No intrinsic gender differences in children’s earliest numerical abilities

Kersey, Alyssa J.; Braham, Emily J.; Csumitta, Kelsey D.; Libertus, Melissa E.; Cantlon, Jessica F.

doi:10.1038/s41539-018-0028-7

Cited by 67 publications

(69 citation statements)

References 82 publications

(101 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…Overall, our results indicate that female and male students experience different levels of STEM anxiety and exhibit different neurobiological systems-level support for this anxiety, which differentially impacts their academic success. That this occurs despite no sex differences in performance (e.g., GPA or course grade) is notable, and in agreement with two recent meta-analyses that provide strong evidence disproving the persistent stereotypes that male students outperform female students in math and science (Kersey et al, 2018;O'Shea et al, 2018). Importantly, the course studied here was shown to be equal (i.e., did not adversely impact female anxiety more than male anxiety), but not equitable (i.e., did not reduce sex differences).…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Sex differences in brain correlates of STEM anxiety

González

Bottenhorn

Bartley

et al. 2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Professor, Department of Physics 34 Florida International University, AHC4 310 35 Modesto Maidique Campus 36 11200 SW 8 th Street 37 Miami, FL 33199 38 305.348.6737 (phone) 39 305.348.6700 (fax) 40 alaird@fiu.edu 41 42 43 † These authors contributed equally to this work. 44 45 46 1 ABSTRACT 47 48Anxiety is known to dysregulate the salience, default mode, and central executive networks of the human 49 brain, yet this phenomenon has not been fully explored across the STEM learning experience, where 50 anxiety can impact negatively academic performance. Here, we evaluated anxiety and large-scale brain 51 connectivity in 101 undergraduate physics students. We found sex differences in STEM-related and clinical 52 anxiety, with longitudinal increases in science anxiety observed for both female and male students. Sex-53 specific relationships between STEM anxiety and brain connectivity emerged, with male students 54 exhibiting distinct inter-network connectivity for STEM and clinical anxiety and female students 55 demonstrating no significant within-sex correlations. Anxiety was negatively correlated with academic 56 performance in sex-specific ways at both pre-and post-instruction. Moreover, math anxiety in male 57 students mediated the relation between default mode-salience connectivity and course grade. Together, 58 these results reveal complex sex differences in the neural mechanisms driving how anxiety is related to 59 STEM learning . 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 2 Today's universities and colleges are tasked with the challenge of developing novel strategies for 94 improving undergraduate academic performance and ensuring that students are prepared for successful 95 careers. In particular, emphasis is placed on enhancing student outcomes and generating enthusiasm for 96 the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines. However, STEM students 97 encounter multiple, major-specific challenges, including intensive laboratory, project-based, and lecture-98 based coursework (Thiry et al., 2011), heightened classroom competition (Strenta et al., 1994 Gasiewski 99 et al., 2012), and academic challenges of STEM courses (Strenta et al., 1994; Rask, 2010). As such, many 100 students often struggle with STEM-related anxiety, which manifests as an unease, avoidance, or fear of 101 learning science or math topics. In particular, female STEM students, relative to their male counterparts, 102 are disproportionately affected by higher rates of STEM anxiety (Mallow, 1994; Brownlow et al., 2000; 103 Baloglu and Kocak, 2006; Mallow et al., 2010). This may be due to STEM-related barriers that adversely 104 impact achievement and performance (Kiefer and Sekaquaptewa, 2007; Nosek et al., 2009), including 105 stereotype threat (Shapiro and Williams, 2012), gender-based bias (Moss-Racusin et al., 2012), and lack of 106 non-stereotypical role models (Cheryan et al., 2011; Hernandez et al., 2018). ...

show abstract

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 85%

Sex differences in brain correlates of STEM anxiety

González

Bottenhorn

Bartley

et al. 2019

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…With this perspective, some studies even suggest that the STEM gender gap starts from inborn differences between sexes regarding STEM aptitudes. However, this stereotype has been thoroughly revised in Reference [9], where the authors have analyzed possible gender differences in mathematical cognition from 500 children aged from six months to eight years. This analysis found that boys and girls do not show any difference in terms of quantitative or mathematical ability, thus they have the same aptitudes in terms of mathematical reasoning.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender Diversity in STEM Disciplines: A Multiple Factor Problem

Botella

Rueda

López-Iñesta

et al. 2019

Entropy

153

123

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Lack of diversity, and specifically, gender diversity, is one of the key problems that both technological companies and academia are facing these days. Moreover, recent studies show that the number of female students enrolled in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) related disciplines have been decreasing in the last twenty years, while the number of women resigning from technological job positions remains unacceptably high. As members of a higher education institution, we foresee that working towards increasing and retaining the number of female students enrolled in STEM disciplines can help to alleviate part of the challenges faced by women in STEM fields. In this paper, we first review the main barriers and challenges that women encounter in their professional STEM careers through different age stages. Next, we focus on the special case of the information theory field, discussing the potential of gendered innovation, and whether it can be applied in the Information Theory case. The working program developed by the School of Engineering at the University of Valencia (ETSE-UV), Spain, which aims at decreasing the gender diversity gap, is then presented and recommendations for practice are given. This program started in 2011 and it encompasses Bachelor, Master and PhD levels. Four main actions are implemented: Providing institutional encouragement and support, increasing the professional support network, promoting and supporting the leadership, and increasing the visibility of female role models. To assess the impact of these actions, a chi-square test of independence is included to evaluate whether there is a significant effect on the percentage of enrolled female students. The percentage of graduated female students in the information and Communications Technology Field is also positioned with respect to other universities and the Spanish reference value. This analysis establishes that, in part, this program has helped to achieve higher female graduation rates, especially among Bachelor students, as well as increasing the number of top-decision positions held by faculty women.

show abstract

“…Although there are studies that indicate no gender differences are observed in children's early mathematical skills (Kersey, Braham, Csumitta, Libertus, and Cantlon 2018), including first years of primary school (Hutchison, Lyons, and Ansari 2018), traditionally, the differences have been reported on. At the same time, the findings focusing on the differences remain inconsistent, seeking caution in interpretation.…”

Section: Gender Differences In Arithmeticmentioning

confidence: 98%

A comparative study of variations in arithmetic fluency between Norwegian and Finnish third graders

Funderud

Mononen

Radišić

et al. 2018

European Journal of Special Needs Education

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The study aimed to investigate variations in addition and subtraction fluency by observing grade three students in Norway (n = 253, M age = 8.38 y.) and Finland (n = 209, M age = 9.35 y.) while controlling for their age and non-verbal reasoning. Gender differences were also examined. The focus of the study was on the performance of the low-achieving (LA) students in comparison to the typically achieving (TA) group, not neglecting differences in how early educational support was organised across the two countries. Two-minute speed tests in both addition and subtraction within the 1-20 number range were used to assess fluency. The Finnish students outperformed students in the Norwegian sample both in addition and subtraction fluency. There were more Norwegian students in the LA group (i.e. performance at or below the 25 th percentile) in both addition (37.9% vs. 20.1%) and subtraction (39.1% vs. 15.8%). In comparison to the TA students, the LA students made more errors and skipped over more arithmetic tasks in an attempt to solve them. Observed differences are discussed in relation to both country characteristics concerning early mathematics education and early educational support.

show abstract

No intrinsic gender differences in children’s earliest numerical abilities

Cited by 67 publications

References 82 publications

Sex differences in brain correlates of STEM anxiety

Sex differences in brain correlates of STEM anxiety

Gender Diversity in STEM Disciplines: A Multiple Factor Problem

A comparative study of variations in arithmetic fluency between Norwegian and Finnish third graders

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About