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

这一奖项是作为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、工业界或私营部门和政府的科学职业生涯培养有前途的、早期职业博士水平的科学家。SPRF奖项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。国家科学基金会致力于促进科学界所有阶层的科学家参与其研究方案和活动，包括那些来自代表性不足的群体的科学家；博士后阶段被认为是实现这一目标的专业发展的一个重要水平。每个博士后研究员都必须解决推动各自学科领域向前发展的重要科学问题。在芝加哥大学林边博士的赞助下，这一博士后奖学金奖项支持一位研究STEM性别差异的早期职业科学家。本研究旨在促进幼儿对科学、技术、工程和数学(STEM)领域性别差异的结构性理解。从幼年开始，孩子们就注意到了性别差异，并理解了这些模式。在许多可能的原因中，对儿童来说至关重要的是考虑结构性原因，例如在科学领域对女孩和妇女的历史社会歧视。对性别差距的结构性理解可能会帮助女孩认识到目前的性别不平等不仅仅反映了她们的群体缺乏能力或兴趣，从而提高她们在男性占主导地位的领域的坚持性。此外，结构性思维可能会鼓励儿童纠正性别差异，并让她们的女性同龄人更多地参与STEM活动。总之，在儿童早期促进结构性思维可能有助于缓解后来的STEM性别不平等。拟议的研究考察了5至7岁儿童关于STEM性别差异的结构性思维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，我们将把儿童随机分配到故事书中，这些故事书提供关于性别不平等的不同程度的结构性信息。目标1将检验某些类型的因果证据是否支持结构性思维。结果将使人们深入了解哪些类型的信息对关于结构性不平等的教育材料最有效。目标2将包括行为实验，以测试对STEM中先前性别不平等的结构性解释是否对女孩的STEM坚持性和儿童纳入女性同龄人具有积极的行为影响。这些发现将告知哪些结果可以通过结构性思维干预来改善，从而将结构性思维方法置于更广泛的努力中，以增加妇女在STEM中的代表性。这一奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

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.