This article explores racial and gender stereotypes from an educational point of view. The authors of the article are two prolific psychology scholars. Carry Smith is a Ph.D. candidate at the Mississippi State University while Li-Chung Hung is an assistant professor at a university in Taiwan.
The article focuses on the prevailing stereotype that females are not as capable as males in math and sciences. The article engages in literature review to highlight instances of negative stereotyping and offer helpful solutions on how to eliminate such stereotypes.
The article unravels how math scores of women and minorities are affected by negative stereotypes. This article offers helpful insights into how racial and gender stereotypes affect math and science performances although it has some deficiencies in quality.
The article begins by conducting a literature review with the aim of tracing the history of ‘stereotype threat’. The authors note that the number of women who attain higher education is low compared to their population.
For instance, the authors claim that even though women constitute fifty percent of the population, only about twenty-one percent of women end up getting a Bachelor of Science degree. The authors then continue by offering more statistics on the connection between stereotypes and math abilities.
Some of the listed causes of ‘stereotype threat’ include the affirmative action, discrimination within the society, and socioeconomic issues. At this point, the article delves into the stereotype theory and its connection to science and math performances.
The authors note that in the past several interventions have been aimed at overturning the impacts of the stereotype threat. While some of these efforts have been successful, others have failed to yield the desired results.
The authors classify the stereotype threat into two cases; the one addressing the academic performance of minorities and another one focusing on how the female gender performs in a male dominated world (Smith and Hung 245). The article then concludes by listing some of the expected implications of the research.
The article’s authors have done a commendable job when it comes to the article’s structure. The article’s literature review and its accompanying detailed research are very helpful to the readers. The article’s abstract provides a precise overview of the addressed topics and the authors’ intentions.
Moreover, the research question of the article is adequately explored in the paper. The authors manage to provide a satisfying response to their research question. Some of the literature that is used to support the research question covers almost all the aspects of the stereotype threat.
In addition, most aspects of math and science performances among females and minorities are adequately explored. The article’s structure reflects on the professionalism of the authors and their expansive knowledge on this subject.
One of the most noticeable deficiencies in this article is the number of sources that have been used. Although this is a research paper, it is still possible to include too many sources on it. This paper uses too many sources for its research, therefore making it hard for the readers to synthesize the provided information.
In addition, using too many sources could be confusing to the readers. The number of sources used in a research paper should not compromise the paper’s coherency or confuse the readers. The authors should have edited out some of their sources according to each sources’ relevance.
Using too many sources does not add to the credibility of the topic. In some instances, using too many sources for the paper could imply that the authors are overcompensating for other shortcomings in their work. Moreover, some of the sources that are used by the authors do not relate to the paper on an advanced scholarly level.
In some cases, only the topic of these sources is similar to that of the article and not their subject matter. For example, the study by Levy and Dweck (1163) is quite relevant to the stereotype threat theory. However, the study by Liben and Signorella (11) is quite trivial and it does not have an important connection to stereotype threat.
Therefore, the latter should not be categorized in the same level as the former study. The authors should have left out the sources that are not relevant to the core subject matter of the article. This would have given the paper a smooth flow and made it easier to synthesize.
One of the most important aspects of this article is the fact that the authors were able to list both past and future interventions of stereotype threats. These interventions are important to most of the article’s intended readers.
Stakeholders in gender and education matters would find these interventions helpful (Thomas and Stevenson 165). The future interventions against stereotype threats are sound and most stakeholders would be interested in trying them.
The article’s authors worked hard to gather as many research materials as possible for their article. However, this action ended up putting too much baggage on the paper. The authors could have tried to manage their sources better by leaving out the less relevant sources.
Nevertheless, the authors are able to provide an adequate answer to their research question. Overall, the article is a good read and it has a wide audience base.
Works Cited
Levy, Sheri R., and Carol S. Dweck. “The Impact of Children’s Static versus Dynamic Conceptions of People on Stereotype Formation.” Child Development 70.5 (1999): 1163-1180. Print.
Liben, Lynn S., and Margaret L. Signorella. “Gender-related Schemata and Constructive Memory in Children.” Child Development 9 (1980): 11-18. Print.
Smith, Cary Stacy, and Li-Ching Hung. “Stereotype Threat: Effects on Education.” Social Psychology of Education 11.3 (2008): 243-257. Print.
Thomas, Duane E., and Howard Stevenson. “Gender Risks and Education: The particular Classroom Challenges for Urban low-income African American Boys.” Review of Research in Education 33.1 (2009): 160-180. Print.