About this srcd poster session

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Panel information
Panel 8. Education, Schooling

Abstract

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A common gender stereotype endorsed by students is that men are higher performers than women in math (Cvencek et al., 2021). Past studies (Hill et al., 2010; Master et al., 2021) have found that this gender stereotype does not only affect students’ math performance but also influences their interest in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). The “Draw-a-Mathematician Task” (DAMT) has been used to understand students’ perceptions of who is a mathematician (Picker & Berry, 2000; Rock & Shaw, 2000). However, the existing studies with DAMT often do not consider the role of other individual traits that are closely associated with gender stereotypes, such as math anxiety.
The current study examined how students’ math anxiety, gender, and grade level relate to the math difficulty level included in their drawings. Importantly, this study extends the categorization of simple and advanced math used in earlier studies (e.g., Gjøvik et al., 2023) by including more distinct math concepts such as arithmetic, algebra, and geometry (Common Core State Standards Initiative [CCSSI], 2010). Simple arithmetic included representations of addition or subtraction whereas advanced arithmetic included multiplication, division, fractions, etc. Algebra focused on the use of equations, symbols, etc. Lastly, geometry indicated references to geometry (e.g., triangles, circles, arcs) and graphs.
Students (N = 261; 133 girls, 128 boys; 116 fourth graders, 89 sixth graders, 56 eighth graders; 71.3% White, 7.7% Black or African American, 6.9% Asian, 4.6% Hispanic or Latino, 7.2% Multiracial, 2.3% no response) completed a math anxiety questionnaire and were asked to draw a picture of a mathematician and describe their drawings. We then coded drawings for the gender of the person illustrated and the math categories represented.
Overall, students presented advanced arithmetic and algebraic concepts more in their drawings than basic arithmetic and geometric concepts (see Table 1). The result of our logistic regression with grade as a categorical variable indicated that eighth graders were less likely than fourth graders to represent basic arithmetic (OR = 0.42, p = .045) and advanced arithmetic (OR = 0.15, p < .001) in their drawings. On the other hand, eighth graders were more likely than fourth graders to represent algebraic concepts (OR = 2.18, p = .028). Additionally, math anxiety was a significant predictor of drawing advanced arithmetic concepts (OR = 1.30, p = .042) after controlling for student gender, grade, and drawn gender, such that students with a higher level of math anxiety tended to include these relatively simple math concepts in their drawings. Additionally, we found that as grade level went up, female mathematicians were 1.54 times more likely than male mathematicians to be drawn with basic arithmetic, which aligns with previous study findings (Gjøvik et al., 2023; Steele, 2003). Student gender was not associated with any math concepts (ps > .223).
Study findings highlight the importance of considering individual traits when discussing gender stereotypes that may influence students’ later math achievement and career aspirations. Our study also demonstrated that DAMT can be used to understand students’ socialization of who is a mathematician, a STEM career path.

Author information

Author	Role
Jisun Kim, Purdue University	Presenting author
Caroline Byrd Hornburg, Virginia Tech	Non-presenting author
Gillian E. Grose, University of Maryland, College Park	Non-presenting author
Tess Gavrielle Levinson, Wildlife Conservation Society	Non-presenting author
Lisa K. Fazio, Vanderbilt University	Non-presenting author

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