Stereotypical Threat in a Digital Environment for Mathematics Assessment

• In Event: Thursday Roundtable Session 9:00 am
  In Roundtable Session: Feminist Issues in Mathematics Education (Table 12)

Abstract

Numerous studies show that female students have lower average achievements in mathematics compared to male students with similar abilities. One explanation is a phenomenon called "stereotype threat", which involves the stress that individuals experience when performing a task in which members of their group are considered weak, causing a decline in performance. This study compares the effect of gender stereotype threat in pencil and paper assessment and in a digital assessment environment and finds that the impact of stereotype threat on girls was stronger (and performance worse) in the pen and paper assessment than in the digital assessment. These findings suggest that transition to online assessment environments could potentially improve female students' achievements and address gender inequalities in mathematics education.

Authors

• Shai Olsher, University of Haifa

• Tammy Harel Ben-Shahar, University of Haifa

• Ekram Hasan