Frame reading assessment as a game to reduce stereotype threat for boys¶

Strategy · All strategies
Evidence · 3 claims (2 for, 1 mixed) · 2 studies (1 causal, 1 theoretical), q2–q3 · 0 of 2 report an effect size · 3 claims rest on one study

Description¶

The article's manipulation shows a concrete framing choice: presenting a reading test as diagnostic of reading abilities induced threat, while presenting the same test as a game reduced threat, reversing the gender gap. Teachers and test designers concerned about boys' reading underperformance can present low-stakes reading activities as games rather than as ability diagnoses. The article's evidence for this comes from one experiment, and the reversal held only among highly-identified students.

Design Implications¶

Context¶

Requirements¶

• Ability to control how the assessment is introduced to students (diagnostic framing versus game framing)

Constraints¶

• The pattern was obtained only among highly-identified students
• Tested once with eighty third-grade students on a reading test

Target Learners¶

• elementary school students (3rd grade)

Target Learning Goals¶

• reading performance

Affordances¶

• Stereotype Threat Reading Account

Claims¶

• Stereotype threat reverses the gender gap in third-grade reading: boys underperform girls under threat but outperform them under reduced threat [+M]
• The threat-by-gender pattern in reading occurred only among highly-identified students [~M]
• Stereotype threat compromises the test performance of learners whose group is the target of a negative stereotype [+M]

Related Strategies¶

• Value Affirmation Before Assessment
• Reordering math and verbal test administration as a classroom-level strategy to reduce stereotype threat in girls’ math testing.

Examples¶

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Key Sources¶

• Pascal Pansu, Isabelle Régner, Sylvain Max, Pascale Colé, John B. Nezlek, Pascal Huguet. (2016). A burden for the boys: Evidence of stereotype threat in boys' reading performance. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 65, pp.26-30. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jesp.2016.02.008