Congratulations Allison!

We need to talk, very interesting work!

 

Thanks, Elsa! Yes, I'd love to talk more about your work with Latinas in STEM, and ways to promote their resilience. We're hoping to take a more intersectional approach to gender stereotypes in our future studies.

-Allison

Hi DeLene,

Thanks so much! These are terrific questions.

1. One big lesson that we've learned is that these stereotypes start early. We found that kids start to believe these gendered stereotypes about interest in engineering by 1st grade, and about interest in computer science by 3rd grade (in a manuscript currently under review). The study in this video was with 8- and 9-year-olds--our findings here show that girls at this age are already very sensitive to STEM stereotypes. So, it's important for parents and teachers to start early too, in trying to prevent stereotyping. 

Another big lesson is that stereotypes are different across STEM fields. We've found that these gender stereotypes are much stronger for computer science and engineering than for math and science. In fact, a lot of middle- and high-school students in our research studies believe that girls are more interested than boys in math and science. We've made a lot of progress in encouraging girls in math and science--now it's time to focus more on computer science and engineering.

2. The first step for teachers is just to pay attention to the messages and signals in your classroom. Are you dividing kids by gender? That can send the signal that gender is important and meaningful. Do you assume that the boys in your class are going to be more interested in a new STEM activity? That can send the signal that girls aren't expected to enjoy STEM as much as boys. A second step is to take a more active approach in countering stereotypes. If you see stereotyping happening in your classroom, call it out, and talk with students about how unfair it is to judge people based on stereotypes. As another example, we've found that older girls who have a growth mindset (i.e., believe ability in STEM can be improved with effort and the right strategies) are less affected by gender stereotypes. So one approach can be helping students stay focused on learning and building skills in STEM, instead of worrying about their performance. We're currently piloting a new intervention to see whether teaching growth mindsets can help boost middle-school girls' motivation in computer science.

-Allison

I'm really interested in the point you made here about the difference between math and science compared to computer science and engineering. I taught middle school science, and I noticed student engagement in my science lessons was fairly consistent across gender. My male students, however, would be more likely to spend free time in class doing coding-type activities than my female students.

Now, I'm working with a computer science curriculum and we are trying to reach more female and underrepresented minority groups through our classes. Do you have any suggestions on how we could structure our curriculum to combat gender stereotypes?

Hi Jessica,

This is such a great question, and I'd love to hear from computer science teachers about what they've done that has been effective!

I'll point down to Virginia Davis's comment below, and note that using computer science in collaborative/altruistic/creative/storytelling ways seems to be a great way to get girls interested, although I think more research has been done with college students than with middle school students. For example, NCWIT has a great collection of computer science teaching materials designed with the goal of broadening participation: https://www.ncwit.org/resources/engagecsedu-website.

I think the best way to structure the curriculum would be to make it mandatory for everyone, so that all groups are fully represented and can see each other engaged in computer science. I know we're not there yet, but CSforAll is working to get us there!

-Allison

Hi Jessica,

Thanks so much for sharing your experience: I would also love to hear from more folks teaching in computer science about what they've seen work well. I just wanted to mention that Girls Who Code is a great organization to be aware of, if you're not already!

-Marley

Hi Jacqueline,

Your video is amazing--it's wonderful to see all the "magic" that you created through your program! Thanks for sharing it.

The paper describing this study is currently under review as a "revise and resubmit," but I can send you a copy as soon as it's in press. For now, you might be interested in the slides from our talk at the Society for Research in Child Development (SRCD) conference last month, which show how the stereotype reduced girls' interest, sense of belonging, and choice for the stereotyped activity: https://osf.io/xkvdq/

I'm so glad we connected here today, and would love to chat more some time!

Best,

Allison

I would love a copy as well. I am the Principal of a Young Women's STEAM Academy in El Paso, Texas! We are constantly busting these myths/misconceptions and sharing with parents and students elements of your research! We have seen our students grow in many areas simply by focusing on their interests and motivating/encouraging them to push to their full potential.  I'd love to connect!!!

Sincerely,
Cynthia Ontiveros

Hi Cynthia,

Thanks for reaching out! I'd love to connect as well--I'll send you an email. I'd love to hear more about the ways you've been motivating your students in STEM!

-Allison

Hi Virginia,

I really enjoyed your video too! We haven't been looking at values with younger students, although Sapna Cheryan and I worked with an honors student at UW who looked at whether adding collaboration to a syllabus would change perceptions of communal values in a computer science class for undergraduates.

We do have a longitudinal study where we ask children about what people can do with computer science, and it will be very interesting to code their answers to see whether they talk about opportunities to use computer science to help people!

I agree this is a great direction for future interventions with kids to change their gendered perceptions of computer science and engineering, if they see more ways to use those fields to help others.

-Allison

Hi DeLene,

We haven't looked directly at this issue, but some of our other research has found that broadening the image of computer science (to avoid the masculine/"geeky" stereotypes) can promote girls' interest in a way that doesn't harm boys' interest (Master, Meltzoff, & Cheryan, 2016). I have mixed feelings about the affinity groups that you mention that divide children by gender. I know these groups can create a great sense of community and belonging for the students in them, but I also worry that they reinforce this idea that "gender matters in STEM." In order to change everyone's stereotypes, I think it's so important for girls and boys to do STEM together, so that everyone sees how much girls can enjoy and succeed in STEM.

-Allison

Allison, I agree, having boys and girls do STEM together is important. Your project supports their interest when there is no preconceived preference (boys like this more etc). In research we did (https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ409390) comparing girls and boys and their interest in and engagement with math when in girls-only and boys-only schools, changed significantly when they merged and had classes together. Boys were distracted with the girls, and the girls didn't want to seem nerdy. With time, however, they collaborated.

Hi Myriam,

Thanks for sharing! That's so interesting, especially how it highlights the ways that classroom dynamics can shift over time.

I think we're all working to solve two different problems: 1. How do we get to equity in STEM? and 2. Once we get there, how do we maintain equity?

I think the single-gender classrooms/clubs/summer camps may help increase engagement for girls to help get them started when they're facing the current inequitable situation and negative stereotypes. But once we get a critical mass of girls engaged in STEM, we may want to shift strategies so that all students are included together. Then the computer science/engineering stereotypes can start to fade away, just as the math/science stereotypes seem to be changing.

-Allison 

Allison, thanks for clarifying. I see the two problems you are trying to solve. It's also important to note that the students you are working with are younger than those we studied - best to have those stereotypes fade sooner/earlier!

Hi Rechele,

Great question! We wanted to use neutral-sounding names so that children wouldn't be influenced by the name of the activity (and of course we balanced the names, so that half the children heard the stereotype for the reducing activity and half the children heard the stereotype for the searching activity).

In our work, we've looked at visual cues that make computer science more welcoming, but haven't yet looked at descriptions. Other researchers have found that talking about "doing science" can be more inclusive for girls than talking about "being a scientist," because girls have the perception that they don't fit the image of a scientist. Another study found that saying things like, "girls are just as good as boys at STEM!" can actually reinforce the very idea we're trying to counter. There may be many other ways that the language we use sends signals to girls that STEM is not for them.

Examining effects of different descriptions is definitely a direction we would love to pursue in the future!

-Allison

Hi Shakuntala,

Thanks for sharing the book recommendation--I agree that students' beliefs are so important in shaping what they think is possible for themselves!

I see the concern that our efforts to recruit more girls into fields like computer science and engineering means that we might be sending them into unwelcoming or hostile environments where they are underrepresented. I think it's absolutely important for us to change boys' stereotypes as well, so that they can help create a welcoming environment where girls feel valued in STEM.

In one of our studies, we were surprised to see that 5th grade students at one school believed that girls were better than boys at coding--it didn't match up with the rest of our findings. This was at a school in Rhode Island where all the kids were learning to code through the CS4RI program. When we asked their teachers if they could help us understand what was going on, they said that they had an unusually strong group of 5th grade girls that year. These girls were so successful that they were not only changing their own expectations and gender stereotypes, but they were also changing the boys' stereotypes. This story gives me hope that bringing computer science into all K-12 schools can start this process on a larger scale, so we can start getting rid of these negative stereotypes in the next generation.

-Allison

Thank you so much for sharing that. That story gives me so much hope as well. I am definitely on board with getting more girls in STEM and having them "set the story straight" about what they are capable of, but I often worry about the harm that is caused in the process and what we can do outside of encouraging our young women to support those who do pursue the field. And on that note, thank you so much for this article!!

Hi Shakuntala,

Thank you so much for bringing this up - systemic-level changes are an essential part of building a more equitable STEM workforce. I think this highlights the mandatory role that institutions need to play in making spaces welcome to everyone. This means, at a systemic level, rooting out sexism, ableism, racism, etc. We have a lot of work to do, but this systemic and system-level work is crucial while also working at the individual level of stereotypes and bias. Thanks so much for the important discussion and highlighting this!

-Marley

Hi Adriana,

Thanks for stopping by! And thank YOU for all your contributions through Play Works Studio and the Robiis to help encourage young girls in robotics and coding! 

-Allison

Hi Adriana, If this research is successful with children, we should be able to prompt more young girls to be interested in STEM during their K-12 yrs, and thus increase the number of women in the pipeline. But, even after that, society may need other strategies to RETAIN women in the STEM workforce, because these are two different things.  

One possibility is that even within people already in the STEM workforce, we can help. That is, some folks have (thankfully) given up the stereotype that women have less ability in STEM than men, but \ still harbor the INTEREST stereotype that women are intrinsically less interested in STEM.....and this interest stereotype may be as pernicious as the more famous stereotypes about abilities. So work with adults to try to reduce the interest stereotypes could be very useful to help make a better working environment and retain more women in the STEM workforce once women get there.

Hi Josie,

Great question! In addition to the gender stereotypes we looked at in this study, there are many stereotypes about the field of computer science that seem to differentially affect girls and boys. These stereotypes about computer science as being uncollaborative definitely seem to deter girls more than boys. We haven't studied this yet for computer science, although we do have other research showing that increasing children's feelings of connection can help motivate them in STEM.

Some other stereotypes about STEM that deter girls more than boys include beliefs that you have to be a genius or that STEM isn't family-friendly.

This is yet another reason why it's so important to push for mandatory computer science education! Once students get to see examples of the creative, collaborative ways they can use computer science to make the world a better place, they won't have to rely on these outdated perceptions any more.

-Allison

Yes to more computer science education, and I suspect that earlier CS experiences may help young students build their own ideas about CS before they adopt these common stereotypes. I look forward to reading more about your work!

Yes! We have research showing that early positive experiences with coding can increase 6-year-old girls' interest and self-efficacy for coding/robotics. It's so important to make these early experiences more common for girls!

-Allison

Hi Cathy,

Thanks for coming by and joining the conversation! You are speaking to my heart as a developmental psychologist.

One note is that transitions can be very vulnerable times, since kids are trying to figure out how they feel about a new environment and whether they belong there. I think the implication for teachers is to make sure they start the school year sending lots of messages to girls that they belong in STEM and can succeed in this class.

A second note is that we've been looking cross-sectionally from elementary school through high school at how students develop these gender stereotypes about STEM, and when those stereotypes start to have a negative impact on girls' motivation in STEM. From our data, it really looks like middle school is a critical time, because these stereotypes start to relate to girls' lower sense of belonging and confidence in STEM. Girls' interest in STEM also starts dropping during this time, so the gender gaps in motivation emerge. We're currently working on interventions that might help girls at this age, including teaching them to have growth mindsets.

Stay tuned and we'll keep this conversation going in the future!

-Allison 

Hi DeLene,

Thanks for this question!

One important step is to expand this research from the lab to the classroom. We submitted an NSF CSforAll grant in February where we proposed to look at how these gender-interest stereotypes affect whether girls are willing to sign up for an elective computer science course.

We want to dig deeper into where these stereotypes come from, so we also proposed to look at the cues that reinforce these stereotypes, like whether girls are underrepresented in the course.

We're also working to take a more intersectional perspective, to look at how gender and racial/ethnic stereotypes might push Black and Latina girls away from computer science and engineering.

Finally, a major priority for us is to examine interventions that can counteract these stereotypes. Those might include:

(a) giving girls more information about how much other girls have enjoyed the course,

(b) teaching them to have a growth mindset,

(c) helping them recognize that gender differences in STEM can be caused by external factors, and not because girls and boys are inherently different.

We love presenting in this showcase (this is our third year here) because we get such valuable feedback and suggestions from this community, so we welcome hearing what other directions you all would suggest!

-Allison

Thank you for your wonderful response.  Your next steps sound amazing and I wish you all the best on your continued success.  

Thank you so much, DeLene!

Hi Becky,

I love your video! It's so great to see how you were able to help teachers make the shift to online learning last spring. We're finishing data collection this spring for a 3-year longitudinal study (with students currently in 4th-10th grades) where we look at the development of STEM identity in math, science, and coding; I'm looking forward to sharing what we find about how this changes from elementary to middle school!

I'll let Marley share what software she used to make this video. But our team has also made short videos to teach growth mindsets to middle school students. It's amazing how much we were able to do just using Powerpoint with animation and audio recording, and we're embedding those videos into Qualtrics so we can assess students' beliefs and attitudes afterwards. Feel free to send me an email if you'd like to see an example: amaster@uh.edu.

-Allison

Hi Becky,

I like to draw into Procreate (a $15 app) on my iPad and then insert the stills into iMovie where I piece them together with sound effects and music. Your strategy can either be to make individual drawings and piece them together later (like a flip book, what I did), or you can draw and animate within the same program, for example by using a screen recording to capture your drawing process, which can make a fun animation. Another option is to export a GIF of all the individual stills. GIFS and screen recordings work really well for simple and/or short animations that don't require a lot of extra editing.

Allison's absolutely right that Powerpoint allows you to do a lot of this, including being able to draw into it and create an animation. They do a good job of hiding this feature, but some YouTube tutorials should help a lot. Photoshop and Gimp (a free, open source program comparable to Photoshop) also are great options for drawing stills and making GIFs. Another free program to check out is Autodesk Sketchbook, which is useful for drawing animations as well. I haven't used it, but know lots of folks who love it.

In general, if you have a tablet or other digital drawing surface, you might benefit from Procreate or Gimp/Photoshop for the ability to draw more complexity. But if you are only making simple animations with shapes and lines or drawing with a computer mouse, then I'd take a look at Powerpoint or Autodesk Sketchbook. 

Hope that helps! I look forward to seeing your group's animations in the future!

-Marley

Thank you, Marley and Allison! I will pass this info on to the team members who are actively involved in this aspect of the project. Such great tips!

Thanks, Bree! I loved seeing the efforts to build girls' physics identity and belonging in your video.

Our research has been focused on computer science and engineering, but physics is also one of the fields in which women are extremely underrepresented. Our research has found that middle/high school girls are more interested in science than in language arts, math, coding, or engineering--it looks like your program can help tap in to that general science interest when girls get to physics class.

-Allison

Hi Sarah,

I enjoyed your video on creating a support network for women faculty in STEM! It speaks to the point Shakuntala Gopal raised above, that we also need to make sure we have structures and systems in place to support women as they advance in their STEM careers.

I've experienced this with my daughter too; even though she knew many women doctors, when she was 4, she turned to me and asked, "Mom, men are doctors and women are nurses, right?" I think many children go through this developmental stage where their gender stereotypes are surprisingly strong (particularly shocking for parents who are trying to teach egalitarian attitudes). Luckily, their stereotypes generally get more flexible in elementary school, and we see lots of middle schoolers in our studies who think stereotypes are unfair and tell us they're ready to "break the gender stereotypes"!

Thanks for asking this great question! Our Lead Presenter Marley Jarvis is part of the amazing Outreach & Education Department at the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences at the University of Washington. They share the results of our studies with teachers, parents, and policymakers. They've also made free learning modules on topics such as early STEM learning and math stereotypes. In addition, I've given talks at teacher conferences like Learning & the Brain and the Texas Computer Science Teachers Association. We've also written op-eds to spread the word about our research in the Washington Post and the LA Times.

-Allison

Hi Ellie,

What a great question! We are very interested in this too.

When the pandemic started, we were in the middle of a 3-year longitudinal study with students who started in grades 2-8. We're about to finish the study next month, and we're very interested to see whether it looks like the pandemic affected kids' stereotypes and interest in computer science.

We're planning to look at how it affected each individual student's responses, and we can also look at whether each cohort of students seems different. For example: if we look at kids who were in 6th grade in 2018-2019, 2019-2020, or 2020-2021, how do their responses differ on average?

Kids pick up on stereotypes from all kinds of sources other than peers, like media. So, if kids increased their screen time during the pandemic and watched more TV and movies that have gender stereotypes, that could affect their stereotypes too.

-Allison

Hi Oriana,

Thanks for bringing up this issue!

Yes, I think that educators can have a big impact on underrepresented students in the classroom. They can send all kinds of signals to students about their potential to succeed and how much they are valued there.

It's very true that girls are not the only ones who face barriers into STEM. Gender identity is a very important part of this story. Some research suggests that, the more that girls identify with their gender, the more susceptible they are to gender stereotypes.

We're starting to look at this in our research by changing the way we measure gender identity. We let students identify their own gender (so that they aren't limited to the binary choices of "girl" or "boy"), and we're also trying a new measure that gives them a continuum on which to note their gender identification.

Given that transgender girls show the same kind of gender cognitions as cisgender girls, I suspect that gender stereotypes affect them in a similar way. If the stereotypes say "computer science is not for girls," then transgender girls may believe that they do not belong in computer science. We don't have a large enough sample from our surveys yet, but we hope to be able to look at this issue in the future.

We definitely need more research on belonging in STEM for the LGBTQ+ population, and NSF is starting to make policy changes to support this research. There's still so much work to do to support these students in STEM!

-Allison

Thanks, Lauren! Definitely agree that we need to broaden the stereotypes about who belongs in these fields!

-Allison

Hi Kira,

Yes, absolutely! We need to change these messages that "STEM is only for some" or beliefs that "I'm not a math person." My hope is that giving children more early, positive experiences doing coding and engineering activities can help them spark an interest in these fields that can grow. We just need to keep removing these psychological barriers that are pushing girls away.

-Allison

Hi Karen,

Thanks for these questions.

1. Oh, that's interesting! I don't know of any research comparing how much stereotypes influence children when they come from different types of sources. I could see it going either way: maybe they would most believe the authoritative figure because that person is a knowledgeable adult, but maybe they would also be most likely to believe other kids, especially when it comes to how much kids are interested in things like a computer science activity.

2. I don't know whether this has been linked to stereotypes, but students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are less likely to pursue STEM careers. They have fewer opportunities to take STEM courses and less support from the people around them. There have been some very interesting interventions aimed at first-generation college students to boost their engagement on campus. I think there's probably a lot of similarity between the ways that first-generation students and women in STEM classes can feel intimidated by other students who have more experience and tend to dominate in the classroom.

-Allison

Hi Dija,

Thanks for your feedback!

This is a great question! I have a few thoughts.

1) I think that kind of positive stereotype may be necessary but not sufficient for promoting interest. Interest is shaped by a lot of personal factors too, so there's no guarantee that many or most girls would become interested if we changed the stereotype. Removing the negative stereotype is like opening the door: now girls are better able to see for themselves whether they want to walk through, but they may still choose not to enter.

2) We can see this in our research when we look at correlations between stereotypes and interest in computer science. There's a strong negative correlation for girls--the more they believe "boys are more interested than girls in computer science," the less interested they are. For boys, the correlation between stereotypes and interest is positive, but it's typically smaller and sometimes is no different from 0. Sometimes they get a "lift" or "boost" in their interest from the stereotypes that favor their group, but not always. That might be because the stereotypes are less salient for them or because there are other things that shape their interest too.

3) There is some experimental evidence that this might work. For example, one study found that preschool children liked an unattractive toy that was labeled as for their gender just as much as they liked an attractive toy that was labeled as for the other gender. So, rebranding computer science as "for girls" could help make it more appealing to girls.

-Allison

Hi Zachary,

Thanks for this point! I agree--these kinds of "affinity groups" can promote belonging within the group, but they may not promote belonging to the field as a whole. I think they can be a valuable short-term solution, but the long-term goal should be to improve everyone's sense of belonging so that these kinds of groups are no longer needed.

-Allison

Hi Dumisile,

Great question! I think this issue is controversial--some experts argue that gender-segregated schools increase gender stereotyping, while others argue that it can promote girls' confidence and sense of belonging. I think an important part of eradicating gender stereotypes is to change boys' stereotypes, which is much harder to do when the genders are segregated.

-Allison

This is fascinating! Thank you for your thoughtful response!

Hi Tiffany,

Thank you! Yes, I agree that we usually make inferences back and forth between interest and ability: if someone is interested, we assume they must be pretty good at it; and if someone is good at something, we assume they probably like it.

In this particular study I think most participants just accepted the information; the experimenters never reported participants questioning that. We also had a pretty extensive debriefing after the study where we talked to all the participants about gender stereotypes, and how they can speak up and respond if they hear other people reinforcing stereotypes.

But I think it would be a great idea for a future study to talk more to them about how they interpreted the information we gave them, and why THEY thought girls might be less interested in the task!

-Allison