Understanding Stereotype Threat in Computing Education

1. Stereotypes & Stereotype Threat • Affect Computing Students National Center for Women & Information technology (NCWIT), J. Mcgrath Cohoon & the Academic Alliance

2. Stereotypes Are Good … • Mental shortcuts for generalizing knowledge to other situations

3. And Stereotypes Are Bad … • They can lead to mistakes, or miscategorization African Americans • with modification by Cohoon 2012

4. Common Stereotype: Feminine ≠ Technical • Lagesen 2005

5. Race, age, body mass, … all have associated stereotypes Example: Who scores higher on math tests? -White male engineering students? -Asian male engineering students? • Stereotypes Aren’t Just About Gender

6. Stereotypes Can Create Threatening Situations • Fear of confirming negative beliefs about my group … • Hinders performance • Affects choices and aspirations • Leads to harsh personal standards, opting out if not met • Correll 2004; Chasteen et al. 2005

7. Stereotype Threat: Easy to Trigger; Affects Motivated Students • Some triggers: • Gender imbalance in room • Stereotyped physical space • Attention called to gender

8. Stereotype Threat Masks Ability • Remove threat and women test better • Advanced calculus course with 100 male, 57 female students • No gender difference in course grades • Significant difference in test performance without threat • Good, Aronson, Harder, 2008

9. Stereotype Threat Triggers & Ability • Example 2: • Asian Women vs. control group • Asian Women vs. control group Example 3: GRE exam • White male engr grad students vs. Asian male engr grad students • Good, Aronson, Harder, 2008

10. Stereotype Threat Reduces Learning and Persistence • Note-taking skill reduced by stereotype threat • Feelings of belonging impaired • Appel et al. 2011; Good et al. 2012

11. Stereotype Threat Has Subtle Negative Effects Too • Don’t speak up in groups or classes • Reluctant to take leadership roles • Discount their performance

13. Some Interventions That Work • Emphasize growth in intelligence • Normalize • “Wise” feedback • Self-affirmation of values • Aronson et al. 2002; Good et al. 2008; Cohen & Steele 2002; Purdie-Vaughns & Garcia 2011

14. Emphasize Growth in Intelligence • The effort to master difficult material actually increases intellectual ability

15. Normalize the Struggle to Master • It takes some time for most people to “get” this • Keep working on it and it will click • I’ll help

16. Provide “Wise” Feedback • “I’m being critical, but I’m holding you to a high standard … I know you can do it” • Results: Black students more likely to revise their work; grade gap between Black and White students reduced

17. Self-Affirmation • Identify your most important value(s): • E.g., relationships with friends, family, being good at … • Write a short paragraph about why this value is important to you. • Confirm: “In general, I try to live up to these values.”

18. Conclusion • Women and minority students are in our classes under different circumstances than majority men are. • Nevertheless, we can create an environment that fosters ability, learning, and persistence of diverse students.

19. Learn More • Create a stereotype threat-free environment for attracting able and diverse students to computing. • See the resources listed on NCWIT’s Talk with Faculty Colleagues About Stereotype Threat (www.ncwit.org/stereotypethreattp)

20. Questions?Comments?

21. NCWIT is the National Center for Women & Information Technology Mobilizing for Change: NCWIT • Our coalition includes more than 250 universities, corporations, and non-profits.