Early intervention to help minority students shift limiting self- beliefs
September 1, 2006 by Mary Wynne-Wynter
This is pretty amazing. A defining moment in a child's life that could align the child for a happier, and more successful life.Self-affirmation assignment boosts minority kids' grades / Study suggests that stress of stereotypes affects performance: "A simple 15-minute writing task at the start of the school year was enough to significantly improve the grades of African American students and close 40 percent of the 'achievement gap' with white students in one suburban school, researchers said..."
I do think some of the conclusions are missing the real value:Researchers said the results, though surprising, seemed to be consistent with previous studies hinting that small interventions sometimes can make a big difference in student performance. The findings also suggest that chronic stress felt by negatively stereotyped minority students -- the problem addressed by the writing assignment at the heart of the new study -- might be a more significant hindrance than generally realized. The writing task was designed to foster a sense of identity in students on the theory this might help them avoid getting tangled up by what the psychologists called "stereotype threat" -- in this case, the idea that poor performance in school would confirm negative preconceptions about the intelligence of African Americans, leading to even more stress at the first stumble.
I see it also as unleashing what is already there in the 'student'. And I do think it gives kids new skills, although not in the traditional sense of 'what are skills'. The skill that I see here has to do with self-leadership and that begins with increasing self-awareness which this exercise accomplishes. Hopefully, this great technique will not fall by the wayside because its results cannot be quantifiably measured.Researchers said the results, though surprising, seemed to be consistent with previous studies hinting that small interventions sometimes can make a big difference in student performance. The findings also suggest that chronic stress felt by negatively stereotyped minority students -- the problem addressed by the writing assignment at the heart of the new study -- might be a more significant hindrance than generally realized. The writing task was designed to foster a sense of identity in students on the theory this might help them avoid getting tangled up by what the psychologists called "stereotype threat" -- in this case, the idea that poor performance in school would confirm negative preconceptions about the intelligence of African Americans, leading to even more stress at the first stumble.
(Via SFGate: Top News Stories.)