Two brief interventions to mitigate a “chilly climate” transform women’s experience, relationships, and achievement in engineering.

Abstract

In a randomized-controlled trial, we tested 2 brief interventions designed to mitigate the effects of a "chilly climate" women may experience in engineering, especially in male-dominated fields. Participants were students entering a selective university engineering program. The social-belonging intervention aimed to protect students' sense of belonging in engineering by providing a nonthreatening narrative with which to interpret instances of adversity. The affirmation-training intervention aimed to help students manage stress that can arise from social marginalization by incorporating diverse aspects of their self-identity in their daily academic lives. As expected, gender differences and intervention effects were concentrated in male-dominated majors (Ͻ20% women). In these majors, compared with control conditions, both interventions raised women's school-reported engineering grade-point-average (GPA) over the full academic year, eliminating gender differences. Both also led women to view daily adversities as more manageable and improved women's academic attitudes. However, the 2 interventions had divergent effects on women's social experiences. The social-belonging intervention helped women integrate into engineering, for instance, increasing friendships with male engineers. Affirmation-training helped women develop external resources, deepening their identification with their gender group. The results highlight how social marginalization contributes to gender inequality in quantitative fields and 2 potential remedies.

Teaching a lay theory before college narrows achievement gaps at scale

“…Furthermore, effects appeared to be mediated by the psychological and behavioral processes depicted in Fig. 1-for instance, asking professors or teaching assistants for help, attending office hours, or taking chances on making friends (11,17,25).…”

Classroom Belonging and Student Performance in the Introductory Engineering Classroom

“…A similar pattern emerged among URM and FGC students, with lower mean scores than their counterparts but none of these differences were statistically significant. These lower scores are consistent with previous research on social belonging among female, URM and FGC students (Walton et al 2015) and the lack of statistical significance may be a result of the small sample size or the unique cultural aspects of this one testing site. Engineering identity appears to be an important discriminant factor among female, with statistically lower scores (-.17, p < .05) than their male counterparts.…”

“…The measurement of social belonging was accomplished using the Sense of Social and Academic Fit in STEM scale developed by Walton et al (2015) Responses were collected within a 7 point "agreement" range 1 and the items had good internal consistency (Cronbach α = .83).…”

Social Belonging and First-Year Engineering Mathematics: A Collaborative Learning Intervention

“…These findings are consistent with the idea that social-psychological factors act as barriers to student achievement in engineering, namely, feelings of doubt that one fits in to the academic environment. 8,9,10,11 If this uncertainty can be lessened by an instructional environment that produces greater social cohesion, then there are important implications for pedagogy in engineering education.…”

“…A similar intervention, used to target women in maledominated engineering majors, succeeded in raising women's engineering GPAs to males' levels and improved their attitudes towards academics and daily adversities. 9 Both of these studies and others (e.g., 10,11 ), illustrate the importance of social belonging to college students who are historically underrepresented in their academic environments. A sense of belonging improves self-efficacy for learning and promotes social integration for students who are insecure about their place on campus or in their chosen major.…”