GSE/RES Collaborative Research: Addressing the STEM Gender Gap: Does Spatial Training Enhance Middle-School Girls' STEM-Relevant Spatial Skills, Attitudes, Beliefs, and Interests?

智力优势：密歇根理工大学和宾夕法尼亚州立大学提出了一个合作项目来测试一个假设，即教育干预（早期显示可以增加女性工程专业学生的保留率）也可以提高中学女生的stem相关空间技能。该项目将进一步验证认知空间技能的提高也会提高女孩的自我效能感和对空间技能的重视程度，并减少对空间技能的刻板印象。研究还将考察空间技能干预对stem相关课程选择和工作兴趣的影响，同时检验空间技能干预的影响是(a)空间技能提高的直接结果，还是(b)由女孩自我效能感、价值观和刻板印象的改变介导。大约400名来自两所不同的中学的七年级学生将被随机分配到教室，接受空间技能课程或接受常规教学。在干预之前和之后，以及大约一年后，所有学生都将完成一个评估单元，以衡量他们的空间技能以及对空间技能的态度和信念（自信/效能，价值观，刻板印象）。在八年级结束时，所有学生都将被评估他们对空间要求高的STEM课程和职业的兴趣和计划。更广泛的影响：项目pi和合作pi将为两个合作学区的中学教师提供课程培训，监督学生的成功和实施的准确性。传播工作将反映团队的跨学科性质（合作pi和共同pi代表工程、发展和认知科学以及性别研究领域），空间思维与广泛的科学和工程组织的相关性，以及研究的同时理论和教育目标。

Intellectual Merit: Michigan Technological University and Pennsylvania State University propose a collaborative project to test the hypothesis that an educational intervention (earlier shown to increase retention of woman engineering students) may also increase middle-school girls' STEM-relevant spatial skills. The project will further test the hypothesis that increases in cognitive spatial skill will also enhance girls' self-efficacy and valuing of spatial skills, and decrease the stereotyping of such skills as masculine. The intervention effects on STEM-related course choices and job interests will also be examined, while testing whether effects of the spatial-skill intervention, if observed, are (a) the direct result of enhanced spatial skills or (b) mediated by girls' changed self-efficacy, values, and stereotypes. Approximately 400 7th grade students in two diverse middle schools will be randomly assigned, by classrooms, to receive the spatial skills curriculum or to receive their regular instruction. Prior to and following the intervention, and again approximately a year later, all students will complete an assessment battery to measure their spatial skills and attitudes and beliefs about spatial skills (self-confidence/efficacy, values, stereotyping). At the end of 8th grade, all students will be assessed for their interests in and plans for spatially-demanding STEM courses and careers.Broader Impacts: The project PIs and Co-PIs will provide training on the curriculum to middle-school teachers in the two cooperating school districts, monitor student success and the fidelity of implementation. Dissemination efforts will reflect the interdisciplinary nature of the team (collaborative PIs and Co-PIs represent the fields of engineering, developmental and cognitive science, and gender studies), the relevance of spatial thinking for a wide array of science and engineering organizations, and the simultaneous theoretical and educational goals of the study.