Abstract
THE CARE FACTOR: THE IMPORTANCE OF USING DOMAIN IDENTIFICATION MEASURES TO IDENTIFY STEREOTYPE THREAT VULNERABILITY IN HIGH SCHOOL FEMALES.
By Kimberly Y. Randolph, PhD
A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Virginia Commonwealth University, 2016.
Major Director: Dr. Charol Shakeshaft, PhD. Professor Department of Educational Leadership
There is a gap that persists in math achievement between high school males and females. Although the NAEP 2015 longitudinal report shows a narrowing in math achievement between males and females there still remains a gap. More importantly, females are less likely to enter into math - related college programs. Those that do enter into math related college programs sometimes choose to drop out of these programs. The purpose of this study was to do an analysis of factors, along with stereotype threat (the fear of doing something that would inadvertently confirm that stereotype) that might affect math achievement in girls. The factors used were domain identification measure, motivational orientation, self-efficacy and cognitive interference. Girls who participated in the study attended private or public schools, are in the 9th through 12 grade and have taken algebra I and geometry. Thus, for the female students in this study, domain identification level did not predict math achievement, desire to learn did not predict math achievement, mastery of goals did not predict math achievement, competitive excellence did not predict math achievement, competition seeking predicted math achievement accounting for 25% of the variance in math scores, motivation anxiety worry did not predict math achievement, and motivation anxiety emotionality did not predict math achievement, threat condition did not affect self- efficacy, threat condition did not affect cognitive interference, threat is not related to desire to learn, threat has no effect on personal mastery, threat condition had no effect on competition seeking, threat condition had no effect on emotionality, threat condition did not have an effect on mathematics achievement. . Perhaps there have been changes in female student attitude toward mathematics. With the rise of (Science Technology Engineering Mathematics) initiatives in schools across the country, females are encouraged to immerse themselves in domains that traditionally are dominated by males.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:vcu.edu/oai:scholarscompass.vcu.edu:etd-5730 |
| Date | 01 January 2016 |
| Creators | Randolph, Kimberly Y. |
| Publisher | VCU Scholars Compass |
| Source Sets | Virginia Commonwealth University |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Theses and Dissertations |
| Rights | © Kimberly Yvonne Randolph |
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