– Female students are more likely to take advance math and science classes in high school and declare a STEM major in college if they believe that boys are not better than girls in math and science
– Students’ beliefs can be influenced by their 9th grade teachers.
– Female students are less likely to believe that boys are better than girls in math or science when they have a female teacher in those subjects, or when their teacher creates a positive learning environment by listening and promoting students’ ideas. Such positive effect is consistent with the role model effect discussed in the previous literature. Furthermore, it is in line with the positive effect of female leaders on girl aspirations and educational attainments- female teachers can also change male students’ beliefs and make them less likely to believe that boys are better than girls.
– Female students who indeed believe that boys are better than girls are a minority (although a substantial one). In addition to this, the last empirical section demonstrated that it is possible to (considerably) increase women in STEM by changing these beliefs, but it would not be enough to completely fill the gender gap in these fields.
2016 - Teacher Characteristics, Student Beliefs and the Gender Gap in STEM Fields
Sansone, Dario
Researchers: Dario Sansone
University Affiliation: Georgetown University
Email: ds1289@georgetown.edu
Research Question:
To examine the impact of teachers' gender, beliefs and behaviors on students' beliefs about boys' and girls' abilities in math and science.
Published: No
Journal Name or Institutional Affiliation:
Journal Entry:
Year: 2016
Findings:
Data Description:
The author utilizes High School Longitudinal Study of 2009 (HSLS:09) (n=1750).
The dependent variable is whether or not a student is planning to enroll in an advance course in a subject while in high school. The key regressor of interest is whether the student believes that boys are better than girls in subject. However, such enrollment decision depends also on other factors which may be correlated with student beliefs.
The controls include a variable which indicates whether the student enjoyed the courses in 9th grade. This includes whether the student wanted to take additional math/science classes because her friends were going to. The author also includes the grades in the most advanced math and science courses in middle school.
Theoretical Framework:
Relevance:Gender and STEM
Archives: K-16 STEM Abstracts