PROFESSIONAL
PRACTICE
portfolio
TEACHER NAME: MARJOLEIN KOOPMANS
DATE: 20 JAN 2023
,Table of content:
Advisory note ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 2
Link to professional product ---------------------------------------------------- 8
Work field test report ------------------------------------------------------------ 9
Communication ------------------------------------------------------------------- 17
Elevator pitch slides ------------------------------------------------------------- 18
Reflection report ----------------------------------------------------------------- 19
The problem in a nutshell: stress reduction for students stressing before their English
speaking exams at VWO level.
1
, 1 -Advisory Note
Introduction:
This advisory letter is to suggest a solution to a profession-related problem. Teachers deal student related
problems. The problem that is going to be addressed is students failing their English-speaking exam. In the past
2 years, teachers noticed that students do well during class but when it comes to the test day, they ruin
everything and don’t do well. English teachers figured out that the cause of this is stress. Students do well on
all other English test parts except for the speaking part. English is not their first language, but they do speak at
the required level during class. The intended people for this note is English teachers at a general secondary
school who teach VWO 6. The product is intended for English teachers and mainly students. The age group of
the students that they teach is between 16 -18. This product will be made to educate teachers on ways to
reduce students’ stress levels before their English-speaking exams. Once teachers learn how to reduce stress,
they can start to help their students during mentor hour. Every Thursday English teachers hold an intervision
moment to discuss all the problems they face with students and try to look for solutions. There are 5 teachers
in the English section. During the intervision, one of the English teachers mentioned stress problems that
students face. The idea came up from this problem. Period A courses taught a lot about stress and how to
reduce it and they are going to be used in creating this product. In order to investigate this topic, VWO 6
English teachers were interviewed, articles about stress were researched and others with figures, and a book
called Psychology in education was used.
Problem description:
The current situation is that VWO 6 students are preparing for their final speaking exam. It is a very important
component of the English test. All English teachers teaching VWO 6 try to prepare them for the test by
providing speaking exercises and practices during class. They also offer VWO 6 students one-to-one practice
sessions so that the students practice the feeling of the real test. Students just had their mock test, and many
of them surprisingly did not do well on the test. The English teachers were shocked because the students were
well-trained and were fully ready for the test. All English teachers know that they are top students. The
teachers asked the students why they think they failed their mock test, some said they did not sleep well,
others said they were not used to the teachers who assessed them, and others said that it is from stress,
“Adolescents are especially vulnerable to the negative effects of stress due to developmental factors”
(Erbe,2015). Teachers expected zero stress because it is just a mock test and students know that it has no
influence on their final exams. It seems that stress has a big influence on students’ performance on their
speaking exams. Based on the CBS statistics in the Netherlands, 49.3% of students experience moderate levels
of stress during exams (Botor, 2019) . This problem is important to be solved to avoid failures. It is good to
solve the problem from the beginning, the sooner the better. The more the students stress, the less they
perform on the test; this is shown in the bell curve below. The bel curve suggests that there has to be some
stress and when the stress is optimized the performance can be high (Sage, 2015).
2
PRACTICE
portfolio
TEACHER NAME: MARJOLEIN KOOPMANS
DATE: 20 JAN 2023
,Table of content:
Advisory note ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 2
Link to professional product ---------------------------------------------------- 8
Work field test report ------------------------------------------------------------ 9
Communication ------------------------------------------------------------------- 17
Elevator pitch slides ------------------------------------------------------------- 18
Reflection report ----------------------------------------------------------------- 19
The problem in a nutshell: stress reduction for students stressing before their English
speaking exams at VWO level.
1
, 1 -Advisory Note
Introduction:
This advisory letter is to suggest a solution to a profession-related problem. Teachers deal student related
problems. The problem that is going to be addressed is students failing their English-speaking exam. In the past
2 years, teachers noticed that students do well during class but when it comes to the test day, they ruin
everything and don’t do well. English teachers figured out that the cause of this is stress. Students do well on
all other English test parts except for the speaking part. English is not their first language, but they do speak at
the required level during class. The intended people for this note is English teachers at a general secondary
school who teach VWO 6. The product is intended for English teachers and mainly students. The age group of
the students that they teach is between 16 -18. This product will be made to educate teachers on ways to
reduce students’ stress levels before their English-speaking exams. Once teachers learn how to reduce stress,
they can start to help their students during mentor hour. Every Thursday English teachers hold an intervision
moment to discuss all the problems they face with students and try to look for solutions. There are 5 teachers
in the English section. During the intervision, one of the English teachers mentioned stress problems that
students face. The idea came up from this problem. Period A courses taught a lot about stress and how to
reduce it and they are going to be used in creating this product. In order to investigate this topic, VWO 6
English teachers were interviewed, articles about stress were researched and others with figures, and a book
called Psychology in education was used.
Problem description:
The current situation is that VWO 6 students are preparing for their final speaking exam. It is a very important
component of the English test. All English teachers teaching VWO 6 try to prepare them for the test by
providing speaking exercises and practices during class. They also offer VWO 6 students one-to-one practice
sessions so that the students practice the feeling of the real test. Students just had their mock test, and many
of them surprisingly did not do well on the test. The English teachers were shocked because the students were
well-trained and were fully ready for the test. All English teachers know that they are top students. The
teachers asked the students why they think they failed their mock test, some said they did not sleep well,
others said they were not used to the teachers who assessed them, and others said that it is from stress,
“Adolescents are especially vulnerable to the negative effects of stress due to developmental factors”
(Erbe,2015). Teachers expected zero stress because it is just a mock test and students know that it has no
influence on their final exams. It seems that stress has a big influence on students’ performance on their
speaking exams. Based on the CBS statistics in the Netherlands, 49.3% of students experience moderate levels
of stress during exams (Botor, 2019) . This problem is important to be solved to avoid failures. It is good to
solve the problem from the beginning, the sooner the better. The more the students stress, the less they
perform on the test; this is shown in the bell curve below. The bel curve suggests that there has to be some
stress and when the stress is optimized the performance can be high (Sage, 2015).
2
