3 Stereotype Threat
Cate Reck
What is stereotype threat?
Stereotype threat is a phenomenon when an individual who belongs to an at-risk population ends up performing poorly on a challenging assessment when reminded of their identity beforehand.
How does stereotype threat affect student performance?
Common examples of how it manifests include when a woman taking a math exam does less well when she is reminded of her gender before taking the exam. Likewise, when an African American student is reminded of their race before taking a standardized exam, their performance is at risk. When an individual’s race or gender is not emphasized before the assessment, the individual performs better and equivalently with non-risk populations. When an individual views themselves as their at-risk population, it undermines their abilities due to their concern about potentially confirming the negative stereotype about them.
How do you reduce the effects of stereotype threat in your class?
Instructors can reduce the potential impact for stereotype threat in a few key ways. Here are a few interventions to help instructors work to create a fair learning environment.
- Promote a growth mindset. Remind students that their intelligence can change and grow with hard work, dedication, and practice.
- Validate making mistakes. Remind students that mistakes are not only common but a valued part of learning.
- Promote reflection on learning. Suggest students evaluate their work and make positive changes in incremental ways.
- Integrate more low-stakes assessments. Allow students ample opportunities to test themselves and provide feedback. Even if you provide ungraded practice quizzes that students can do on their own time in preparation, they will benefit from greater comfort with the testing environment.
- Provide positive feedback when students are improving. Evaluate grades on a regular basis and identify those students whose grade has improved, even if it’s not at the mastery level yet. This type of feedback has been shown to improve students’ motivation and reduce students’ perceptions of instructor bias.
- Provide judicious feedback. Assure students that you are providing critical feedback because you have high standards for mastery, assuring students that they have the potential to meet these standards. Try to provide specific feedback about ways they can improve. Remind students that the rigor of your course is to help them transition to harder coursework.
- Help students improve study skills. Typically, students do not take a course on how to study and be successful. You can help all students by addressing study skills, time management, and exam strategies.
- Foster a sense of belonging. When students understand that they are part a common experience, their anxiety is reduced. Helping students develop a sense of belonging will help them stay motivated for the long semester when they feel discouraged.
- Ask students to write about their experience. Consider asking students to write their own narrative about their struggles and triumphs in college. Students need to be reminded of earlier struggles that they have overcome so that they can put present challenges into perspective.
References and resources
- Aguilar, L., Walton, G., & Wieman, C. (2014). Psychological insights for improved physics teaching. Physics Today, 67(5), 43-49.
- Aronson, J., Lustina, M. J., Good, C., Keough, K., Steele, C. M., & Brown, J. (1999). When white men can’t do math: Necessary and sufficient factors in stereotype threat. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 35, 29-46.
- Blumenstyk, G. (May 11, 2016). Carol Dweck says theory of educational mindset often understood. Chronicle of Higher Education. http://www.chronicle.com/article/Carol-Dweck-Says-Theory-of/236453
- Cohen, G. L., Steele, C.M., and Ross, L. D. (2008). The mentor’s dilemma: Providing critical feedback across the racial divide. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin, 25, 1302–18.
- Dweck, C. (2008). Mindsets and math/science achievement. Carnegie Foundation.
- Good, C., Aronson, J., & Inzlicht, M. (2003). Improving adolescents’ standardized test performance: An intervention to reduce the effects of stereotype threat. Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, 24(6), 645-662.
- Good, C., Rattan, A., & Dweck, C. S. (2012). Why do women opt out? Sense of belonging and women’s representation in mathematics. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 102(4), 700-717.
- Hong, H. Y., & Lin-Siegler, X. (2012). How learning about scientists’ struggles influences students’ interest and learning in physics. Journal of Educational Psychology, 104(2), 469.
- Killpack, T. L., & Melón, L. C. (2016). Toward inclusive STEM classrooms: What personal role do faculty play? CBE-Life Sciences Education, 15(3), es3.
- McGee, E. O., & Martin, D. B. (2011). “You Would Not Believe What I Have to Go Through to Prove My Intellectual Value!” Stereotype Management Among Academically Successful Black Mathematics and Engineering Students. American Educational Research Journal, 48(6), 1347–1389. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831211423972
- Rattan, A., Good, C., & Dweck, C. S. (2012). “It’s ok—not everyone can be good at math”: Instructors with an entity theory comfort (and demotivate) students. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 48(3), 731-737.
- Rodríguez, B.A.(2014). The Threat of Living Up to Expectations: Analyzing the performance of Hispanic students on standardized exams. Journal of Hispanic Higher Education,13, 191-205.
- Shih, M., Pittinsky, T. L., & Ambady, N. (1999). Stereotype susceptibility: Identity salience and shifts in quantitative performance. Psychological Science, 10, 80-83.
- Shih, M., Pittinsky, T. L., & Trahan, A. (2006). Domain-specific effects of stereotypes on performance. Self and Identity, 5, 1-14.
- Spencer, S. J., Logel, C., & Davies, P. G. (2016). Stereotype threat. Annual Review of Psychology, 67, 415-437.
- Spencer, S. J., Steele, C. M., & Quinn, D. M. (1999). Stereotype threat and women’s math performance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 35, 4-28.
- Schmader, T., & Johns, M. (2003). Converging evidence that stereotype threat reduces working memory capacity. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 85, 440-452.
- Steele, C. M. (2002). Whistling Vivaldi: How stereotypes affect us and what we can do. New York: Norton.
- Walton, G., Cohen, G. and Steele, C.M. (2012) Empirically validated strategies to reduce stereotype threat. https://ed.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/interventionshandout.pdf
- Yeager, D. S., Purdie-Vaughns, V., Garcia, J., Apfel, N., Brzustoski, P., Master, A., … & Cohen, G. L. (2014). Breaking the cycle of mistrust: Wise interventions to provide critical feedback across the racial divide. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143(2), 804.
definition
Stereotype threat is a phenomenon when an individual who belongs to an at-risk population ends up performing poorly on a challenging assessment when reminded of their identity beforehand.
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