The Efficacy of Guided Imagery-Assisted Systematic Desensitization Group Counseling in Reducing Pre-service Teachers' Public Speaking Anxiety

Ely Roy Madoni; Abidatul Mardliyah; Yurike Kinanthy Karamoy

Authors

Ely Roy Madoni Universitas Darul Ulum
Abidatul Mardliyah Faculty of Education and Teacher Training, Universitas Terbuka
Yurike Kinanthy Karamoy Guidance and Counseling Progam, Universitas Islam Jember

Keywords:

Group counseling, guided imagery, pre-service teachers, public speaking anxiety, systematic desensitization

Abstract

Pre-service teachers experience public speaking anxiety as a significant psychological and academic barrier when exposed to teaching practicums. The present study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of Systematic Desensitization Group Counseling with Guided Imagery support in reducing pre-service teachers’ public speaking anxiety. The study was a true experimental study with pretest-posttest control group design. Thirty students who had high levels of anxiety were randomly assigned to an experimental group (n=6) and a control group (n=6). Data were collected by using the adapted Indonesian version of the Personal Report of Public Speaking Anxiety (PRPSA) instrument. Data analysis was performed using the Independent Sample T-Test and Effect Size calculation. The results of the analysis revealed a very significant difference between the experimental and control groups in decreasing the anxiety score (p < 0.001). Calculation of effect size using Cohen’s d resulted in a value of 0.991, which is very large. In summary, the modified guided imagery group counseling intervention of systematic desensitization was highly effective and had a massive impact on suppressing students’ physiological and cognitive anxiety responses. The findings of these studies indicate that the Guidance and Counseling units of universities employ this intervention as a standard mental preparation programme for students before they proceed for teaching practicum

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