Managing Stress in Education: Practical Strategies for Students and Teachers

Stress is an unavoidable part of life in any educational setting – and it affects both sides of the classroom. Students face mounting academic pressure, deadlines, and social challenges, while teachers navigate heavy workloads, administrative demands, and the emotional labor of supporting dozens of learners every day. Research shows that K-12 workers have one of the highest burnout rates of any industry, and peer-reviewed studies confirm that teacher stress negatively affects not only educators’ own wellbeing but also student achievement. Understanding stress management – what it is, how it works, and how it can be taught – is therefore one of the most practical skills for anyone in education.

What is stress management? 🔗

Stress management refers to the set of techniques and strategies used to handle the demands that exceed a person’s perceived resources. As Simply Psychology explains, stress arises when individuals perceive a gap between a situation’s demands and the resources available to meet them. Stress management, then, is the active effort to close that gap – either by addressing the source of pressure directly or by regulating how we respond to it emotionally.

It is important to note that not all stress is harmful. A manageable level of stress can sharpen focus and motivate action. The goal of stress management is not to eliminate stress entirely but to prevent it from becoming chronic and damaging. In educational settings, this means equipping students and teachers with a working toolkit of strategies they can draw on depending on the nature and intensity of the stressor they face.

Core stress management techniques 🔗

Mindfulness and deep breathing are among the most thoroughly researched approaches. A scoping review published in PMC found that mindfulness-based interventions – alone or combined with yoga or cognitive behavioural therapy – consistently led to reduced stress levels among teachers. Even brief daily practice has measurable benefits. According to Acacia University, taking just a few minutes each day to center oneself through meditation or breathing exercises can significantly reduce anxiety and improve focus for educators.

Time management and prioritisation are equally essential. Notion for Teachers recommends tools like the Eisenhower Matrix – a simple framework that sorts tasks into urgent/important categories – helping educators make deliberate choices about where their energy goes rather than reacting to everything at once.

Physical activity is another proven strategy. PBIS Apps notes that physical movement reduces stress hormones and releases endorphins, making it both a mood lifter and a direct stress reducer. This applies to students and teachers alike. Incorporating short movement breaks or encouraging active seating in classrooms can make a practical difference within the school day.

Social connection and professional support also matter. UNICEF’s guidance for teachers emphasises connecting with supportive people, seeking help from management or professionals, and maintaining routines as key buffers against stress. Research cited by WGU shows that teachers who build strong collegial relationships and engage in caring behaviors toward others are less likely to experience the negative health effects of stress.

Setting boundaries between work and personal life is a strategy that is often undervalued. Acacia University points out that resisting the urge to check emails after school hours and dedicating time to rest, hobbies, and relationships is essential for sustaining energy over the long term. A well-rested teacher is, quite simply, a more effective one.

Problem-focused vs. emotion-focused coping 🔗

One of the most influential frameworks in stress psychology is the distinction between two broad approaches to coping, first introduced by Lazarus and Folkman in 1984. Their model identifies two fundamental strategies: problem-focused coping and emotion-focused coping. Understanding the difference helps both educators and students choose the right tool for the right situation.

Problem-focused coping 🔗

Problem-focused coping involves directly tackling the source of stress. It works like everyday problem-solving: identify the problem, generate possible solutions, weigh the options, and act. For instance, a student struggling with an upcoming exam who sets up a study schedule, seeks tutoring, and speaks to their teacher is using a problem-focused approach. This type of coping is most effective when the stressor is within the individual’s control and can realistically be changed. ScienceDirect’s overview confirms that problem-focused coping encompasses both cognitive and behavioral efforts to alter the stressful situation itself.

Emotion-focused coping 🔗

Emotion-focused coping, by contrast, targets the emotional distress that accompanies a stressor rather than the stressor itself. According to OpenStax Psychology, this can include distancing oneself from a problem, reappraising a situation more positively, or engaging in activities that temporarily relieve tension. It is particularly effective when the stressor is outside one’s control – such as a bereavement, a health crisis, or institutional constraints that cannot be quickly changed. For a teacher dealing with top-down policy changes they cannot influence, focusing on managing their emotional response is far more productive than attempting to solve what cannot be solved.

Which approach is better? 🔗

The answer depends on the situation. A landmark yearlong study by Folkman and Lazarus found that in 98% of stressful situations, people used a combination of both strategies. Crucially, the effectiveness of each approach hinges on how controllable the stressor is. For controllable stressors – exam preparation, workload management, classroom planning – problem-focused coping tends to yield better outcomes. For uncontrollable ones, emotion-focused coping is more adaptive. The practical takeaway for educators is to first assess whether a stressor can be changed, and then choose accordingly. Teaching students to make this distinction is itself a powerful stress management skill.

Building resilience in students 🔗

Beyond individual coping techniques, the longer-term goal in education is resilience – the capacity to recover from adversity and continue functioning effectively. The American Psychological Association defines resilience as the ability to bounce back through mental, emotional, or behavioral flexibility in the face of negative events or changes in demand. Importantly, psychological research confirms that resilience is not a fixed trait – it can be cultivated and practiced.

The role of the school environment 🔗

Research published on ResearchGate highlights that schools play a critical role in nurturing resilience by providing safe, supportive environments and strong student-teacher relationships. Children, the research notes, cannot cope with challenge without supportive bonds with caring adults, peers, and school staff. This makes the quality of relationships within a school – not just its academic programmes – a direct determinant of student wellbeing.

A large study published in Springer’s Higher Education journal, drawing on data from over 1,000 university students, found that students who engaged in active learning activities and whose teachers provided clear goals and expectations were significantly more likely to be resilient. The teaching environment itself, in other words, is a resilience-building tool.

Developing a growth mindset 🔗

One of the most well-evidenced strategies for building student resilience is cultivating a growth mindset – the belief that abilities and intelligence can be developed through effort and learning from mistakes. The Online Learning Consortium recommends that educators reinforce this by framing feedback constructively, emphasising process over product, and adding simple language shifts – such as the word “yet” – to turn statements of inability into statements of potential. Feedback like “This is a great first draft; let’s build on what you have” positions a setback as a step, not a failure.

Teaching problem-solving as a coping skill 🔗

Strong problem-solving skills are one of the primary contributors to academic resilience. According to the Online Learning Consortium, when students learn to break academic challenges into manageable steps and explore solutions systematically, they build confidence in their ability to cope and adapt. Pedagogical methods like case-based learning, real-world problem tasks, and structured reflection directly strengthen these skills. Research in Frontiers in Psychology also confirms that resilience positively predicts the use of problem-focused coping strategies, which in turn are associated with greater academic engagement and reduced burnout.

Social support as a protective factor 🔗

A PMC study on social support and resilience found that strong support from parents, teachers, and peers correlates with reduced loneliness and depression and higher self-worth in students. Positive teacher-student relationships, in particular, have been shown to directly enhance children’s resilience. Schools that intentionally build a sense of community – through peer collaboration, mentoring, and structured belonging activities – are therefore doing resilience work, even when it is not framed in those terms.

Classroom check-ins and emotional awareness 🔗

Students do not always seek out support when they are struggling. PBIS Apps recommends that teachers incorporate structured daily check-ins as a routine – whether through a quick written form, a simple visual mood scale, or another low-barrier method – so that emotional states can be monitored and responded to before they escalate. Chronic stress, as PBIS notes, is often at the root of disruptive behavior; giving students an outlet for their emotional experience is a preventive measure as much as a supportive one.

Self-care modeling by teachers 🔗

Teachers who actively model healthy stress management send a powerful message to students about the normalcy of struggle and the value of coping. A University of Queensland study published in PMC found that a structured wellbeing program for early career teachers – incorporating mindfulness, peer discussion, and practical stress reduction strategies – produced sustained reductions in stress and improved coping, with benefits persisting at a three-month follow-up. When schools invest in teacher wellbeing, they are also investing in student resilience.

The evidence is clear: stress management in education is not a soft add-on. It is a foundational skill that shapes how students learn, how teachers teach, and how well both groups sustain themselves through the pressures of academic life. Equipping classrooms with practical coping strategies, a nuanced understanding of when to tackle a stressor directly and when to regulate emotions first, and a deliberate focus on building resilience from early on – these are not merely wellness goals. They are educational ones.

What do you think? How well does your school or institution currently support stress management for both students and teachers – and which approach do you find most effective in your own practice: addressing the source of stress directly, or first managing your emotional response to it?

References

1. https://everfi.com/blog/k-12/strategies-to-support-stress-management-for-teachers/
2. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10178023/
3. https://www.simplypsychology.org/stress-management.html
4. https://acacia.edu/blog/9-simple-stress-management-techniques-for-teachers/
5. https://www.notion4teachers.com/blog/stress-management-techniques-for-teachers
6. https://www.pbisapps.org/articles/10-strategies-to-combat-stress-in-the-classroom
7. https://www.unicef.org/stories/self-care-tips-for-teachers
8. https://www.wgu.edu/blog/9-stress-management-strategies-every-teacher-needs-know1712.html
9. https://openstax.org/books/psychology-2e/pages/14-4-regulation-of-stress
10. https://courses.lumenlearning.com/waymaker-psychology/chapter/regulation-of-stress/
11. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/problem-focused-coping
12. https://www.themantic-education.com/ibpsych/2022/03/14/emotion-focused-vs-problem-focused-coping-strategies/
13. https://dpi.wi.gov/sites/default/files/imce/sspw/pdf/Building_Student_Resilience_Quick_Guide.pdf
14. https://researchgate.net/publication/383544749_Building_Resilience_in_Students_Strategies_for_Coping_with_Stress_and_Adversity
15. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10734-025-01484-2
16. https://onlinelearningconsortium.org/olc-insights/2025/05/rising-through-resilience/
17. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7928383/
18. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10886063/
19. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8430586/