Search Results

As highlighted by Kurt Lewin, goal attainment is not yet secured solely by forming strong commitments to highly desirable and feasible goals. There is always the subsequent issue of implementing a set goal, and one wonders what people can do to enhance their chances of being successful at this second phase of goal pursuit. A promising answer seems to be the following: People may plan out in advance how they want to solve the problems of goal implementation. But what are these problems? There are at least four problems that stand out. These problems include getting started with goal striving, staying on track, calling a halt, and not overextending oneself. We will describe research showing that making if–then plans (i.e., form implementation intentions) on how to deal with these problems indeed facilitates solving the crucial problems of goal implementation. Thereafter, we will ask whether implementation intentions foster goal attainment even under conditions that are commonly viewed as not amenable to self-regulation attempts, such as succeeding on an intelligence test or overcoming spider phobia. Finally, we will report research showing that implementation intentions can even foster goal-striving in those samples (e.g., children with ADHD) that are known to suffer from impaired action control.

Stereotype threat is one of the most widely studied social psychological concepts of the past 20 years. In this introductory chapter, we provide a broad overview of the theory and introduce the goals of this volume. The significance of the theory lies in its ability to offer a more optimistic account of group differences in performance. By side-stepping the nature–nurture debate entirely, stereotype threat seeks to identify how factors in the immediate performance situation contribute to—if not create—the appearance of systematic differences in ability. Interest in these effects is not restricted to academic circles but has gained broad recognition in the popular press with applications beyond education to intergroup interactions, organizational behavior, and clinical diagnoses. We review the four main sections of the book: an examination of basic processes that trigger and mediate how negative stereotypes impair performance, a discussion of recent theoretical extensions to the original formulation of the theory, a review of the variety of groups in which stereotype threat has been documented, and a description of how the theory can be applied to alleviate the debilitating effects that negative stereotypes can have in academic contexts. The book is intended for anyone with an interest in the behavioral science of performance, whether from an academic, organizational, or social policy perspective. To facilitate application of basic theory to the field, each chapter provides policy recommendations stemming from the research reviewed. To inspire future research, we conclude the chapter with a review of unanswered questions that await further inquiry.

Hundreds of laboratory experiments have shown that stereotype threat can undermine intellectual performance in the laboratory. But do the same processes demonstrated in the laboratory operate in the real world? And, can they help us explain and remediate achievement gaps between blacks and whites, well to do and poor, and women and men? In this chapter, we take up this question, reviewing the most pertinent evidence and the best-known critiques of stereotype threat. Specifically, we argue that the confluence of evidence from meta-analyses of experiments, longitudinal studies, field experiments, natural experiments, and field interventions points strongly to the conclusion that stereotype threat is a very useful construct for understanding and improving real-world achievement.

An important consequence of negative stereotypes that impugn non-Asian ethnic minorities’ intellectual ability and women’s mathematical ability is to convey to the targets of these stereotypes that they are not seen as individuals, that they may not be fully valued or respected—that they may not belong—in academic settings. In this chapter, we review research demonstrating that people who contend with numeric under-representation and with negative stereotypes in mainstream academic and professional arenas are vigilant for cues that could communicate they do not belong or are not fully included in these settings. When encountered, such cues can undermine people’s sense of belonging, motivation, and achievement. Further, this chapter reviews effective remedies—strategies to buttress students’ sense of social belonging in academic environments. These strategies aim to forestall negative attributions for social events in school—to lead students to see social adversity as normal and nondiagnostic of a lack of belonging. As tested in randomized intervention field experiments, variants of this intervention have improved school outcomes among black college students, black middle school students, and female engineering students, even over long periods of time. A 1-hour-long social-belonging intervention delivered in students’ freshman year improved black students’ college grades from sophomore through senior year, and reduced the achievement gap between black and white students over this period by 52%. Implications for psychological process, for stereotype threat, and for efforts to ameliorate social inequality are discussed.

Kurt Lewin, the renowned experimental social psychologist, said that understanding the processes underlying a problem can help us to remedy it. He also said that one of the best ways to understand a phenomenon is by trying to change it. This chapter discusses how an understanding of “identity threat”—the psychological threat arising from possible devaluation of one’s group—led to successful interventions that closed the achievement gap in schools, a pervasive social problem in the United States. The interventions include invoking high performance standards, encouraging optimistic interpretations of adversity, and buttressing students’ sense of self-integrity and belonging. All the interventions were tested using randomized field experiments that assessed outcomes over long periods of time, sometimes years. Not only did the interventions lead to positive academic trajectories for ethnic minority students in general and female students in science, they also advanced a theoretical understanding of how identity threat compounds over time through recursive feedback loops. Because of the self-reinforcing nature of recursive cycles, subtle but well-timed interventions can have effects that appear disproportionate to their size and duration. Additionally, the research shows how making the jump from lab to field—from theory to application—can bring to light new theoretical principles related to psychological processes and intervention itself.

This chapter investigates the impact of the different schools and teachers in the Avon area on the outcomes of the children they taught. It begins by investigating the role of the whole school in considering what difference it makes which school a child goes to. Here, primary and secondary schools have major effects on the emotional well-being of their children. The variation across schools in this regard is as large as the variation in their impact on academic performance. There is also a huge variation in the impact of individual primary school teachers on the emotional well-being and academic performance of their children. These effects of primary schools and teachers persist throughout the following five years and longer.

Children's opportunities for free time (in the form of recess) and corresponding opportunities to interact with their peers have been eliminated or diminished in many school systems across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. The movement to minimize recess in schools may be popular because politicians and school superintendents see this as a way in which to “get tough on education, provide more “academic time” for students, and improve academic performance. On the other hand, although many educators and parents recognize the centrality of teaching skills and maximizing the efficient use of relatively scarce classroom time, they also see the necessity of breaks between periods of intense work, when children can both relax and interact with peers, with the hope that they will return to their classrooms after their breaks and work with renewed interest. This chapter discusses the effect of recess on children's cognitive performance, the role of peer interaction at recess in predicting first-grade achievement, and the importance of peer interaction for adjustment to school.

The psychological experience of stereotype threat—a concern about being seen through the lens of a negative stereotype—can undermine motivation and performance in stereotype-relevant fields (Steele, Spencer, & Aronson, 2002). However, a key question remains: What exactly is stereotype threat a threat to, or a fear of? A close look at this important literature reveals that “stereotype threat” is often employed to describe and explain distinct processes and phenomena. The present chapter reviews a new approach to stereotype threat: the Multi-Threat Framework (Shapiro & Neuberg, 2007). In contrast to previous research, the Multi-Threat Framework articulates six qualitatively distinct stereotype threats that emerge from the intersection of two dimensions—the target of the stereotype threat (who will one’s stereotype-relevant actions reflect upon: the self or one’s group) and the source of the stereotype threat (who will judge these stereotype-relevant actions: the self, outgroup others, or ingroup others). Each of these stereotype threats have different eliciting conditions and moderators, are mediated by somewhat different processes, are experienced to different degrees by different negatively stereotyped groups, are coped with and compensated for in different ways, and require different interventions to overcome. The chapter focuses on the diversity of situational and individual difference factors that moderate an individual’s susceptibility to the different types of stereotype threats, as these factors shed light on when each of the stereotypes threats will emerge and how to best remediate the negative consequences of these stereotype threats.

This chapter focuses on the consequences of sleep deficits for children between one and ten years of age. Research on adolescents and adults strongly suggests that sleep plays important roles in learning and behavior. Recent reviews suggest that less than optimal nighttime sleep is associated with less than optimal functioning during the day, particularly with respect to adults' learning, adolescents' academic performance, and attention deficit disorders in children. Likewise, sleep disordered breathing has been linked with cognitive functioning and emotions and behavior problems in children between the ages of four and sixteen years.

The effect of arts study on learning in general, though not yet substantiated sufficiently, can be surprisingly positive. Students that study the arts seem to do better overall. Apparently there is a critical, though as yet not adequately explained or documented, link between the extent of arts engagement and the quality of academic performance. In a variety of programs across the United States, the arts have been credited with helping young minds perform well and encouraging students to stay in school. The Florida Department of Education, for example, found a direct correlation between an active fine and performing arts program and increased student motivation and a lower dropout rate. The Manchester Craftsmen's Guild in Pittsburgh, an organization that apprentices young at-risk, inner-city students in the arts while teaching them mathematics, English, and other subjects, found a correlation between the arts and student academic performance.

The vast majority of stereotype threat research has been done in laboratory settings, and the focus of the chapter is on generalizing findings to the use of cognitive ability tests in high-stakes settings, such as personnel selection and admission for higher education. We first discuss some mischaracterization of the research findings on stereotype threat. Next, we discuss concerns regarding the generalizability of research findings to operational testing contexts, focusing on the degree to which boundary conditions for the experience of stereotype threat are met in high-stakes settings, and on the possibility of overcoming the inhibitory effects of experienced threat in high-stakes settings. We then review the limited existing research conducted in operational settings, including experimental, quasi-experimental, and observational studies. Our assessment is that research to date has not provided evidence of consistent and replicable threat effects in high-stakes settings, and that more research in operational testing settings is needed.

This chapter discusses student participation in the law school classroom, with particular attention to race and gender as well as status and context. The implications for our understandings of diversity, both in the law school classroom and beyond it, are examined. A threshold question is that of the effect or importance of student participation profiles in terms of students' overall experience. In other words, what difference does student participation make? On the one hand, the typical first-year law school class is graded almost entirely on the basis of written work; it is unusual to find class participation playing much of a role in professors' grading schemes. On the other hand, researchers in other educational settings have found a link between class participation and students' sense of self-esteem, their overall performance, and their sense of inclusion in the wider communities and professions into which they are supposedly being socialized.

This chapter describes charter schools in the United States. Particular attention is paid to the connections between Catholic schools and charter schools, including the competitive pressures that charter schools place on Catholic schools, on charter schools’ role as an alternative to more-ambitious school choice efforts, on the development of “quasi-religious” charter schools, and on the debate within the Catholic school sector about whether bishops should “convert” Catholic schools to secular charter schools in order to secure public funding. The chapter concludes by reviewing three such conversion experiments. The chapter also covers the remarkable ascendancy of charter schools since Minnesota enacted the first charter school law in 1991, distinctions between charter school laws and their effects on the charter school landscape in various states, on the diversity of among individual charter schools, and debates about charter schools’ academic performance.

A better understanding of the relationship between school conditions and students' academic performance could engender major support for improving the quality of the learning environment. An important step in improving conditions in the learning environment is a routine inspection and evaluation program. Such inspections typically focus on identifying and mitigating risks to the health and safety of school occupants, but the data generated could also be used to examine the relationships between school conditions, students' health and safety, and academic performance. This chapter presents an approach to routine inspections.

This chapter and the next focus on developments during the ages of roughly 2 to 12 years. The present chapter discusses parents’ beliefs and behaviors with respect to aspects of their children’s cognitive development. Seven developments are considered: academic performance, intelligence, Piagetian concepts, theory of mind, memory, executive function, and language. As in Chapter 5, beliefs about general milestones of development are also discussed. And, as in most chapters, parents are of interest both as informants with regard to their children’s development and as contributors to development. Also discussed are the cultural differences that emerge in parents’ expectations, which reflect values and related socialization practices. Culture is both a source of parents’ beliefs and a context for attempting to turn them into reality.

This chapter examines whether schools that are successful with immigrant-origin children employ practices that have the promise of being useful elsewhere. Focusing on two high schools in the United States and two in Sweden, it considers overt curricula and programs that prepare children of immigrants to be active and empowered actors in the multicultural, global contexts of their receiving nations. Using a case study methodological strategy, the chapter explores school-based practices that are implemented in innovative, “promising” school settings to ease the transition and integration of immigrant-origin youth as well as foster and enhance their academic performance. As part of their preparation agenda, the schools in both Sweden and the United States make accommodations for newcomer immigrant-origin students and second-language learners, allowing them to catch up with their native-born peers.