DIFFERENTIAL EFFECTIVENESS OF RATIONAL BEHAVIOUR THERAPY AND ENHANCED THINKING SKILL ON PRIMARY SCHOOL PUPILS' EXAMINATION ANXIETY
Test anxiety can easily make pupils distracted during an examination and making them having trouble in organizing or recalling information. And as such, they end up failing a test when they have the required mental capacity to pass such test. Thus, this study examined the effect of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT) and Enhance Thing Skills (ETS) to remedy the effect of examination anxiety among students at Primary Schools within the Ikenne local government of Ogun state, Nigeria. The population for the study were public primary school pupils in Ikenne LGA of Ogun State. Stratified random sampling technique was used to select two schools while purposive sampling was used to select the participants. The study adopted a pre-test and post-test quasi-experimental research design consisting of two treatment groups. Sarason's Reaction to Test Anxiety Scale and Rotters' Locus of Control Scale were the instrument used for data collection. A total number of two hundred and seventy-six pupils participated in the study. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to analyse the seven hypotheses formulated at 0.05 level of significance. The results revealed a significant difference in the effect of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) and Enhanced Thinking Skills (ETS) in reducing examination anxiety among primary school pupils (F(1,273) = 10.031; p = .009 < 0.05). It was concluded that the treatment packages could be used as veritable tools in equipping students with necessary skills in dealing with too much anxiety during examination that may interfere with their concentration on the test, thus enhancing student performance in examination.
Enhance Thing Skills, examination anxiety, Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy, primary school, pupils