Having female role models correlates with PhD students' attitudes toward their own academic success.

Research indicates that increasing diversity in doctoral programs can positively affect students' academic success. However, little research examines students' responses to female scholars' representation. The two studies presented here examine how students' exposure to female ac...

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Autores principales:	Shauna N Gillooly, Heidi Hardt, Amy Erica Smith
Formato:	article
Lenguaje:	EN
Publicado:	Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2021
Materias:	Medicine R Science Q
Acceso en línea:	https://doaj.org/article/8bd6d01be8694c74b6b360a606b5e56a
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spelling	oai:doaj.org-article:8bd6d01be8694c74b6b360a606b5e56a2021-12-02T20:15:00ZHaving female role models correlates with PhD students' attitudes toward their own academic success.1932-620310.1371/journal.pone.0255095https://doaj.org/article/8bd6d01be8694c74b6b360a606b5e56a2021-01-01T00:00:00Zhttps://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0255095https://doaj.org/toc/1932-6203Research indicates that increasing diversity in doctoral programs can positively affect students' academic success. However, little research examines students' responses to female scholars' representation. The two studies presented here examine how students' exposure to female academic role models shapes students' attitudes toward their own academic success (i.e. self-efficacy). Such attitudes are critical because they predict student retention rates. In our first study, we randomly exposed 297 Ph.D. students in one academic discipline to either a gender-diverse (i.e. 30% female authors) or non-diverse syllabus in research methods (i.e. 10% female authors). We examined the effect of the intervention on students' perceived likelihood of succeeding in the hypothetical course. Contrary to expectations derived from the literature, we found that increasing women's representation in syllabi did not affect female students' self-efficacy. Rather, male students expressed lower self-efficacy when evaluating the more gender-diverse syllabus. We also found that students' attitudes toward diversity in academia predicted their reactions more strongly than did their own gender: gender-diverse syllabi reduced self-efficacy among those students unsupportive of diversity. In our second study, we analyzed non-interventional survey questions to examine the relationship between female role models and long-term academic self-efficacy. Analysis was observational and thus did not assess causality. We found that students with more role models have higher academic self-efficacy, irrespective of student and role model gender. Nonetheless, results also suggested that some students actively seek female role models: namely, female students, and particularly those valuing diversity. Our results ultimately suggest that exposure to female role models relates in surprising ways to Ph.D. students' self-efficacy. Having more female role models correlates with greater expectations of academic success among certain groups of students, but with diminished expectations of academic success among other groups.Shauna N GilloolyHeidi HardtAmy Erica SmithPublic Library of Science (PLoS)articleMedicineRScienceQENPLoS ONE, Vol 16, Iss 8, p e0255095 (2021)
institution	DOAJ
collection	DOAJ
language	EN
topic	Medicine R Science Q
spellingShingle	Medicine R Science Q Shauna N Gillooly Heidi Hardt Amy Erica Smith Having female role models correlates with PhD students' attitudes toward their own academic success.
description	Research indicates that increasing diversity in doctoral programs can positively affect students' academic success. However, little research examines students' responses to female scholars' representation. The two studies presented here examine how students' exposure to female academic role models shapes students' attitudes toward their own academic success (i.e. self-efficacy). Such attitudes are critical because they predict student retention rates. In our first study, we randomly exposed 297 Ph.D. students in one academic discipline to either a gender-diverse (i.e. 30% female authors) or non-diverse syllabus in research methods (i.e. 10% female authors). We examined the effect of the intervention on students' perceived likelihood of succeeding in the hypothetical course. Contrary to expectations derived from the literature, we found that increasing women's representation in syllabi did not affect female students' self-efficacy. Rather, male students expressed lower self-efficacy when evaluating the more gender-diverse syllabus. We also found that students' attitudes toward diversity in academia predicted their reactions more strongly than did their own gender: gender-diverse syllabi reduced self-efficacy among those students unsupportive of diversity. In our second study, we analyzed non-interventional survey questions to examine the relationship between female role models and long-term academic self-efficacy. Analysis was observational and thus did not assess causality. We found that students with more role models have higher academic self-efficacy, irrespective of student and role model gender. Nonetheless, results also suggested that some students actively seek female role models: namely, female students, and particularly those valuing diversity. Our results ultimately suggest that exposure to female role models relates in surprising ways to Ph.D. students' self-efficacy. Having more female role models correlates with greater expectations of academic success among certain groups of students, but with diminished expectations of academic success among other groups.
format	article
author	Shauna N Gillooly Heidi Hardt Amy Erica Smith
author_facet	Shauna N Gillooly Heidi Hardt Amy Erica Smith
author_sort	Shauna N Gillooly
title	Having female role models correlates with PhD students' attitudes toward their own academic success.
title_short	Having female role models correlates with PhD students' attitudes toward their own academic success.
title_full	Having female role models correlates with PhD students' attitudes toward their own academic success.
title_fullStr	Having female role models correlates with PhD students' attitudes toward their own academic success.
title_full_unstemmed	Having female role models correlates with PhD students' attitudes toward their own academic success.
title_sort	having female role models correlates with phd students' attitudes toward their own academic success.
publisher	Public Library of Science (PLoS)
publishDate	2021
url	https://doaj.org/article/8bd6d01be8694c74b6b360a606b5e56a
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Having female role models correlates with PhD students' attitudes toward their own academic success.

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