Effects of stereotype threat on childrens test performance


Assignment task: Stereotype Threat

Dr. Jones is a clinical psychologist who works at a large children's hospital. One of her duties is to administer individual intelligence and achievement tests to children who are patients in the hospital's neurology department. When she administers a test to a child, Dr. Jones doesn't refer to it as an "intelligence" test or an "achieve ment" test. Instead, she tells the child what she is going to ask in concrete terms. For instance, she will say, "I'm going to ask you some questions about words" or "I'm going to ask you to solve some problems." Dr. Jones uses this approach because her goal is to get the best performance possible out of each child she tests. She believes that if children are worried about the type of test they are taking or how their performance will be judged, they aren't likely to do their best. Dr. Jones is particularly concerned about how what she says about a test might affect the performance of a child who is a member of a minority group, because she is familiar with the research on stereotype threat.

Psychologists Claude Steele and Joshua Aron-son (Steele & Aronson, 1995) define stereotype on cognitive tests has been well established by researchers, the jury is stil out with regard to its importance in explaining group differences among children. Nevertheless, Dr. Jones believes that it is best to err on the side of caution with respect to stereotype threat. Her conclusion is that refraining from using the terms intelligence test and achievement test does not harm children or threaten their performance, whereas using those terms may cause them to be more anxious than they would be otherwise. Consequently, she intends to maintain her practice of describing the behaviors she will ask children to perform rather telling them the types of tests she is administering.

Q1. Do you agree with Dr. Jones's conclusion regarding erring on the side of caution when administering tests?

Q2. How might parents and teachers moderate the effects of stereotype threat on children's test performance?

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