Interventions that prompt learners to generate their own ideas about how material is valuable are promising for inspiring engagement. Drawing from research on the availability bias, we investigated how the learners’ subjective experience of generating ideas about the value of a domain (i.e., ease of coming up with ideas) affects perceptions of the content. In both studies, we manipulated the number of value statements participants generated, and then measured subjective task experience and perceived value of the content. Both studies’ results showed that the relationship between the number of value statements and perceived value became stronger when subjective task experience was added as an intervening variable. This pattern is suggestive of a positive direct effect of value statements on perceived value as well as a negative indirect effect of subjective task experience. Implications are discussed.
Last. Janet Shibley Hyde(UW: University of Wisconsin-Madison)H-Index: 95
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First-generation college students (students for whom neither parent has a 4-year college degree) earn lower grades and worry more about whether they belong in college, compared with continuing-generation students (who have at least 1 parent with a 4-year college degree). We conducted a longitudinal follow-up of participants from a study in which a values-affirmation intervention improved performance in a biology course for first-generation college students, and found that the treatment effect on...
Homogeneity within science limits creativity and discovery, and can feed into a perpetuating cycle of underrepresentation. From enhancing social justice to alleviating health and economic disadvantages, broadening participation in science is imperative. We focus here on first-generation students (FGS) and identify factors which grab and hold science interest among this underrepresented group. Might the culture and norms within science unintentionally limit FGS' participation? We argue that two d...
#2Jessi L. Smith(MSU: Montana State University)H-Index: 32
Last. Gregg A. Muragishi(LBSU: California State University, Long Beach)H-Index: 3
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Motivating students to pursue science careers is a top priority among many science educators. We add to the growing literature by examining the impact of a utility value intervention to enhance student’s perceptions that biomedical science affords important utility work values. Using an expectancy-value perspective, we identified and tested 2 types of utility value: communal (other-oriented) and agentic (self-oriented). The culture of science is replete with examples emphasizing high levels of a...
: Interventions targeting students' perceived relevance of the learning content have been shown to effectively promote student motivation within science classes (e.g., Hulleman & Harackiewicz, 2009). Yet, further research is warranted to understand better how such interventions should be designed in order to be successfully implemented in the classroom setting. A cluster randomized controlled study was conducted to test whether ninth-grade students' value beliefs for mathematics (i.e., intrinsic...
The worry or concern over confirming negative gender group stereotypes, called stereotype threat, is one explanation for women’s worldwide underrepresentation in undergraduate science classes and majors. But how does stereotype threat translate into fewer women motivated for science? In this quantitative study with a sample from the US, we use Expectancy Value Theory to examine whether and how stereotype threat concerns might influence women’s science identification. To do this, we collected sur...
Social-psychological interventions in education have used a variety of “self-persuasion” or “saying-is-believing” techniques to encourage students to articulate key intervention messages. These techniques are used in combination with more overt strategies, such as the direct communication of messages in order to promote attitude change. However, these different strategies have rarely been systematically compared, particularly in controlled laboratory settings. We focus on one intervention based ...
Two experiments examined for the first time whether the specific content of participant-generated affirmation essays—in particular, writing about social belonging—facilitated an affirmation intervention’s ability to reduce identity threat among negatively stereotyped students. Study 1, a field experiment, revealed that seventh graders assigned to a values-affirmation condition wrote about social belonging more than those assigned to a control condition. Writing about belonging, in turn, improved...
To the extent that stereotype and identity threat undermine academic performance, social psychological interventions that lessen threat could buffer threatened students and improve performance. Two studies, each featuring a longitudinal field experiment in a mixed-ethnicity middle school, examined whether a values affirmation writing exercise could attenuate the achievement gap between Latino American and European American students. In Study 1, students completed multiple self-affirmation (or co...
Recent randomized experiments have found that seemingly “small” social-psychological interventions in education—that is, brief exercises that target students’ thoughts, feelings, and beliefs in and about school—can lead to large gains in student achievement and sharply reduce achievement gaps even months and years later. These interventions do not teach students academic content but instead target students’ psychology, such as their beliefs that they have the potential to improve their intellige...
Last. Tiffany A. Ito(CU: University of Colorado Boulder)H-Index: 29
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In many science, technology, engineering, and mathematics disciplines, women are outperformed by men in test scores, jeopardizing their success in science-oriented courses and careers. The current study tested the effectiveness of a psychological intervention, called values affirmation, in reducing the gender achievement gap in a college-level introductory physics class. In this randomized double-blind study, 399 students either wrote about their most important values or not, twice at the beginn...
Abstract Utility-value (UV) writing interventions help students find the personal relevance of course material to promote interest and performance. However, little is known about how best to frame the intervention, particularly in the 2-year college context where students have more varied backgrounds than the samples previously studied. Using a randomized field experiment, we tested two ways of framing a UV writing intervention (student-framed vs. instructor-framed examples of UV), against a con...