I love this new paper b/c it shows how nuanced young kids' reasoning about gender is.

For ex: Expectations about boys' (vs. girls') behaviors are more strongly informed by their looks, likely b/c boys face extra sanctions for non-conformity in looks, so fem appearance is extra informative.

👇

"Additionally, interaction effects were found between perceived instructor and peer FABs on students’ motivation, such that instructor FABs did not affect self-efficacy in the context of high peer FABs, and instructor FABs were more impactful in terms of emotional cost."

Per our first author Echo:

"Our experimental study on field-specific ability beliefs found that perceived high FABs from instructors and peers can hinder students’ motivation, psychological experience, and behaviors."

Our new paper is out! 🎉

Led by Echo Yan (along with @drmuenks.bsky.social), we used a vignette-based experiment to test the effects of perceived instructor and peer field-specific ability beliefs (FABs) on students' motivation, psychological experience, and anticipated behavior:

t.co/WnzqHsvGyn

🚨Excited our review on the way brilliance-beliefs undermine educational equality just got accepted at Ed Psych Review 😍 In the paper, we introduce the Brilliance-Belonging Model (BBM), which helps us understand when and how brilliance-beliefs work... 🧵
tinyurl.com/5c4aez9w

All STEM fields are not the same! Gender stereotypes about computer science (CS) & engineering (ENG) strongly diverge from math & science. This was true for diverse students in Grades 1-12. Math stereotypes showed big variations and slightly favored girls rather than boys among many students. (4/13)

I can back up that I saw you taking detailed notes on the others' presentations too! haha

Also, thanks to @andreicimpian.bsky.social for a fantastic discussion of the current status of FABs research and some hopes for the future! (photo cred: @krisarob.bsky.social)

Got to present work on the longitudinal associations of field-specific ability beliefs with motivation among comp sci undergraduates at #AERA2025! Thanks to the co-chairs Echo Yan and Katharina Asbury for putting everything together! (Also pictured, fantastic presenter @lisalimeri.bsky.social)

@czpuede.bsky.social and I are excited to share the program for #AERA2025 Div C Sec 2B: Motivation & Learning in Social & Cultural Contexts! Today we're highlighting Wed (4/23) presentations ✨ More to come! @aera-motsig.bsky.social @aeradivcgrad.bsky.social #PsychSciSky #AcademicSky #EduSky

New paper out! Across 3 large high school datasets, we found that girls and boys largely place similar value on math. No meaningful differences were found in the most recent dataset (2012), but some differences were found in the two older datasets (1990s and early 2000s). doi.org/10.1002/jad....

I am hiring a postdoctoral position in queer quantitative educational research! This is a two-year position. I am more than happy to provide more information or talk with interested applicants. Apply by March 1st for full consideration. Full info and application: vcu.csod.com/ux/ats/caree...

Digging in a bit more: One of the most important findings was that not all "STEM" stereotypes are same.

For instance, "science" masks that biology stereotypes favors girls, but physics stereotypes favor boys. And math stereotypes are tiny, on average!

"In sum, the study provides further evidence that considering learning style in teaching methods such as presentation mode is not beneficial. Importantly, the present study used ecologically valid learning materials and a sufficiently powered sample." #AcademicSky #EduSky

Excited to have this paper out there (and even more excited to have it open access)!

We used mixed-methods to expand on prior field-specific ability beliefs work and to challenge our own theoretical assumptions about these associations.

Glad to have gotten to be a part of this team! 🎉