressed-out children (Marshall, 2002). It is reported that students in these classes obtained better grades.

More comprehensive experiments which have also lead to encouraging results can be found in several of Benson’s and his colleagues’ empirical studies. In one experiment, Benson et al. (1994) studied the relationship between a positive psychological characteristic: the student’s self-esteem and their perceived locus of control, and relaxation exercises. Using a randomised strategy, students in the experimental group were exposed to a relaxation exercises curriculum which was added to the general health curriculum whereas the comparison group received no relaxation exercises. Exposure to the relaxation exercises curriculum resulted in significant increases in self-esteem and locus of control scores. Furthermore, teachers’ observations indicated a high degree of student acceptance of the relaxation exercises training. Hence, it seems that the incorporation of relaxation exercises into the curriculum may be a practical way to increase students’ positive psychological attitudes.

In a later experiment, Benson et al. (2000) studied the relationship between the

relaxation response curriculum and academic achievement amongst middle class

students. Teachers were trained to teach the relaxation exercises curriculum and self- care strategies to their students. Four measures of academic outcome were analyzed: grade point average, work habits, cooperation, and attendance. The results of the study showed that students who had more exposure to the relaxation exercises curriculum showed an improvement in their grade point average scores, work habit scores and cooperation scores over the course of a two-year period (Benson et al., 2000).

Benson et al.’s (2000) findings were further explored by Deckro et al. (2002). In their study, they examined the effect of 6 weeks of relaxation exercise intervention on college students’ physiological stress and anxiety levels. One hundred and twenty eight students were randomly assigned to an experimental group (n = 63) or a comparison group (n = 65). The experimental group received six 90-minute group training sessions using the relaxation response and cognitive behaviour skills. The Symtom-Checklist-90-Revised, Speilberger State-Trait Anxiety inventory, and the Perceived Stress Scale were used to assess the student’s psychological state before and after the intervention. Ninety students (70% of the original sample) completed the

significant reductions in psychological distress, state anxiety, and perceived stress between the experimental group and the comparison group.

Recently, there has been an attempt to develop commercial computer-based relaxation exercise software which has produced a positive result (TestEdge, 2003). TestEdge®, has developed the software which integrates positive-emotion focused and relaxation exercises techniques as a way to tackle and improve users’ affective state anxiety levels. Results from a three week pilot study amongst groups of high school students, revealed that the students who used the software were observed to record a 35% improvement in math scores and a 14% improvement in reading scores.

Nevertheless, there have also been a substantial number of studies which have produced contrasting results. Stricherz and Stein (1980), for example, investigated the effect of relaxation, relaxation and musical background, a body awareness technique and a guided fantasy technique on a recognition task. They reported that none of these conditions were more effective than the control condition when students were tested after a period of 48 hours. In another study, they found that 12 progressive relaxation exercises sessions over a six week period failed to improve the reading scores among a group of disabled boys.

Using the Jacobson (1938) relaxation method on 48 undergraduate students, Job & Depamo (1991) studied the relationship between relaxation exercises and students’ anxiety levels and learning performance. Results from this study revealed that there was no significant difference in anxiety level and learning gain between the control and the experimental groups. In a similar fashion, Gaines (2005) conducted a study to examine computer anxiety and its relationship to four interventions including relaxation exercises. They found that relaxation treatment was ineffective in reducing computer anxiety levels among subjects in the study.

In view of this inconsistency, Felix (1989) has suggested two explanations. Her first argument centred on the non-standardised procedure and the difficulty level of the task. She pointed out that while some of the studies required subjects to do one-off relaxation session (e.g. Depamo & Job, 1991; Gaines, 2005), others have used relaxation exercises in several repeated sessions, which provided extra practice for the subjects (e.g. Barber, 1982; Deckro et al., 2002). Consequently, the latter approach is more likely to produce a better result in improving participants’ affective states. This is consistent with the findings by Benson et al. (2000) who pointed out that subjects in their studies enjoyed the benefits of relaxation exercises only after a fair amount of practice.

The second explanation for the difference in outcomes is due to the difficulty or complexity of the tasks. For example, Matthews (1983) looked at a simple recognition task, while others such as Depamo & Job (1991) applied the technique to a more complex and difficult task. It is therefore, plausible that an increase in a task’s difficulty impacts on how far the students are able to improve in their learning performance.

A more comprehensive explanation of this issue is offered by the Houston Independent School District (Gaines, 2005). They have identified six potential problems with relaxation exercise studies:

1. There were too few training sessions. Due to this, they argue that the participants were unable to efficiently perform the relaxation session and this had a negative repercussion on the participants’ affective states.

2. Little follow-up beyond treatment. They argue that the benefit of the relaxation exercise last only during the treatment session. However, in some of the studies, the measurement of relaxation exercises sessions were taken far beyond the treatment period where the effects of the relaxation exercise has become less valuable.

3. No longitudinal examination of the cumulative effects of different relaxation training strategies used in the relaxation studies.

about the relaxation session because different researchers may have provided different treatment under the rubric of the same procedure.

5. Lack of clear rationale for the participants. In some experiments, voluntary participants sometimes felt there was no reason to improve their performance. As a consequence, a certain level of emotional state failed to be elicited and this may also have decreased the effectiveness of relaxation exercises session. 6. Examining the average effect of relaxation exercises of the group rather than

the individual within the group. This approach, they argue, meant that the researchers were unable to record important information about how individuals reacted to the relaxation session.

In summary, a substantial amount of research on the application of relaxation exercises across a wide spectrum has been presented. There is significant evidence to support the premise that relaxation exercises can be useful in reducing participants’ negative affective state (e.g. Barber, 1982; Matthews, 1983) and in enhancing their academic achievement (e.g. Benson et al., 2000; Deckro et al., 2002). Nevertheless, there are also several studies which report the failure of relaxation exercise in improving participants’ affective state or in enhancing their academic achievement (e.g. Stricherz and Stein, 1980; Depamo & Job, 1991).