Back in April, 2009, this podcast ____1____ research finding that a simple writing exercise helped ____2____ improve their grades. Now, a new study shows that the same exercise can help female college students overcome stereotypes about women in science and improve their performance. The work is in the journal Science.
Women in physics classes tend to do more poorly than men on exams. The researchers wanted to look at the role of ____3____ issues. They surveyed 399 students of both sexes in an intro physics class about whether they agreed with the stereotype that men are generally better at physics.
Then half took part in exercises where they chose values important to them, and they wrote about why these mattered. They did so at the beginning of the semester and again before a mid-term exam.
In the control group—which did not do the values writing—men scored much better on the exam. But in the affirmation group, women saw their grades improve, significantly reducing ___4___. And women who had agreed that men were better at physics improved the most. So a little positive affirmation might help more women ____5____ science—and stay in the field.
【视听版科学小组荣誉出品】
covered minority students psychological the gender gap thrive in
在2009年四月，我们播客曾经报道过一则关于简单写作训练可以帮助少数民族学生提高成绩的发现。现在一则新的研究显示，同样的训练也帮助女大学生提高成绩，打破科学领域对女性的刻板印象。这项发现刊登在《自然》杂志上。物理班的女生测验成绩往往比男生要低。研究人员希望知道心理作用是否影响了测验成绩。他们在物理概论课上抽取了399名男女学生进行调查，看他们是否认同“男生比女生更精通物理”这个刻板思想。 然后半数的被调查学生参加了一项测试，要求他们选择最重要的价值理念，并要解释原因。他们在学期初和期中考之前都要参加这种测试。 没有参与价值理念测试的对照组中，男性在物理测验中成绩更好。但在实验组中，女性的成绩提高了，不同性别之间的成绩差距明显缩小。当初认为男性在物理测验中会得到更高成绩的女性进步最为明显。因此，一点点积极的肯定也许可以让女性在科学领域里茁壮成长、发光发热。