Session 2: Supporting Equity
40 minutes
discussion-based
Purpose
Participants engage in activities that promote an awareness of access, diversity, and stereotype threat in CS in their classrooms and schools. Participants reflect on adding actions in support of access, diversity and reducing stereotype threat in CS to their 30-60-90 day plans which were started in the summer workshops.
Objectives
- Participants describe ways to improve access and diversity in CS at their schools.
- Participants identify strategies to reduce stereotype threat in their CS classrooms.
Supplies & Prep
Agenda
Access and Diversity in CS (18 minutes)
Reducing Stereotype Threat in CS Classrooms (22 minutes)
Facilitation Guide
Access and Diversity in CS (18 minutes)
(1 minute) Context Setting
Facilitator Tip
This session may be a challenging conversation for some participants. In preparation for facilitating this session, refer to the PAIRS framework and the resource, 10 Common responses to tension and conflict.
[Share slide with description and image of Concern-Influence-Control model.]
Remarks
During the summer workshop we introduced the Concern-Influence-Control model to help you develop a commitment and 30-60-90 day plan towards equity in CS.
- Concern: things that I am concerned about, but cannot really influence
- Influence: things that I may be able to influence, but I cannot control
- Control: things that I have the power to control
The first part of today’s session is dedicated to revisiting and reflecting on your commitment and 30-60-90 day plan in support of equity with a focus on access and diversity. As part of your reflection, consider adding actions to your plan, if any, for supporting access and diversity.
The second part of today’s session is dedicated to identifying stereotype threats in CS and developing classroom strategies for minimizing them in support of equity.
(9 minutes) Think-Pair-Share
(1 minute) Remind participants of the definitions of access and diversity adapted from the Guide to Inclusive Computer Science Education that were shared during the summer workshop.
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Access: opportunity to learn and experience CS
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Diversity: student enrollment rates in CS courses reflect the demographics of the overall school or community population, particularly in terms of race, ethnicity, gender, economics, and disability status
(8 minutes) Think - Pair - Share: Allow participants to think silently before having them share with a partner and then the group as a whole.
- (1 minute) Think: individual reflection
- (3 minutes) Pair: discuss with a partner
- (4 minutes) Share: share and discuss with the whole group
Facilitator Tip
Some participants may be in a context where they do not need to recruit students for CS courses because every student takes their course. If this is the case, consider having them shift to thinking about retention in their school’s CS program overall, such as enrolling in a future CS course. These participants can also participate in this activity through the lens of, “What barriers limit access to CS classes in general at my school?”
- Who has access to CS at your school?
- Who IS in the school and NOT in your CS class right now?
- What barriers may prevent some students from taking your CS class?
(3 minutes) Reflect
Participants respond to the prompts in their journal.
Journal Prompts:
- What control or influence do you have over barriers for who has access to CS at your school?
- What actions, if any, might you want to add to your 30-60-90 day plan in support of access to CS at your school?
- What control or influence do you have over barriers for who is in your CS class?
- What actions, if any, might you want to add to your 30-60-90 day plan in support of diversity in your CS class?
(5 minutes) Share Out
Invite a couple of participants to share their responses to the prompts with the whole group.
Reducing Stereotype Threat in CS Classrooms (22 minutes)
(3 minutes) Context Setting
Prep to facilitate Reducing Stereotype Threat in CS Classrooms by reading the resources provided in the "Prepping for Sessions" of the agenda.
Remarks
Depending on your school circumstances, you might feel a lack of control and influence when it comes to who has access to CS at your school and who is in your CS classes. Yet, there are many things you can control and influence in support of equity within your CS classroom culture.
(2 minutes) Invite participants to individually read the definition of stereotype threat adapted from the CSTA Standards for CS Teachers provided on the designated slide.
Stereotype threat: Being at risk of confirming, as a self-characteristic, a negative stereotype about one's social group [Steele & Aronson, 1995]. Even subtle aspects of classroom environments, such as the gender ratio of students in a class or posters associated with masculine CS stereotypes, can cause anxiety that affects the performance and academic engagement of females.
Share a brief statement about where you are in understanding what stereotype threat is as demonstrated in the example statements below.
- The purpose of sharing your statement is to model for participants beginning steps in understanding stereotype threat.
- This session is an introduction to stereotype threat rooted in research and empirically validated classroom strategies to reduce stereotype threat, sharing personal experiences with stereotype threat is not expected here for facilitators or participants.
Example #1 - Stereotype threat is completely new to you: “I hadn’t heard of this until recently, so the concept of stereotype threat is still new to me, but I found the research to be interesting. I am excited to share it with you.”
Example 2 - Stereotype threat is new to you: “I am beginning to understand stereotype threat through my own equity journey and I recognize I have not experienced it, but I want to learn more about how it affects my students.”
Example #3 - Stereotype threat is somewhat new to you: “I have been the only person in the room that looks like me and that made me feel anxiety about whether I belonged and made me question my confidence in my abilities. I can empathize with students who may have experienced stereotype threat and want to learn about strategies to reduce stereotype threat in my classroom.”
(4 minutes) Introducing Stereotype Threat in CS
Remarks
One study showed that children typically think of men who work alone as computer scientists. This idea may be reinforced from media representations of stereotypical computer scientists - males wearing glasses who enjoy video games and science fiction. Studies show these stereotypes detract females and students from underrepresented groups from pursuing CS and may also affect male students who do not fit this stereotype.
Stereotype threat may trigger a student to become disengaged in learning CS because they may feel anxiety about CS or that they don’t belong in CS which leads to underperforming and underachieving.
Let’s examine a study about stereotype threat as an example of how stereotype threat happens in CS. Please note there are many other studies about stereotype threat in CS. Some of the key findings in this particular study are only meant to help start our discussions. Feel free to take a deeper dive into understanding stereotype threat in CS if this session sparks interest for you.
(3 minutes) Share “Study of Stereotype Threat in CS” slide and provide participants with a high level overview of the study.
“What” of the study
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A control group of students taking a CS course were asked to identify their demographic information before taking a test.
- This indirectly reminded students of stereotypes before taking the test when stereotypes could affect student performance on the test.
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The experimental group of students were asked to identify their demographic information after taking the test when stereotypes could not affect student performance on the test.
Some key findings of the study
- For harder topics in CS such as loops, stereotype threat applies to all students.
- All students scored higher when they were not reminded of stereotypes before the test.
- Average/below-average students scored higher when not reminded of stereotypes before the test, regardless of race or gender.
(15 minutes) Empirically Validated Classroom Strategies
Remarks
“So What?”
Understanding stereotype threat involves knowing about “cues” that may activate negative stereotypes and threaten a student’s sense of identity. Some cues we may feel we have no control over such as who is in our classrooms and some cues we can control by implementing classroom strategies that reduce stereotype threat.
(3 minutes) Share with participants the slide with some ways stereotype threat may be activated in classrooms.
- Number of students in a classroom in the same identity group
- Female to male student ratio
- Based on race/ethnicity
- Identity group of instructors
- Course materials
- Explicit or implicit bias
- Lowered expectations
- Over-praising one group over another
Remarks
“Now what?”
As the definition states, even subtle aspects of classroom environments can affect performance and academic engagement. Next, let’s discuss some empirically validated classroom strategies that help reduce stereotype threat in CS. There may be strategies you already use in your CS classroom. There may be strategies that are new to you that you may want to implement.
(11 minutes) Think-Pair-Share
Share with participants the slide “Empirically Validated Classroom Strategies.”
Present and recruit positive role models from diverse groups
- Expose students to successful role models from their group that challenge negative stereotypes.
- Invite role models who represent who IS in your classroom and who IS NOT in your classroom.
Promote a growth mindset about intelligence
- Teach students that intelligence is like a muscle - that is it is not fixed, but grows with effort.
Support students’ sense of belonging
- Teach students that worries about belonging in school are normal, not unique to them or their group, and momentary not fixed.
- Support effective group work in which all students feel they can contribute to projects.
Create fair tests, present them as fair, and as serving a learning purpose
- Use gender- and race-fair tests, communicate fairness, convey that they are being used to facilitate learning, not to measure innate ability or conceptualize stereotypes.
Convey high standards and assure students of their ability to meet these standards
- Frame critical feedback as reflective of high standards and share the feedback-giver’s confidence in the students’ ability to meet those standards.
Prompts:
- What strategies have you or do you currently use in your classroom?
- What strategies do you want to implement in your classroom?
(1 minute) Participants individually respond to the prompts.
(4 minutes) Participants share responses to the prompts with a partner.
(6 minutes) Participants share responses to the prompts with the whole group.
(2 minutes) Journal
Participants respond to the prompt in their journal or add strategies to their 30-60-90 day equity plan.
Prompt:
- Add strategies you want to implement in your classroom to reduce stereotype threat in CS in your journal or 30-60-90 day equity plan.