How STEM Professors Can Close Equity Gaps

I am really geeking out about the next few episodes that are going to come out in this series. Um , because we're really gonna focus in on what is it that STEM professors can do, right in order to, to help close those student equity gaps. This is definitely going to focus in on STEM professors and what they can do, right? What they can do. And there's

This is it. You can account for half, you can account for half of your equity gap. You can close your equity gap by half, by half, by half, just by doing this one thing. And that is that you need to have a growth mindset regarding your students' abilities versus a fixed mindset. Now clearly I'm going to explain that and I'm going to spend the rest of the episode. I will spend the rest of the episode talking about what a growth mentality is versus a fixed mentality.

But what I want you to understand is that there is something that you can do and it's actually harder and easier both at the same time in regards to how you can close your equity gap by half. Are y'all with me by half? So that's the punchline. So now let's go into it, right? And so this is what the research found out.

This is an amazing, amazing, maybe first of its kind right research in regards to actually measuring whether the professors have a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset in regards to students abilities. Now here's the deal. You may have heard the phrases before of a growth mindset versus a fixed mindset. You may have heard those phrases before, but normally we apply those to students. And this is what I mean by that as that.

So, so the fixed mindset in regards to students is that, and this is research, this research is out there to say that students with the fixed mindset do worst of students with a growth mindset. Okay, so this, this is a thing, right? And as a student with the fixed mindset, they sound like this. They sound like, well, I'm not good at math. Versus a student with a growth mindset is, well, I might not like math and I might not be good at it right now, but I'm learning how to be good at it.

I'm learning it, therefore I will get better. Huge, huge, huge attitudinal difference in those two statements. Right. As so research has already found out that students with the growth mindset tend to do better than students with a fixed mindset about their abilities and whatnot . And so this is, this is already out there, right? What this research did is it went to some, it must've been a big university and whatnot because , um, the, the study involved like 150 faculty members in STEM, right?

And so by the way, what I mean by STEM, right? Science, technology, engineering, math, and not to pick a fight or anything, when they say science, the vast majority, the vast, vast, vast majority of programs do not, are not thinking of and do not include the social, behavioral and health sciences. Right? And so just wanted to put that out there, right? That , that we mean physics, chemistry, biology, whatever. Right?

And so , um, so you know that that is what it is and we'll talk about what that may mean later on. I got, I got some theories about that, but I'm going to put that on the back burner cause I really want to go through this research and really tell you it's like, so they went to this big institution , selective institution, mind you, right. So may need that these students are students that we would have identified as good, right. In high school, right.

It's like they would have taken an sat act, they would have done well, they would have had all this stuff, right. And so this is a selective institution. It's a big one. It's a, it must be also a big institution because the faculty numbers had like 150 faculty members and then over 15,000 students were in this analysis. And so I'm just like geeking out because when you have 15,000 students, it's going to be very hard.

Like the power of this research, the power , the statistical power of this is, is off the charts quite honestly because there's not a whole bunch of studies that have 15,000 uh , students that are, that are measurable and quantifiable in the space. That is, that is for real. That is legit. Right? As so what they're talking about in this research is that they wanted to try to figure out if a professor with a fixed mentality has better results or worse results, right?

Or like what kind of results do they get in there with their students versus professors with a growth mentality. Now this is what this means, right? And so a professor that has a fixed mentality about a student's intelligence is basically thinking that a student's intelligence is unchangeable. Right?

Now I'm going to , I'm going to say this and we could talk about this later on or whatever or not, but I just want you to understand that I don't like using the word intelligence, especially the way that they're using this word right now. I feel like there's, there needs to be a ton of qualifiers in the space and yet at the same time, I do believe that it's the right word to use. Okay. So this is like me, this is me as a sociologist. It's like I don't like using the word race.

I don't like using these racial groups in order to really describe a whole bunch of things and yet at the same time, because the reason why is because race is a social construction, just like intelligence as a social construction. And so I have a hard time just kind of naming it and not explaining it, but at the same time, right when I say black, right?

When I say black and white, there are definitely consequences in social things that are connected to those things that make that give it meaning. Therefore I say the same thing with intelligence, that there's definitely consequences and things that are connected to this idea of intelligence that definitely fits what this study is going for. Okay, so I'm going to, I needed to say that whether you wanted to hear that or not, it is what it is. Right?

I feel like though I did , I needed to say that I needed to not just use this word intelligence and not at at least one moment challenge what intelligence means. Right? So anyway, and so then what we're talking about then is that students, right ? So that professors that have a fixed mentality, they think that students' intelligence is unchangeable.

While professors who have a growth mindset believe that a student's intelligence is changeable and that hard work and determination effort by the student can actually improve their outcomes. Okay, so that's what we're talking about here, right? So this is the difference between a fixed mindset versus a growth mindset. And they asked two questions and this is where, you know, this intelligence thing really comes in a shine.

And again, just say, so this is the two questions that they ask and they did it on a six point Likert scale. The here's the two questions. In order to try to determine a fixed mindset versus a growth mindset, right? And so here's the two. Well, it's not questions, they're statements. And so here's the first statement. To be honest, students have a certain amount of intelligence and they really can't do much to change it, right?

And the second statement is your intelligence as something about you that you can't change very much. And so the more you agree with these two statements, the more fixed your mindset is regarding student abilities. The less you agree with these, the more your, your mindset is towards a growth mindset. Yes. All right . And so hopefully that makes sense. Um , I'm going to have the, you know, the, the article will be in the, in the show notes and everything. So just, you know, catch it there.

Um, for more details. And so then again, let's make this clear. This is a two year study and involved all 13 STEM programs at this particular space and evolved about 150 faculty member. If it survey it and it accounted for over 15,000 students, right? And this is what they found out here. Ready? Drum roll. Please do this . This is what they found. This is what I found out. What they found out was that all students period point blank, no if, ands or buts about it.

All students performed worse with professors with fixed mindsets, period. That's what they found out. So let me say that again. All students, not just underrepresented minorities or whatever, it's all students. All students perform worse with professors with fixed mindsets. Okay. Now this shouldn't be surprising to us because there's a lot of research already and teacher expectancy effect and everything like that.

It shouldn't be a surprise, but for them to do this with such a huge sample, right, and whatnot at a selective institution, it really, it really kind of, you know, it really is saying a lot here to say that first of all, all students performed worse with professors with fixed biases . That is a huge, huge, huge finding. Right?

Because remember who the students that we're talking about, we're not talking about community college students where our selective process is pretty much nonexistent, right? I mean it's just, it is what it is and so let's not, let's not trip out. Let's not, let's not underestimate what this thing is saying. This is saying that if we were to look at high school students, we would take these high school students, the highest performing high school students into spaces.

Yes, we would take the best ones, the ones that we already know they are going to college. These are the smart kids in quotes, right? Feel the air quotes there. It's like these are the smart kids. We know who they are. We know that they're going to do well, that we're not going to go to college. We know that, you know, to whatever degree they're going to do well, right? This is who they're talking about. We're talking about the smart kids, the smart kids.

And so what they found out with the smart kids is that all of those smart kids performed worse with professors, with fixed mentalities, right? With fixed mindsets in regards to student abilities. Okay. So, you know, when I think about this, I think about, you know, my pathway as when I was, I was actually a math major, believe it or not, folks. Um , and I even have my AA in mathematics from MiraCosta.

And , um , part of that, I, I guarantee you that the , the vast majority of that was literally having professors that believed in my ability to do it. And I know that now looking back at it, as a matter of fact, I know that I was in math way longer than what my interests were simply because I really liked to teach us that we're in the spaces.

But when I transferred to SD , um , I remember taking an abstract algebra class and the professor was, you know, their professor, they didn't care much about the students. And this was the abstract algebra class. I was having a real hard time with the , the concepts and everything. And so I tried to, I went to their office hour and I remember the look on his face when I was asking them these questions about, you know, the, the chorus and how could I do better.

And I just remember him like poking his head out from behind his computer, you know, this is his office hours and he just kind of, you know, working at , as computers. He only gave me literally like half his attention and, and he just had this really smarmy look on his face. That's the only way I could describe it. All right . Just a really smarmy look on his face. He gave me no, nothing. I , I, I felt like I really had wasted my time going to that office.

And honestly, I also have solidified in that moment that I am going to switch my major to ethnic studies. That's what I, that's what happened in that moment. But here's a deal. I want to make this very clear, is that what I found out later wrong , because I teach statistics, right? What I found out later on is that I wasn't an abstract algebra type of mathematician. What I was and what I am is an applied mathematician.

I could have stayed in the math field is just I needed something to hang all of this onto. I did not need to go into the theoretical stuff into the abstract stuff. I needed something to ground me. And , um , that would've been the statistical part, right? And clearly I could have made, you know, a lot of inroads into S into the statistics if this professor would've cared enough to help guide me through that space. Right?

But instead I guarantee you that this person really had a fixed mentality about my abilities and probably every student's abilities. And that is, well, if you don't gotta you don't got it. And there's really nothing I could do to really help you get it. And so that's how I felt about that. Right? And so this, this is, you know, right to the fixed, the fixed mindsets and stuff. It also , it comes with an attitude folks, right?

It comes with an attitude and that's something for us to really remember as we're going along here. And, and so when, when I'm saying to you right that there is a big right, this is one thing, this one thing to STEM folks can do in order to close half of their equity gap. Basically what I'm saying is this is an attitude adjustment that needs to be made, right? A belief system that needs to be incorporated into the space. Not necessarily techniques. Not necessarily. We're not even there yet.

We'll get there in a minute. But I'm just saying, I'm just putting that out there for us, right? So first, all students perform worse with professors with fix mindsets and so, and when you're in these classes, the equity gap right before you account for the mindset of the professor, the equity gap is 0.14 of the GPA [inaudible] right? So , uh , you're counting for uh , underrepresented minorities and uh, in this particular case, white and Asian students would be, you know, not if you would.

All right . And so then when , when we're talking about the equity gap then, right? And that for when you account for this variable, a fixed mindset overgrowth mindset, the equity gap in a growth for a growth mindset professor is, is 0.1 of a GPA difference 0.1 while in the equity, while the equity gap for a fixed mindset professors in their classes, the GPA gap is 0.19.

And so this is what I mean by you can close your equity gap GPA wise, you can close your equity gap by half by about half just by having a growth mindset, right? A growth mindset, meaning that when your students walked through that door, that you believe that with hard work and determination and all of that stuff, that they can do better in your class versus just thinking that the students are going to come in and they're going to do well or not based simply on their actual talent level.

And so here's the interesting part to me is that they actually were able to determine what the difference was. What they found out, right is that students reported being less motivated and classes that had a professor with a fixed mindset. So motivation is key, right? Um, but not the student's motivation necessarily is how the professor motivates students. That's how I read that. Okay. And sold soda . Right.

So the , uh , the other thing in this space is as students reported that professors with fix mentalities had less emphasis on learning and development. Okay. Now here's the deal. I'm going to , I'm going to say this and I'm going to , you know, be kind of be point blank about this is I don't know of a student is qualified to determine whether a faculty member has techniques in class that focus on learning and development and I'm being legit, I'm being straight forward with that.

I don't know if a student is actually qualified to determine the learning and T and development styles and things like that or what styles emphasize those things. I don't know if they're qualified to do that. Um, and the question, the, the, the, the statistics question wasn't measured on like what do professors do in class? They didn't ask that. They just asked us attitudinal question if you would.

As so students reported that fixed mentality professors had less emphasis on learning and development as, so what I'm trying to say is don't, don't equate that to technique automatically. Don't, don't equate that to technique. I really, I really think that this is, this is not a technique necessarily question right now. I really do believe that the fundamental, that the foundation of all of this is literally just attitude. And here's the reason why.

Here's the reason why I can say that with confidence. There's teacher expectancy, right? Research out there and stuff like that. And I'm not going to quote any of that. I just want to to , to talk to you about this guy named Jaime Escalante who if you don't know who he is, shame on you. But, but um, he was the professor or the , the high school teachers did, they wind up making a movie out of a , that's the movie is called standard deliver.

James Edward almost , uh , plays Jaime Escalante is a brilliant performance , um , and whatnot. And the reason why I'm bringing him up in this space and talking about why students may not be the best qualified to be able to determine what learning and development teaching techniques look like. Right? Is that what Jaime Escalante? This dude is legend.

Okay. And what he went into Southeast LA and um, I think it was Southeast LA , but it's like a vast majority of the student population, which contacts Latinex , uh , students and low socioeconomic status. And for at least four years was able to get, once he built them up, was able to get 100% of the students to pass the AP calculus exam. Right. And this was over 200 students over a four year period and whatnot. And I'm sure it was, you know, a lot more students passed as he was doing everything.

Um, but the key part in this is for me to say this is that they sent people in from all these top institutions, right? And, and whatnot to go and study what Jaime Escalante was doing in his classes that was getting these students to pass. And what they found out was that he was doing nothing different technique wise, really. He wasn't doing anything like crazy inventive.

He didn't do something, you know, he didn't have some break group teaching technique to help people understand calculus or whatever. It literally was the students that he motivated these students and all of that. I would argue the, at least the vast majority according to this study, has to just do with him having a growth mentality about the students that he was serving. That the students that he was teaching.

And so again, we don't know what teaching techniques were used and or are used in these spaces. We really don't know the students . They didn't ask that information. So I'm not willing to put anything into that space really. So again, with respect, I don't know if the students are qualified to talk about learning and teaching development and techniques and stuff like that.

Um, and yet at the same time, I do believe that students are qualified to talk about how teachers are less motivating than others. Right. And so when we're looking at this, this was to me, genius that they needed to ask this question because I know that a lot of folks , um, a lot of STEM folks are going to be like, well, maybe the growth mentality person is just a growth mindset. Professor's just easier. Well, guess what? They actually asked the question for that.

And what they figured out was that students had the, or that the professors had the same workload, right? That students reported working the same number of hours studying the same number of hours and stuff like that. Um, in the, in any and all of these professors classes. So it didn't matter if you had a growth mindset or a fixed mindset. The workload was basically the same. And so, so in other words, that means that hard teachers are not harder. Hard teachers are not harder.

It means that if you're talking about maintaining rigor in your class, that's not true. That's what I hear a lot of times. It's like, Oh, well I need to maintain rigor in my class. Hard teachers are not harder. That's what this is telling us right now because it's saying that our workloads are basically the same. So that doesn't mean that hard teachers are harder. It means that hard teachers are less motivating to our students. That hard teachers, right.

Do these teachers that have these fits mindsets are less motivated to our students and to whatever degree, do not communicate to students that they are capable of learning and developing this material that they are capable of learning this material. That's what this research is telling us right now. That's what this is telling us. Yes. And so think about it, right? It's like you don't, you don't have to agree.

Well you got to agree with me because this is the pathway now if you want to try, I try to put in other variables and stuff like that. Well that's another thing and I hate it when people do that. It's was like, look, this is research has 15,000 students involved with 150 faculty members like this to me is, I don't want to use ever use the word unimpeachable right but this is going to be really hard.

This is going to be really hard to kind of wiggle your way around on what not and for what this is telling us, it's saying like straight up students are reporting be less motivated in these classes. Students are reporting to these faculty members are not emphasizing that these students can learn in these classes and the workload is about the same and so again, coming out to students, coming out to professor that says I need to maintain rigor in my class with respect. That's not the case.

That's just not the answer. Hard teachers are not harder because they're harder. Hard teachers are harder because the students are less motivated and those professors are putting less emphasis on student learning, period. That's what we got to work with right now. That's what we have to work with, right? And so when we get to right to the end of this race, so they're motivation, motivation, motivation, motivation, motivation is key. Motivation is key, however is not the student's.

Intrinsic motivation is the extrinsic motivation that we as professors give our students. That is the key. That is the extrinsic motivation that we give as motivation to our students. That is the key to closing half, half, half the gap of the student equity gap. It is the motivation that we give to students. That is something that we all can do, especially the people in STEM. I don't know if this research works outside of STEM. I ain't even gonna sit here and lie to you.

I suspected it will work the same way or whatever, but that's not what they did. They didn't look at all the other disciplines. They only looked at STEM and they found out that it is motivation, motivation, motivation, but not the student's. Intrinsic motivation because look, remember who we're talking about. We are talking about the high performance students in high school who we all would have looked at.

It said, okay, that person is going to go to college and you know, and they're going to succeed. They got admitted to college. They're going to succeed. These are the students that we're talking about. We're not even talking about community college students for crying out loud.

Can you imagine what might happen if we do this at a community college and what might be the difference in that space if this is having an effect on students who have been successful in the K to 12 system, can you imagine what the effect is going to be with students who were not successful in a K through 12 system? How we really thought about that, like that's where I'm going to, that's what I think about what I'm coming into this space.

I think about this like, yo, if this is having an effect on students who already think they're smart, what kind of effect would a fixed mindset professor have on a student who didn't think they were very smart and who had a bad time to the K to 12 system but who were definitely smart and were definitely capable because quite honestly folks, we see that student all the time. If you have a growth mindset, I suppose you see these students all the time, you know, you know what they look like.

They're students who are coming in and they're begin to semester. They slouch to know , see did barely paying attention, but then you start talking, you start getting them interested in learning and whatnot. They start perking up. They may even start interacting in class.

Then they start sitting up in class, then they start contributing and everything and they're doing their homework and maybe they're right and then they get better as the semester goes along and it's like, wow, this is what we can do as professors motivate our students. It shouldn't sound like such an alien concept, but it seems to be an alien concept when it comes to the STEM field. Just throwing that out there. It must be because why else would they do this research only in the STEM space.

Just throwing that out there. Right, and so the last thing to point out, because this is all right, we were talking about equity and we're already talked about closing half the equity gap. Just by changing from a growth mindset to, you know, grow , go into a growth mindset, right? From a fixed mindset, that's, that's what's going to close half the gap. But let's understand this better attitude definitely makes a better teacher. That's what the research is telling us right now.

However, this will not close the gap all by itself. And so for all my folks who are like, yo, if I just become a better teacher, if I just changed my mentality from a fixed mindset to a growth mindset, yeah, you're going to close it half, right? That's what the research is telling us. You'll close it by half, but what about the other half? How do we get to the other half? Is that where the fixed mindset jumps in?

Hopefully not because there's some ideas that we can get just off of this research , um , in regards to doing this and um, and some things that I'm going to be talking to , uh , in these next, you know , a few episodes and whatnot to really try to get down to it. But that was the one thing that I wanted to try to accomplish here today, folks with this research.

Um , because it clearly, to me this is as clear of a, of a sign to all of us, not just STEM folks, even though that was the focus, but to all of us.

If you learned something today that you think would help close your student equity gaps, how long will it take to incorporate this into your classroom? A year, a semester, next month. Today, no matter the timetable, we must commit ourselves to becoming better teachers. Our students deserve it. All of them, not just the ones that are good already.

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