RUI,SBP: The Impact of Classroom Diversity Philosophies on the STEM Performance of Women and Underrepresented Minority Students

在美国，女性和少数族裔在STEM中的代表性不足。为了利用我们的整个人才库，该项目将社会心理学、教育学和教学学术领域的学科成果联系起来，以了解学生在STEM课堂上的多样化经历。本研究调查了STEM课堂中的环境线索对STEM中女性和代表性不足的少数民族的坚持性和表现的影响。有两种主要的、截然不同的多样性哲学。一种是色盲，强调种族群体之间的相似之处，并促进其融入主流文化。另一种是多元文化主义，强调种族群体之间的差异和种族群体独特的价值观。这两种哲学据称都支持多样性，但它们对女性和有色人种学生的影响是不同的。本项目创新性地调查了教师在STEM课堂上使用这两种哲学的影响。该项目调查了这些哲学对包容感觉、坚持学习的动机以及科学和数学课上的实际课堂表现的影响。这项研究的结果将提供以证据为基础的做法，以取代善意但有问题的做法，以增强STEM的多样性。这些发现可能有助于通过增加被纳入STEM学院并坚持在STEM学院学习的人数来帮助增加美国的STEM人才库。该项目测试了一个课堂多样性哲学模型，该模型强调STEM教师的色盲或多元文化，这对女性和未被充分代表的少数族裔在这些课程中的坚持性和表现有不同的影响。五个实验系统地考察了课堂多样性理念对代表过多和代表不足学生的STEM成绩的直接和间接影响。这些实验调查了教师种族和性别对学生成绩的调节作用，以及多样化内容在课程中的整合程度。该项目还考察了导致学生结果的机制，包括他们对教师态度和行为的看法以及整体课堂气氛。实验将使用模拟的在线学习环境来测试多样化理念的影响，控制教师特征的个体差异。这项研究的结果可以为基于证据的最佳实践的发展提供参考，以提高女性和未被充分代表的少数群体在STEM学科中的持久性和表现，这将扩大美国的人才库。

In the U.S., women and ethnic minorities are underrepresented in STEM. To take advantage of our entire talent pool, this project bridges disciplinary findings in social psychology, education, and the scholarship of teaching and learning to understand student experiences of diversity in the STEM classroom. The research investigates the influence of environmental cues in the STEM classroom on the persistence and performance of women and underrepresented minorities in STEM. There are two main, contrasting diversity philosophies. One, colorblindness, emphasizes similarities between racial groups and promotes assimilation into the predominate culture. The other, multiculturalism, emphasizes differences between racial groups and values unique aspects of racial groups. Both philosophies are purportedly pro-diversity, yet they differentially affect women and students of color. This project innovatively investigates the impact of the use of these two philosophies by instructors in STEM classrooms. The project investigates the effect of these philosophies on feelings of inclusion, motivation to persist in study, and actual classroom performance across science and math classes. The findings of this research will provide evidence-based practices to replace well-intentioned but problematic practices to enhance diversity in STEM. These findings could help to increase the STEM talent pool in the U.S. by increasing the number of people who are included in and persist in the STEM academy.This project tests a model of classroom diversity philosophies that emphasize either colorblind or multiculturalism by STEM instructors, which differently influence the persistence and performance of women and underrepresented minorities in these courses. Five experiments systematically investigate the direct and indirect effects of classroom diversity philosophies on STEM performance among overrepresented and underrepresented students. The experiments investigate the moderating effects of instructor race and gender on student outcomes, as well as the extent to which diversity content is integrated into the course. This project also examines mechanisms that lead to student outcomes including their perceptions of instructor attitudes and behaviors and the overall classroom climate. The experiments will employ simulated online learning environments to test the impact of diversity philosophies, controlling for individual differences in instructor characteristics. The findings of this research can inform the development of evidence-based best practices to increase persistence and performance of women and underrepresented minorities in STEM disciplines, which will expand the U.S. talent pool.