Hi Tipsters!
Sorry to respond so late to this post. Claude Steele's stereotype threat research
revealed one potential reason why there are differences in placement exams or testing
between men and women (or racial differences too). What his research suggests is that
the testing situation may create an environment that is different for women (or other
groups) and negatively impacts performance.
Discussion of this work can be found at the website below
http://www.nsf.gov/sbe/srs/nsf96311/3sidebr4.htm
Cheers,
Diana Kyle
Fullerton College
John W. Kulig wrote:
> Paul Smith just alerted me to an article in Dec 1998 (vol 7, #6, December)
> Current Directions by a co-worker (S. Graham) on student outcomes measures. It
> inspired me to read it as I recently agreed to serve on as assessment
> committee, and, glancing through that copy of the journal I discovered yet
> _another_ article of interest to recent tips threads - Stumpf and Stanley's
> "Stability and Change in Gender-Related Differences on the College Board
> Advanced Placement and Achievement Tests" p. 192-196. It reports advanaced
> placement gender differences on a variety of tests (math, physics, literature,
> etc.). It reports sex difference effect sizes (d) for all the advanced
> placement tests. Guess which test showed the strongest gender difference
> favoring males? Yes, you guessed it - Mechanics (Physics C) d=.52 Now, Michael
> Sylvester just asked a question about gender differences in car _mechanic_
> repairs, didn't he? Funny how (with a bit of imagination) all these topics
> come together!
>
> The largest effect size for female advanatge was on the Spanish Literature
> Advanced Placement Test (d=.23), followed by French Literature (d=.20). If we,
> as a society, were to value the humanities and the social sciences as much as
> we valued mechanics (e.g. by paying Spanish and French professors as much as
> Physics professors) would this make the "vive la difference!" argument more
>palatable?
>
> p.s. besides spending my summer doing academic readings, I also just read
> Martin Cruz Smith's (of Gorky Park fame) recent novel _Rose_. It's a great
> book, about the coal mines of 19th century England - murder, sex, detective
> work, social class issues - I highly recommend it. It was also the source of
> my .sig file about being "wrought in the lowest parts of the earth." It's both
> a literal reference to the depths of coal mines, as well as an illusion to our
> darker, mysterious origins (at least, that's my interp). In Psalms 139 it
> probably means something totally different. If you're familiar with Smith's
> other well known books (Gorky Park, Polar Star, Red Square), _Rose_ is leaner,
> less complex as a detective work, but more riveting as an emotional and
> psychological drama.
>
> --
> * John W. Kulig, Department of Psychology ************************
> * Plymouth State College Plymouth NH 03264 *
> * [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://oz.plymouth.edu/~kulig *
> *******************************************************************
> * "I was made in secret and curiously wrought in the lowest *
> * parts of the earth" - Psalm 139 *
> *******************************************************************
