Can Test Anxiety Interventions Alleviate a Gender Gap in an Undergraduate STEM Course?

Autor/inn/en	Harris, Rebecca B.; Grunspan, Daniel Z.; Pelch, Michael A.; Fernandes, Giselle; Ramirez, Gerardo; Freeman, Scott
Titel	Can Test Anxiety Interventions Alleviate a Gender Gap in an Undergraduate STEM Course?
Quelle	In: CBE - Life Sciences Education, 18 (2019) 3, Artikel 35 (9 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
ISSN	1931-7913
DOI	10.1187/cbe.18-05-0083
Schlagwörter	Test Anxiety; Intervention; Gender Differences; Undergraduate Students; STEM Education; Introductory Courses; Scores; Achievement Gap; Biology + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Examination phobia; Testangst; Prüfungsangst; Geschlechterkonflikt; STEM; Einführungskurs; Biologie
Abstract	Gender gaps in exam scores or final grades are common in introductory college science and engineering classrooms, with women underperforming relative to men with the same admission test scores or college grade point averages. After failing to close a historically documented gender gap in a large introductory biology course using interventions targeted at training a growth mindset, we implemented interventions designed to reduce student test anxiety. We combined evidence-based exercises based on expressive writing and on reappraising physiological arousal. We also used a valid measure to quantify test anxiety at the start and end of the course. This instrument measures an individual's self-declared or perceived test anxiety--also called trait anxiety--but not the immediate or "state" anxiety experienced during an actual exam. Consistent with previous reports in the literature, we found that women in this population declared much higher test anxiety than men and that students who declared higher test anxiety had lower exam scores than students who declared lower test anxiety. Although the test anxiety interventions had no impact on the level of self-declared trait anxiety, they did significantly increase student exam performance. The treatment benefits occurred in both men and women. These data suggest that (1) a combination of interventions based on expressive writing and reappraising physiological arousal can be a relatively easy manner to boost exam performance in a large-enrollment science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) course and encourage emotion regulation; (2) women are more willing than men to declare that they are anxious about exams, but men and women may actually experience the same level of anxiety during the exam itself; and (3) women are underperforming in STEM courses for reasons other than gender-based differences in mindset or test anxiety. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2020/1/01