Threaten by Stereotype: An investigation of the effect of stereotype threat on female and minority students' STEM learning in the context of a computer intervention

To contribute to the growing field of STEM education, we examined the influence of stereotype threat on female and African American students in a large-scale computer intervention. Namely, this paper examines the relationship between gender and race and their effects on self-perceived technology efficacy, anxiety, STEM attitudes, and expectation of going to college. In total, 1,085 student survey responses were analyzed to understand the effects of stereotype threat on gender and race. The results suggest that gender was a consistent determinant of STEM attitudes and technology efficacy and race is a predictor of technological anxiety. For self-expectation of future education, gender and race were not predictors of the outcome variable. Instead, STEM attitudes and self-efficacy were positively associated with student’s self-expectation of going to college.ye