TY - JOUR
T1 - Changing middle-school students' attitudes and performance regarding engineering with computer-based social models
AU - Ashby Plant, E.
AU - Baylor, Amy L.
AU - Doerr, Celeste E.
AU - Rosenberg-Kima, Rinat
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the National Science Foundation, Grant HRD-0429647 awarded to the first and second authors. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect those of the National Science Foundation.
PY - 2009/9
Y1 - 2009/9
N2 - Women's under-representation in fields such as engineering may result in part from female students' negative beliefs regarding these fields and their low self-efficacy for these fields. In this experiment, we investigated the use of animated interface agents as social models for changing male and female middle-school students' attitudes toward engineering-related fields, their self-efficacy for these fields, and their math performance. Students interacted with either a female or a male computer-based agent or they did not interact with an agent. The female agent increased interest, utility beliefs, self-efficacy, and math performance compared to control and, for boys, decreased stereotyping. Mediational analyses indicated that the female agent facilitated interest and math performance by enhancing self-efficacy. The findings indicate that interface agents may be used effectively as social models for influencing attitudes and beliefs and supporting performance.
AB - Women's under-representation in fields such as engineering may result in part from female students' negative beliefs regarding these fields and their low self-efficacy for these fields. In this experiment, we investigated the use of animated interface agents as social models for changing male and female middle-school students' attitudes toward engineering-related fields, their self-efficacy for these fields, and their math performance. Students interacted with either a female or a male computer-based agent or they did not interact with an agent. The female agent increased interest, utility beliefs, self-efficacy, and math performance compared to control and, for boys, decreased stereotyping. Mediational analyses indicated that the female agent facilitated interest and math performance by enhancing self-efficacy. The findings indicate that interface agents may be used effectively as social models for influencing attitudes and beliefs and supporting performance.
KW - Engineering
KW - Interface agents
KW - Mathematics
KW - Persuasive technology
KW - Self-efficacy
KW - Social model
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=67349083875&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1016/j.compedu.2009.01.013
DO - 10.1016/j.compedu.2009.01.013
M3 - ???researchoutput.researchoutputtypes.contributiontojournal.article???
AN - SCOPUS:67349083875
SN - 0360-1315
VL - 53
SP - 209
EP - 215
JO - Computers and Education
JF - Computers and Education
IS - 2
ER -
