The Virginia State University HBCU-UP Broadening Participation Research in STEM education project is entitled Reducing Stereotype Threat by Enhancing Emotional Regulation: A Role for Mindful Awareness Practice for STEM Majors. The proposed study is designed to test the efficacy of a meditative intervention, a meta-cognitive intervention, and a media based intervention on test anxiety based on prior research showing a positive correlation with academic improvement. The goal is to study mechanisms to reduce stereotype threat in mathematics courses using meditative or meta-cognitive practices. The study aims to: 1) Implement and assess the degree to which a meditative intervention (Autogenic Training) attenuates math anxiety and other STEM related test anxiety by reducing stereotype threat; 2) Implement and assess the degree to which a meta-cognitive task (self-reflective journaling) attenuates math anxiety and other STEM related test anxiety by reducing stereotype threat; 3) Implement and assess the degree to which a media based intervention decreases math anxiety and other STEM related test anxiety by increasing test preparedness; and 4) Add to a theoretical model by understanding the mediating and moderating factors of each intervention on the ethnic identity, outcome expectation and academic self-efficacy of STEM students and how these relate math anxiety and other STEM- related test anxiety.
The overarching idea is innovative. The study includes meta-cognition, journal writing, digital media and reflection as elements in the research construct. Because these are familiar in the science education literature, it makes the work easily transferrable and informative to other scholars. There is a solid research base that supports the work, a focus on more than one STEM discipline, a relation to contemporary technology in the implementation and design of the research, and an understanding of the nature and culture of science. The results can potentially benefit all institutions in their effort to increase student retention in STEM discipliens through faculty developmetn and more effective student support systems.
