Master Allison, Cheryan Sapna, Moscatelli Adriana, Meltzoff Andrew N
University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
J Exp Child Psychol. 2017 Aug;160:92-106. doi: 10.1016/j.jecp.2017.03.013. Epub 2017 Apr 21.
The gender gap in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) engagement is large and persistent. This gap is significantly larger in technological fields such as computer science and engineering than in math and science. Gender gaps begin early; young girls report less interest and self-efficacy in technology compared with boys in elementary school. In the current study (N=96), we assessed 6-year-old children's stereotypes about STEM fields and tested an intervention to develop girls' STEM motivation despite these stereotypes. First-grade children held stereotypes that boys were better than girls at robotics and programming but did not hold these stereotypes about math and science. Girls with stronger stereotypes about robotics and programming reported lower interest and self-efficacy in these domains. We experimentally tested whether positive experience with programming robots would lead to greater interest and self-efficacy among girls despite these stereotypes. Children were randomly assigned either to a treatment group that was given experience in programming a robot using a smartphone or to control groups (no activity or other activity). Girls given programming experience reported higher technology interest and self-efficacy compared with girls without this experience and did not exhibit a significant gender gap relative to boys' interest and self-efficacy. These findings show that children's views mirror current American cultural messages about who excels at computer science and engineering and show the benefit of providing young girls with chances to experience technological activities.
在科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）领域的参与度方面，性别差距巨大且长期存在。在计算机科学和工程等技术领域，这种差距比在数学和科学领域要大得多。性别差距很早就开始出现；与小学男生相比，年幼的女孩对技术的兴趣和自我效能感较低。在当前这项研究（N = 96）中，我们评估了6岁儿童对STEM领域的刻板印象，并测试了一种干预措施，以培养女孩在STEM方面的积极性，尽管存在这些刻板印象。一年级的儿童持有这样的刻板印象，即男孩在机器人技术和编程方面比女孩更擅长，但在数学和科学方面却没有这种刻板印象。对机器人技术和编程有更强刻板印象的女孩在这些领域的兴趣和自我效能感较低。我们通过实验测试了，尽管存在这些刻板印象，与编程机器人的积极体验是否会使女孩产生更大的兴趣和自我效能感。儿童被随机分配到一个治疗组，该组通过智能手机获得编程机器人的体验，或者被分配到对照组（无活动或其他活动）。与没有这种体验的女孩相比，有编程体验的女孩表现出更高的技术兴趣和自我效能感，并且相对于男孩的兴趣和自我效能感而言，没有表现出显著的性别差距。这些发现表明，儿童的观点反映了当前美国文化中关于谁在计算机科学和工程方面表现出色的信息，并显示了为年轻女孩提供体验技术活动机会的好处。
