SBP: Promoting Structural Understanding of STEM Gender Disparities in Early Childhood

该奖项是作为NSF的社会，行为和经济科学（SBE）博士后研究奖学金（SPRF）计划和SBE的科学扩大参与计划的一部分提供的。SPRF计划的目标是为学术界，工业或私营部门和政府的科学事业准备有前途的早期职业博士级科学家。SPRF的奖励包括在知名科学家的赞助下进行两年的培训，并鼓励博士后研究员进行独立研究。NSF致力于促进来自科学界各部门的科学家，包括来自代表性不足的群体的科学家参与其研究计划和活动;博士后期间被认为是实现这一目标的专业发展的重要水平。每个博士后研究员必须解决推进各自学科领域的重要科学问题。在芝加哥大学林卞博士的赞助下，这个博士后奖学金支持一位研究STEM性别差异的早期职业科学家。这项研究旨在促进幼儿对科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）中性别差异的结构性理解。从生命的早期开始，孩子们就注意到性别差异，并理解这些模式。在许多可能的因果因素中，至关重要的是，儿童要考虑结构性原因，如历史上对女孩和妇女在科学方面的歧视。从结构上理解性别差距，可以帮助女孩认识到目前的性别不平等不仅仅反映了她们所在群体缺乏能力或兴趣，从而使她们能够坚持在男性占主导地位的领域工作。此外，结构性思维可能会鼓励儿童纠正性别差异，并让女性同龄人更多地参与STEM活动。总之，促进结构性思维在幼儿期可能有助于减轻后来的性别不平等在STEM。拟议的研究探讨了5至7岁的儿童的结构性思维的STEM性别差异的认知机制和行为结果。这些研究将使用社会认知实验方法，我们将儿童随机分配到故事书中，这些故事书提供了关于性别不平等的不同层次的结构信息。目标1将检验某些类型的因果证据是否支持结构性思维。研究结果将有助于深入了解什么类型的信息对结构性不平等的教育材料最有效。目标2将包括行为实验，以测试STEM中先前性别不平等的结构性解释是否对女孩的STEM坚持和儿童对女性同龄人的包容产生积极的行为后果。调查结果将告知哪些成果可以通过结构性思维干预来改善，从而在更广泛的努力中推广结构性思维方法，以增加妇女在STEM中的代表性。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并被认为值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估来支持。

This award was provided as part of NSF's Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences (SBE) Postdoctoral Research Fellowships (SPRF) program and SBE's Science of Broadening Participation program. The goal of the SPRF program is to prepare promising, early career doctoral-level scientists for scientific careers in academia, industry or private sector, and government. SPRF awards involve two years of training under the sponsorship of established scientists and encourage Postdoctoral Fellows to perform independent research. NSF seeks to promote the participation of scientists from all segments of the scientific community, including those from underrepresented groups, in its research programs and activities; the postdoctoral period is considered to be an important level of professional development in attaining this goal. Each Postdoctoral Fellow must address important scientific questions that advance their respective disciplinary fields. Under the sponsorship of Dr. Lin Bian at the University of Chicago, this postdoctoral fellowship award supports an early career scientist studying STEM gender disparities. This research aims to promote young children’s structural understanding of gender disparities in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). From early in life, children notice gender disparities and make sense of these patterns. Among the many possible causal factors, it is critical for children to consider structural causes, such as historical societal discrimination against girls and women in science. A structural understanding of gender disparities may enhance girls’ persistence in male-dominated fields by helping them realize that current gender inequalities do not simply reflect their group’s lack of ability or interest. Moreover, structural thinking may encourage children to rectify gender disparities and include their female peers more in STEM activities. Together, promoting structural thinking in early childhood may help mitigate later gender inequalities in STEM.The proposed research examines the cognitive mechanisms and behavioral outcomes of 5- to 7-year-old children’s structural thinking about STEM gender disparities. The studies will use a social-cognitive experimental approach in which we will randomize children to storybooks that provide different levels of structural information about gender inequality. Aim 1 will examine whether certain types of causal evidence support structural thinking. Results will provide insight into what types of information are most effective for educational materials on structural inequality. Aim 2 will include behavioral experiments to test whether structural explanations for a prior gender inequality in STEM have positive behavioral consequences for girls’ STEM persistence and children’s inclusion of their female peers. The findings will inform which outcomes can be improved through structural thinking interventions, and thus situate a structural thinking approach within broader efforts to increase women’s representation in STEM.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.