Counteracting Stereotypes to Boost Girls' Interest and Participation in Computer Science

该奖项全部或部分由《2021年美国救援计划法案》（公法117-2）资助。该项目的目标是确定和促进促进女孩对追求计算机科学的兴趣发展的关键因素。这将有助于扩大女孩对计算机科学课程、项目和大学专业的参与。年轻女性目前只获得了19%的计算机科学学士学位。社会上有一种普遍的刻板印象，认为女性和女孩对计算机科学的兴趣不如男性和男孩。这可能会损害年轻女孩从小就对计算机科学的归属感和兴趣。这个项目将通过实验研究这些性别兴趣刻板印象对女孩追求计算机科学兴趣的因果影响。它还将调查向学生传达这些刻板印象的来源。最后，本项目将测试一项干预措施，以减少刻板印象对女孩对计算机科学的兴趣的影响。最终，该项目将为传播关于激励女孩学习计算机科学的有效方法的最佳做法奠定基础。这些发现将对旨在扩大计算机科学参与的计算机科学教育者和其他旨在减少与刻板印象有关的教育不平等的研究人员产生影响。研究结果将与致力于促进学生学习计算机科学动机的利益相关者分享。四项实验研究将通过实验室研究和一次实地干预来考察性别兴趣刻板印象如何影响12至14岁学生学习计算机科学的动机。实验1将实验性地操纵性别兴趣刻板印象，以评估对女孩追求计算机科学兴趣的因果影响。实验2将探索向学生传达兴趣刻板印象的线索，例如计算机科学课上女生和男生的比例。实验3将测试提供消除刻板印象的信息是否能增加女孩学习计算机科学的兴趣。实验4将测试一个现实世界的干预，旨在减少性别兴趣刻板印象对女孩参加计算机科学入门课程的影响。总之，这些研究将加深对性别刻板印象的原因和后果的理解，它们如何影响女孩学习计算机科学的动机，以及教育工作者如何帮助学生抵制刻板印象并开始通往计算机科学职业的道路。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 award is funded in whole or in part under the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (Public Law 117-2).The goal of this project is to identify and promote critical factors that facilitate the development of girls’ interest in pursuing computer science. This will help broaden girls’ participation in computer science courses, programs, and college majors. Young women currently earn only 19% of bachelor’s degrees in computer science. There is a pervasive societal stereotype that women and girls are less interested in computer science than men and boys. This can harm young girls’ sense of belonging and interest in computer science starting from an early age. This project will experimentally examine the causal impact of these gender-interest stereotypes on girls’ interest in pursuing computer science. It will also investigate the sources that communicate these stereotypes to students. Finally, this project will test an intervention to reduce the impact of stereotypes on girls’ interest in computer science. Ultimately, this project will create a foundation for disseminating best practices on effective methods for motivating girls to pursue computer science. The findings will have implications for computer science educators who aim to broaden participation in computer science and others conducting research that aims to reduce educational inequalities linked to stereotypes. Findings will be shared with stakeholders working to promote students’ motivation in computer science.Four experimental studies will be conducted to examine how gender-interest stereotypes influence 12 to 14 year-old students’ motivation for computer science through laboratory studies and one field intervention. Experiment 1 will experimentally manipulate gender-interest stereotypes to assess causal effects on girls’ interest in pursuing computer science. Experiment 2 will explore the cues that communicate interest stereotypes to students, such as the proportion of girls and boys in a computer science class. Experiment 3 will test whether providing information that counteracts stereotypes can increase girls’ interest in pursuing computer science. Experiment 4 will test a real-world intervention designed to reduce the impact of gender-interest stereotypes on girls’ enrollment in introductory computer science courses. Together, these studies will deepen understanding of the causes and consequences of gender stereotypes, how they influence girls’ motivation to learn computer science, and how educators can help students resist stereotypes and start the pathway to computer science careers.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.