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Handling the worry of making mistakes

Feeling worried ahead of performances, such as tests, presentations or creative tasks, is common in school settings. According to stress research, particularly Lazarus and Folkman's theory of stress and coping, stress arises not solely from the situation itself but from how the individual interprets and handles it.

Stress as interpretation and appraisal​

Lazarus and Folkman describe stress as a process in which the individual makes two central appraisals:

  • Primary appraisal: How important or threatening is the situation?
  • Secondary appraisal: Do I have the resources to cope with it?

When a student experiences that the demands exceed their own resources, stress and worry arise. This means that two students can react completely differently to the same situation depending on how they interpret it.

"Wrongly adjusted glasses" – cognitive interpretations​

The metaphor of glasses can be linked to research on cognitive distortions. Under stress, students tend to interpret situations in a one-sided or negative way:

  • Selective attention: focusing on what went wrong
  • Catastrophising: assuming that small mistakes have large, long-term consequences
  • Overgeneralisation: interpreting one failure as a pattern

These thought patterns affect both emotions and performance. They act as "filters" that distort reality rather than reflect it.

Coping: strategies for handling stress​

According to Lazarus and Folkman, individuals use different strategies to handle stress, known as coping. These are usually divided into two main types:

Problem-focused coping This is about trying to influence the situation, for example by:

  • planning one's work
  • practising more
  • asking for help

Emotion-focused coping This is about handling the emotions that arise, for example by:

  • accepting that you feel worried
  • reinterpreting the situation
  • using relaxation or attention exercises

Both types are important and complement each other in a school context.

Control and acceptance – two key concepts​

Modern research in psychology often highlights the balance between control and acceptance:

  • Control is about identifying what the student can actually influence (e.g. preparation, effort, strategies).
  • Acceptance is about being able to relate to what cannot be controlled (e.g. the exact test questions, how you feel on the day, others' assessments).

When students try to control things that cannot be controlled, stress often increases. Distinguishing between these two instead can contribute to better self-regulation.

Mindfulness and attention​

Mindfulness-based perspectives emphasise the ability to observe thoughts and emotions without automatically reacting to them. For students, this can mean:

  • noticing worry without getting stuck in it
  • directing attention to the task here and now
  • reducing the influence of negative thought spirals

Research shows that such approaches can reduce performance anxiety and improve concentration.

Not being able to remove worry – but changing your relationship with it​

An important insight from both stress and learning research is that worry cannot – and does not need to – be eliminated. A certain level of arousal is in fact functional and can increase focus and performance.

What is central instead is how the student relates to their worry:

  • seeing it as a sign of danger
  • or as a natural reaction to something important

This reinterpretation can reduce the negative effects of worry.

Implications for teaching​

For teachers, this means that students may need support in:

  • understanding how thoughts affect emotions and performance
  • identifying what they can and cannot control
  • developing both problem-focused and emotion-focused strategies
  • practising noticing and handling worry without avoiding challenges
  • normalising that mistakes and uncertainty are part of learning

The focus is not on removing worry, but on developing strategies for handling it in a functional and sustainable way.