Zagrożenie stereotypem, bezradność intelektualna a oceny szkolne dziewcząt z matematyki

Zagrożenie stereotypem to zjawisko, które pojawia się w czasie testowania pewnych zdolności, wskutek aktywizacji negatywnego stereotypu mówiącego o niskich zdolnościach własnej grupy. Jego konsekwencją jest pogorszenie wykonywania zadań wymagających tych zdolności. W przedstawionym badaniu mierzono za pomocą skali psychologicznej poczucie zagrożenia stereotypem u uczennic szkół podstawowych i gimnazjów oraz sprawdzano jego związek z ocenami szkolnymi z matematyki. Ponadto, korzystając z rozważań teoretycznych o podobieństwie stereotypizacji i wyuczonej bezradności, testowano mediacyjną i moderacyjną rolę bezradności intelektualnej z matematyki. Uzyskane wyniki sugerują, że bezradność intelektualna mediuje relację między poczuciem zagrożenia stereotypem na lekcjach matematyki a ocenami szkolnymi z tego przedmiotu

Chronic Stereotype Threat Is Associated With Mathematical Achievement on Representative Sample of Secondary Schoolgirls: The Role of Gender Identification, Working Memory, and Intellectual Helplessness

Stereotype threat affects performance in many different groups across many different domains. Despite a large body of experimental research on situational stereotype threat, little attention has been paid to the consequences of repeated experience of stereotype threat. Using structural equation modeling on data from a representative sample of girls from secondary schools, the current research examined the relations of chronic stereotype threat with mathematical achievement, and effectiveness of working memory functions. Moving beyond past theory, this study examined a new mechanism by which chronic stereotype threat decreases school achievement – namely intellectual helplessness. We assumed that repeated experience of stereotype threat works as intellectual helplessness training. After the phase of cognitive mobilization, cognitive exhaustion appears, because the individual has no gain from intense cognitive effort. Corroborating previous research on acute stereotype threat, we demonstrated that chronic stereotype threat is negatively associated with mathematical achievement. Additionally, it was also associated with lower effectiveness of working memory functions, which seems to show depletion of working memory as an effect of chronic stereotype threat. The results also demonstrated that both mediational paths from chronic stereotype threat to mathematical achievement: through working memory depletion and through intellectual helplessness were significant but only for girls that were highly identified with their gender group. In sum, we extended a well-established model of acute stereotype threat to its chronic version and suggested a new mechanism of chronic stereotype threat, which involves intellectual helplessness. Implications for stereotype threat theory and educational practice are discussed

Predictors of instrumental motivation for mathematics in Pisa 2012. The role of gender, self-concept, helplessness, negative emotions, worries and intrinsic motivation

The aim of our study was to define predictors of instrumental motivation for mathematics. In our research, we used the data on the Polish sample of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) from 2012. We hypothesized that motivation to engage in mathematics at later stages of education and in professional career, called “instrumental motivation” in the project, can be predicted based on gender, mathematics self-concept, intrin- sic motivation, as well as worries about coping with mathematics and negative emotions. Using structural equation modelling, with gender and mathematics self-concept as predictors, and negative emotions, intrinsic motivation and worries about one’s math skills as mediators, we showed that helplessness in mathematics, indirectly determined by gender and mathematics self-concept, has an indirect effect on instrumental motivation, only through higher worries about one’s math abilities. Instrumental motivation turned out to be also strongly related to intrinsic motivation, which in turn is linked to a positive mathematics self-concep