Peer influences on adolescents' self-concept, achievement, and future aspirations in science and mathematics: Does student gender and race matter?

在过去的30年里，一场关于科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)领域女性和种族/少数民族的稀缺及其对21世纪美国劳动力的严重影响的全国性辩论一直在酝酿之中。从中学到大学，女孩和女性在科学和数学标准化考试中的表现不如男性同龄人，在这些领域表现出更少的信心和抱负。黑人和拉丁裔学生在STEM自我概念和抱负方面也有类似的发现。最近，科学和数学成绩的性别差距正在缩小，但STEM自我概念和抱负的差距仍然很大。是什么导致了STEM中的性别和种族差异？许多女孩和有色人种学生在上大学前对STEM失去了兴趣，部分原因是STEM对成功学生的刻板印象是男性、白人或亚洲人，还有书呆子。女孩尤其受到STEM陈规定型观念的影响，因为她们与性别角色期望不符。这项赠款中拟议的研究重点是通过调查同伴影响和课堂动态，利用刻板印象接种模型保护青春期女孩免受STEM刻板印象的影响，从而解决管道泄漏的问题。这项目前的工作集中在与科学和数学课堂上的其他女孩同龄人接触，作为“社会疫苗”，为青春期女孩的大脑接种负面刻板印象的疫苗。四个目标指导了这项工作：(1)考察在中学与全女生同龄人学习STEM与与男女混合同龄人学习STEM是否提高了女孩对STEM的参与度。(2)评估黑人和西班牙裔女孩(在STEM中面临性别和种族陈规定型观念)与白人女孩(面临性别陈规定型观念而不是种族陈规定型观念)是否具有类似的影响。(3)找出预测女孩STEM结果的课堂同伴动态特征，并测试它们在全女性班级和混合性别班级中是否存在差异。(4)测试被确定为有益的同伴互动是否会在男女混合班级中对女孩产生同样积极的结果。这项研究将由马萨诸塞大学阿默斯特分校首席研究员尼兰雅娜·达斯古普塔与德克萨斯大学奥斯汀分校副研究员凯瑟琳·里格尔-克拉姆以及遍布全国的不同中学团队合作进行。研究1对中学数学和科学课堂中的同伴动态进行了深入的分析，并测试了他们对STEM学生成绩的预测程度。这项研究采用纵向准实验设计，将科学和数学单性别班级的女生与男女同班的女生和男生进行比较，并跟踪他们在中学一年中的进步。分层回归和倾向得分分析将是主要的数据分析技术。其目标是识别班级中的同伴动态，衡量它们在全女生班级和混合性别班级中的出现是否存在差异，并测试它们预测女孩STEM结果的程度。一旦确定了最有益的同伴动态，研究2将使用来自2007年国际数学和科学研究趋势(TIMSS)的具有全国代表性的大样本，测试这些动态是否在男女混合课堂上实施时，为男女同校班级的女孩带来同样的好处。TIMSS 2007包含了足够的课堂信息，以评估班级内的同伴动态，并测试它们与学生成绩的关系。分层线性建模将成为数据分析技术。我们的目标是在两项研究中使用多种方法寻找趋同和互补的证据，使其成为一个强大的包。拟议的研究的贡献是确定数学和科学课程中让女孩迷上STEM的特定类型的同伴影响和课堂动态，增加她们的自信，并激励她们追求更高的目标。另一项贡献是，与白人同龄人相比，这些同龄人动力对非裔美国人和拉丁裔女孩的影响是否相似或不同。一项重要的预期成果是将研究结果转化为一套具体的课堂实践、干预措施和学习方法，并将向K-12教师、校长、教育政策专业人员和其他利益攸关方广泛传播，以加强STEM的教学实践，并在STEM吸引、留住和培养更多有色人种女孩和学生。这个项目中出现的许多课堂实践、干预措施和学习方法可能会推广到K-12课堂以外的地方，使大学STEM课程中的女性受益。因此，拟议研究的传播计划将包括STEM教职员工、学生、系主任和高等教育机构的院长，以影响大学中不同群体女性的招聘和留住。这项研究的另一个预期结果是整合跨多个学科(心理学、教育学、社会学)的知识，并通过研究影响青少年的制度(或宏观)因素、课堂(或中观)因素和个人(或微观)因素之间的相互作用，在扩大参与度的科学中产生新的见解？遏制人们的抱负。

In the past thirty years a national debate has been brewing about the scarcity of women and racial/ethnic minorities in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and its grave implications for the American workforce in the 21st century. From middle school through college, girls and women have performed less well on standardized tests in science and mathematics than their male peers and express less confidence and aspirations in these fields. Similar findings emerge for Black and Latino students in terms of STEM self-concept and aspirations. Recently, the gender gap in science and math performance has been closing but the gap in STEM self-concept and aspirations remains large. What drives these gender and race disparities in STEM? Many girls and students of color lose interest in STEM before college partly because the stereotype of the successful student in STEM is male, White or Asian, and nerdy. Girls are particularly affected by STEM stereotypes because of their incompatibility with gender role expectations. The proposed research in this grant focuses on solutions to the leaky pipeline by investigating peer influences and classroom dynamics that protect adolescent girls from STEM stereotypes using the Stereotype Inoculation Model. This present work concentrates on contact with other girl peers in science and math classrooms as "social vaccines" who inoculate adolescent girls' mind against negative stereotypes. Four objectives guide this work: (1) To examine whether learning STEM with all-girl peers vs. mixed-sex peers in middle school enhances girls' engagement in STEM. (2) To assess whether the presence of all-girl peers has similar effects on Black and Hispanic girls (who face gender and racial stereotypes in STEM) compared to White girls (who face gender but not racial stereotypes). (3) To identify features of classroom peer dynamics that predict girls' STEM outcomes and test whether they occur differentially in all-female vs. mixed-sex classes. (4) To test if peer dynamics identified as beneficial produce the same positive outcomes for girls when put in action in mixed-sex classes. This research will be conducted by Nilanjana Dasgupta, Principal Investigator at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, in partnership with Catherine Riegle-Crumb, Co-Investigator at the University of Texas at Austin, and a diverse team of middle schools spread across the nation.Two studies are proposed. Study 1 provides an in-depth analysis of peer dynamics in math and science classrooms in middle school and tests the extent to which they predict student outcomes in STEM. Using a longitudinal quasi-experimental design this study will compare girls in single-sex classes in science and math with girls and boys in coed classes and follow their progress across one year in middle school. Hierarchical regression and propensity score analysis will be the primary data analytic technique. The goal is to identify peer dynamics in class, measure whether they occur differentially in all-girls classes vs. mixed-sex classes, and test the extent to which they predict girls' STEM outcomes. Once the most beneficial peer dynamics are identified, Study 2 will test whether these, when put in action in mixed-sex classrooms, produce the same benefits for girls in coed classes using a large nationally representative sample of American 8th graders from the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, 2007 (TIMSS). TIMSS 2007 contains sufficient classroom-level information to estimate within-class peer dynamics and to test their relation to student outcomes. Hierarchical linear modeling will be the data analytic technique. Our goal is to look for converging and complementary evidence using multiple methods across two studies making it a powerful package.The contribution of the proposed research is to identify specific types of peer influences and classroom dynamics in math and science classes that get girls hooked on STEM, increase their confidence, and motivate them to aspire higher. Another contribution is to examine whether these peer dynamics work similarly or differently for African American and Latina girls compared to their White peers. An important intended outcome is to translate the research findings into a set of concrete classroom practices, interventions, and learning methods that will be disseminated broadly to K-12 teachers, principals, education policy professionals, and other stakeholders in order to enhance STEM teaching practices and attract, retain, and advance more girls and students of color in STEM. Many of the classroom practices, interventions, and learning methods that emerge from this project are likely to generalize beyond K-12 classrooms to benefit women in college STEM classes. Thus, the dissemination plan for the proposed research will include STEM faculty, students, department chairs and deans in higher education institutions as well, to impact recruitment and retention of diverse groups of women in college. Another intended outcome of this research is to integrate knowledge across multiple disciplines (psychology, education, sociology) and generate new insights in the science of broadening participation by examining interactions among institutional (or macro) factors, classroom (or meso) factors, and individual (or micro) factors that influence adolescents? STEM aspirations.