Investigating the Use of Peer Role Models to Inspire Women to Thrive in STEM

该提案是为了响应EHR核心研究（ECR）计划公告NSF 15-509而提交的。 作为ECR的一部分，该项目由科学和工程性别研究（GSE）计划资助。GSE旨在通过教育和实施研究来理解和解决STEM教育和劳动力参与中基于性别的差异，这将导致更大，更多样化的国内STEM劳动力。刻板印象的威胁和不属于的感觉被认为是成就不足和妇女在STEM中代表性不足的重要因素。许多过去的实验室实验表明，数学天才的同龄女性榜样减轻了刻板印象威胁的负面影响，这应该会培养STEM中的幸福感。同伴榜样的有益影响的关键机制似乎是性别相似性。本研究将深入探索相似性，以建立对同伴榜样效应的理解，并确定使同伴榜样发挥最佳效果的方法。本项目将提供丰富的基于实验室的前瞻性现实数据，将推进关于同伴榜样如何激励女性在STEM中茁壮成长和坚持的理论和知识。实验将调查妇女和同伴榜样之间的相似性增加的影响，检查是否用另一个替代源的相似性可以把男性同龄人成为榜样，并试图确定源或相似性的组合，优化同伴榜样效应。这项研究将在圣地亚哥州立大学（SDSU）进行，从这项研究中获得的知识将用于在圣地亚哥高中数学教室进行的前瞻性实地研究。高中是与数学相关的性别差异开始出现的时候，这些性别差异似乎是女性选择追求和坚持STEM的有力预测因素。这也是同龄人影响力特别强的时候。因此，将同伴榜样引入高中数学课堂将是减少STEM性别差距的一种特别有益的方法。

This proposal was submitted in response to EHR Core Research (ECR) program announcement NSF 15-509. As part of ECR, this project is funded by the Research on Gender in Science and Engineering (GSE) program. GSE seeks to understand and address gender-based differences in STEM education and workforce participation through education and implementation research that will lead to a larger and more diverse domestic STEM workforce. Stereotype threat and feelings of not belonging are suggested as important contributors of the under-achievement and underrepresentation of women in STEM. Numerous past laboratory experiments have shown that math-talented peer female role models alleviate the negative effect of stereotype threat, which should then foster feelings of belongingness in STEM. The key mechanism underlying the beneficial effect of peer role models seems to be gender similarity. This research study will engage in an in-depth exploration of similarity in order to build understanding of the peer role model effect and identify ways to make peer role models optimally effective.This project will provide a rich amount of lab-based and prospective, real-world data that will advance theory and knowledge on ways peer role models can inspire women to thrive and persist in STEM. Experiments will investigate the impact of increasing similarity between women and peer role models, examine whether substituting one source of similarity with another can turn male peers into role models, and attempt to identify the source or combination of sources of similarity that optimize the peer role model effect. The research will be conducted at San Diego State University (SDSU) and the knowledge gained from this research will then be used to inform a prospective field study conducted in San Diego high school math classrooms. High school is a time when mathematics-related gender differences begin to emerge and these gender differences seem to be strong predictors of women's choice to pursue and persist in STEM. This is also a time when peer influence is particularly strong. Hence, introducing peer role models into high school math classrooms would be a particularly beneficial method for reducing the gender gap in STEM.