Intelligence and the Stereotype Threat

Anecdotally, this seems to be a serious hinderance in the American primary and secondary systems: student sees a setback and deduces he simply isn't "smart enough to study math" and this becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy through the mechanisms described in this article. Obviously mathematics and heavily mathematical sciences _are_ very much cognitively demanding, but the students arriving to this conclusion aren't usually studying the kind of math that's beyond the limits of an average college bound students: in other words, "not being good at math" is valid reason to drop abstract algebra or complex analysis during the junior year of college, but it's not a reason to accept a C in high school[1] algebra, declare yourself "bad at math", and then choose a major that involves very little math (even if excludes subject fields they're truly passionate about and excel at).

AP Calculus and AP Physics were the most dreaded classes in high school and students were discouraged to take them. I did take AP Calculus (for obvious reasons I was already familiar with functions that take other functions as parameters and return yet other functions) but I followed conventional wisdom and held-off on AP Physics.

Oddly, however, when I got to college I got better grades in _more difficult_ calculus classes (multivariate, vector calculus, differential equations) in college and did well in Physics (which was meant to serve as a "weed-out" class, i.e., forced-curved such that at least 25-50% would fail). I think the psychology had much to do with this: this is a freshman class full of people, why _shouldn't_ I master this material?

I wonder what would happen if instead high school students were told "these are the very basics of modern physics and mathematics and every technical major or minor -- at colleges that are far less selective than where many of you are headed -- is expected to pass them."

[1] When I came to the US in seventh grade from former USSR (where I was already studying algebra, geometry, physics and chemistry at the time) I had a math "placement test" tossed me the first day without any warning and scored two points below the threshold to place me into a "pre-Algebra class" that would merely qualify me for the privilege of studying algebra in 8th grade! I had to take a course at a local community college and pass two additional placement tests over the summer vacation to place into 8th grade algebra. It's no wonder that students assume they're "bad at math" given such an environment.

There is a psychological test sometimes alleged to detect hidden stereotyping called the 'Implicit Association Test' (IAT):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implicit_Association_Test

The usual interpretation of the IAT is that delays or errors in associating certain categories with positive/negative traits indicates hidden bias. But if a stereotype threat effect is also present when taking the IAT, then delays/errors may be arising from a (self-fulfilling) fear of confirming negative stereotypes about bias, moreso than any actual bias.

Since the IAT is often introduced as a way to detect subtle and stigmatized biases, test-takers are explicitly primed to worry about stereotypes-about-stereotyping. In this kind of use, the IAT might thus be more like a "push poll" (or a Scientologist's 'E-meter'), designed to create effects in the test-taker, than an objective measure of unprimed attitudes.

I think you are completely right!

One thing I wonder about, is how to avoid promoting useless work just for works sake. Like how many people say you should track accomplishments, not hours.

What do you think?