Teaching a lay theory before college narrows achievement gaps at scale
| Autor: | Donald Kamentz, Eric M. Gomez, Laura Keane, Carol S. Dweck, Angela L. Duckworth, Robert Urstein, David S. Yeager, Gregory M. Walton, Ezgi N. Akcinar, Hazel Rose Markus, Gretchen Ritter, Geoffrey L. Cohen, Shannon T. Brady, David Paunesku |
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| Rok vydání: | 2016 |
| Předmět: |
Adult
Male Social psychology (sociology) Matriculation Adolescent media_common.quotation_subject Psychological intervention Friends 050109 social psychology Double-Blind Method Political science Mathematics education Humans 0501 psychology and cognitive sciences Generalizability theory Social inequality Socioeconomic status media_common Multidisciplinary 05 social sciences Mentoring Social Support 050301 education Models Theoretical Disadvantaged Friendship PNAS Plus Educational Status Female 0503 education Follow-Up Studies |
| Zdroj: | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 113 |
| ISSN: | 1091-6490 0027-8424 |
| DOI: | 10.1073/pnas.1524360113 |
| Popis: | Previous experiments have shown that college students benefit when they understand that challenges in the transition to college are common and improvable and, thus, that early struggles need not portend a permanent lack of belonging or potential. Could such an approach—called a lay theory intervention—be effective before college matriculation? Could this strategy reduce a portion of racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic achievement gaps for entire institutions? Three double-blind experiments tested this possibility. Ninety percent of first-year college students from three institutions were randomly assigned to complete single-session, online lay theory or control materials before matriculation (n > 9,500). The lay theory interventions raised first-year full-time college enrollment among students from socially and economically disadvantaged backgrounds exiting a high-performing charter high school network or entering a public flagship university (experiments 1 and 2) and, at a selective private university, raised disadvantaged students’ cumulative first-year grade point average (experiment 3). These gains correspond to 31–40% reductions of the raw (unadjusted) institutional achievement gaps between students from disadvantaged and nondisadvantaged backgrounds at those institutions. Further, follow-up surveys suggest that the interventions improved disadvantaged students’ overall college experiences, promoting use of student support services and the development of friendship networks and mentor relationships. This research therefore provides a basis for further tests of the generalizability of preparatory lay theories interventions and of their potential to reduce social inequality and improve other major life transitions. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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