Who Likes Computer Science? How Gender Stereotypes about Interest Shape Children's Motivation

该项目将推进“面向学生和教师的创新技术体验”（ITEST）项目的努力，更好地理解和促进提高学生在科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域追求职业的动力和能力的实践，让中小学生为高中的STEM课程/项目做好准备，并最终进入STEM职业。这个项目很重要，因为它将加深对兴趣刻板印象（关于谁对STEM感兴趣的刻板印象）的重要性的理解，以及它们如何影响学生追求STEM的动机。该项目力求实现以下目标：(1)研究兴趣定型观念如何影响女孩的学习动机；(2)研究兴趣刻板印象对计算机科学学习动机的负向影响是否强于能力刻板印象；(3)探讨是否有可能通过干预来降低利益刻板印象的影响。这些发现将对许多领域的研究产生影响，这些研究旨在减少与刻板印象有关的教育不平等。这项研究有可能带来更有力的干预措施，帮助儿童抵制这种刻板印象，并保持对追求STEM兴趣的开放态度。本研究的另一个重要贡献是在能力刻板印象威胁研究的基础上推动了社会认同理论的发展。该项目通过设计现实世界的干预措施，扩大了STEM教育的重点，这些干预措施可以从问题的根源上进行干预，以消除刻板印象并促进STEM动机。此外，该项目将促进开放科学框架的使用，以允许数据和材料的免费共享。它将有助于为学生提供他们所需的工具，以抵制兴趣刻板印象并促进他们对STEM的兴趣，帮助教师确定向学生发送最有力的信息，以提高他们对STEM的兴趣，并利用教育外联网络与教育工作者、政策制定者和整个利益相关者社区广泛联系和分享研究结果，以提高学生对STEM的兴趣。该研究将考察兴趣刻板印象如何影响8-12岁儿童学习计算机科学的动机。对计算机科学的关注是由于其女性代表性低和高度刻板的性质。几个实验将测试(a)关于性别群体的兴趣刻板印象如何影响女孩进行新活动的动机，(b)兴趣刻板印象与能力刻板印象对女孩和男孩进行计算机科学活动的影响，以及(c)通过将现有的性别差异与环境结构联系起来，而不是将固有的群体差异联系起来，减少兴趣刻板印象的影响并促进女孩的计算机科学动机的新干预措施。该项目提供了严格的、基于理论的研究，这一点可以通过纳入功率分析、参考先前验证的工具和心理测量报告来证明。研究结果将加深对兴趣刻板印象的重要性以及它们如何影响儿童学习STEM的动机的理解，并将为未来直接针对兴趣刻板印象的干预措施奠定基础，以提高女孩学习计算机科学的动机。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This project will advance efforts of the Innovative Technology Experiences for Students and Teachers (ITEST) program to better understand and promote practices that increase students' motivation and capacities to pursue careers in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by preparing and interesting elementary- and middle-school students for STEM courses/programs in high school and eventually in STEM careers. This project is significant because it will deepen the understanding of the importance of interest stereotypes (stereotypes about who shows interest in STEM) and how they influence students' motivation to pursue STEM. The project seeks to address the following objectives: (1) to examine how interest stereotypes affect girls' motivation; (2) to study whether interest stereotypes have a stronger negative impact than ability stereotypes on motivation for computer science; and (3) explore whether it is possible to intervene to reduce the impact of interest stereotypes. The findings will have implications for many fields conducting research that aims to reduce educational inequalities linked to stereotypes. This research has the potential to lead to more powerful interventions to help children resist such stereotypes and remain open to pursuing interests in STEM. Another major contribution of this work is to advance social identity theory beyond stereotype threat research on ability stereotypes. The project impact broadens the focus in STEM education by designing real-world interventions that can intervene at the root of the problem to counteract stereotypes and promote STEM motivation. In addition, the project will promote the use of the Open Science Framework to allow free sharing of the data and materials. It will help give students the tools they need to resist interest stereotypes and promote their interest in STEM, help teachers identify the most powerful messages to send their students to boost their motivation for STEM, and use an educational outreach network to connect and share findings broadly, with educators, policymakers, and the entire community of stakeholders working to promote students' motivation in STEM. The research will examine how interest stereotypes influence 8-12-year-old children's motivation for computer science. The focus on computer science is due to its low representation of women and highly stereotyped nature. Several experiments will test (a) how interest stereotypes about gender groups impact girls' motivation for novel activities, (b) the impact of interest stereotypes vs. ability stereotypes for computer science activities with girls and boys, and (c) a novel intervention to reduce the impact of interest stereotypes and promote girls' computer science motivation, by linking existing gender differences to environmental structures rather than inherent group differences. The project provides rigorous, theoretically-based research, which is evident through the inclusion of power analysis, reference to previously validated instruments, and reporting of psychometrics. The results will deepen understanding of the importance of interest stereotypes and how they influence children's motivation to pursue STEM, and will lay the groundwork for future interventions that directly target interest stereotypes to boost girls' motivation in computer science.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.