Changing Social Contexts to Foster Equity in College Science Courses: An Ecological-Belonging Intervention – ScienceOpen
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      Changing Social Contexts to Foster Equity in College Science Courses: An Ecological-Belonging Intervention

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          Abstract

          In diverse classrooms, stereotypes are often “in the air,” which can interfere with learning and performance among stigmatized students. Two studies designed to foster equity in college science classrooms ( Ns = 1,215 and 607) tested an intervention to establish social norms that make stereotypes irrelevant in the classroom. At the beginning of the term, classrooms assigned to an ecological-belonging intervention engaged in discussion with peers around the message that social and academic adversity is normative and that students generally overcome such adversity. Compared with business-as-usual controls, intervention students had higher attendance, course grades, and 1-year college persistence. The intervention was especially impactful among historically underperforming students, as it improved course grades for ethnic minorities in introductory biology and for women in introductory physics. Regardless of demographics, attendance in the intervention classroom predicted higher cumulative grade point averages 2 to 4 years later. The results illustrate the viability of an ecological approach to fostering equity and unlocking student potential.

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          Most cited references43

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          A brief social-belonging intervention improves academic and health outcomes of minority students.

          A brief intervention aimed at buttressing college freshmen's sense of social belonging in school was tested in a randomized controlled trial (N = 92), and its academic and health-related consequences over 3 years are reported. The intervention aimed to lessen psychological perceptions of threat on campus by framing social adversity as common and transient. It used subtle attitude-change strategies to lead participants to self-generate the intervention message. The intervention was expected to be particularly beneficial to African-American students (N = 49), a stereotyped and socially marginalized group in academics, and less so to European-American students (N = 43). Consistent with these expectations, over the 3-year observation period the intervention raised African Americans' grade-point average (GPA) relative to multiple control groups and halved the minority achievement gap. This performance boost was mediated by the effect of the intervention on subjective construal: It prevented students from seeing adversity on campus as an indictment of their belonging. Additionally, the intervention improved African Americans' self-reported health and well-being and reduced their reported number of doctor visits 3 years postintervention. Senior-year surveys indicated no awareness among participants of the intervention's impact. The results suggest that social belonging is a psychological lever where targeted intervention can have broad consequences that lessen inequalities in achievement and health.
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            A question of belonging: race, social fit, and achievement.

            Stigmatization can give rise to belonging uncertainty. In this state, people are sensitive to information diagnostic of the quality of their social connections. Two experiments tested how belonging uncertainty undermines the motivation and achievement of people whose group is negatively characterized in academic settings. In Experiment 1, students were led to believe that they might have few friends in an intellectual domain. Whereas White students were unaffected, Black students (stigmatized in academics) displayed a drop in their sense of belonging and potential. In Experiment 2, an intervention that mitigated doubts about social belonging in college raised the academic achievement (e.g., college grades) of Black students but not of White students. Implications for theories of achievement motivation and intervention are discussed. 2007 APA, all rights reserved
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              Grounding in communication.

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                Author and article information

                Contributors
                (View ORCID Profile)
                (View ORCID Profile)
                Journal
                Psychological Science
                Psychol Sci
                SAGE Publications
                0956-7976
                1467-9280
                September 2020
                August 26 2020
                September 2020
                : 31
                : 9
                : 1059-1070
                Affiliations
                [1 ]Learning Research and Development Center, University of Pittsburgh
                [2 ]Department of Psychology, University of Pittsburgh
                [3 ]Department of Biological Sciences, University of Pittsburgh
                [4 ]Department of Physics, Community College of Allegheny County
                [5 ]Department of Physics, Cornell University
                [6 ]Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, University of Georgia
                [7 ]Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Pittsburgh
                Article
                10.1177/0956797620929984
                32845825
                b0bb214b-291c-45d3-9bf8-68adfd8ce6c6
                © 2020

                http://www.sagepub.com/licence-information-for-chorus

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