The Center for Teaching and Learning at Agnes Scott College offers programming, services, and resources that promote dialogue and disseminate information about teaching and learning at a diverse and distinctive liberal arts college for women. Faculty, student, and staff perspectives are all valued in the development of conversations that will help the college community better appreciate a full range of teaching and learning issues and styles.
Our next program is
Missed Opportunities: The Effects of Stereotype Threat* on Learning & Performance
Guest Speaker: Valerie Jones Taylor, Department of Psychology, Spelman College
Friday, April 27, 3:00-5:00, Teasley Auditorium
Hundreds of experiments have shown that stereotype threat undermines intellectual performance by causing stereotyped students to perform below their capabilities. Prof. Taylor will discuss her current research about whether stereotype threat interferes with learning itself. Her results suggest that stereotype threat can contribute to racial achievement gaps by preventing stereotyped students from fully acquiring academic knowledge and skills, regardless of the students’ intellectual potential. Prof. Taylor’s work underscores the importance of creating psychologically safe academic environments that support a diverse student body.
*”Stereotype threat refers to being at risk of confirming, as self-characteristic, a negative stereotype about one’s group (Steele & Aronson, 1995). This term was first used by Steele and Aronson (1995) who showed in several experiments that Black college freshmen and sophomores performed more poorly on standardized tests than [did] White students when their race was emphasized. When race was not emphasized, however, Black students performed better [than] and equivalently with White students. The results showed that performance in academic contexts can be harmed by the awareness that one’s behavior might be viewed through the lens of racial stereotypes.” http://www.reducingstereotypethreat.org/definition.html
