Public speaking anxiety: The S.A.D. implications for students, transition, achievement, success and retention
Public speaking anxiety, as an aspect of social anxiety, while not necessarily constituting a social anxiety disorder (S.A.D. is widespread in society. This paper considers the largely unspoken equity issue of public speaking anxiety, its prevalence, symptomology and potential implications for students in higher education and the future. A small pilot research project was undertaken as a preliminary step to understand local conditions and open up a space for ongoing and extensive research in the Australian context. The preliminary findings suggest the social anxiety and public speaking anxiety may impact negatively on student engagement with oral communication assessments and that further research is needed to develop better support and training. We suggest that to assist students to transition, achieve, succeed and persist we need to adhere to the notion of constructive alignment which takes account of personal competencies and mitigates psychological distress.