Emily Martin Prof.

Lipnicky English 106 November 19, 2013 Mathematics In this article, Catherine Good, Aneeta Rattan and Carol S. Dweck examine students sense of belonging in the field of mathematics. The introduction of their paper resembles Swales article very well. In the first move, establishing a territory, they claim that gender gaps in science exist not because of discrimination, but because of womens lack of desire to pursue math-based fields. In move two of Swaless model, establishing a niche, it is suggested that there may be more factors to a persons sense of belonging. Good, Rattan and Dweck said that there are two messages that students hear in their environments that may make them feel out of place. These two messages are: math ability is a fixed trait, you are either a math person or youre not, and the stereotype that women have less of this ability than men. They also indicate a gap in the research for their study. Good stated, past research addresses the consequences of the general need to belong, but not the an individuals sense of belonging in a specific area (701). In the introduction the authors explain the hypotheses that they will be testing to come to a conclusion. The issue of having more women than men is important because even though there is a rise in women staying in these fields, there is still a huge gap in gender in certain disciplines. Although not all steps are seen of move three, occupying the niche, it is still similar to the first step. They told

us what hypotheses they would be testing and who they were testing. They use not only their own research, but also that of many other sources that would help with this problem. The research used for this paper was mainly accessed from online psychological and science journals, unpublished manuscripts, books and newspaper articles. They use a variety of sources from different areas of psychology and science journals. Throughout the article in-text citations are used for the information provided. Many of these cited works are from larger sources that study the same topic. They used articles from Social Psychology, SAT statistics, research of math education, The New York Times, and many other sources that can be linked to a persons sense of belonging in the math environment. These sources are used to explain further their ideas about sense of belonging and the affects of stereotyping. Much of their research for creating a scale and their experiments comes from the research from other psychology papers and many math related sources. Another form of research that the authors use is their own case studies. The first study was to establish a reliable scale to determine a Sense of Belonging scale. Study 2 was used to examine the power of sense of belonging to predict students intention to remain in a math field. In the last study, calculus students were measured to see if their environment showed math as a fixed ability and do women have less of this ability than men. This article basically consists of three lab reports put together to form one article. Each report starts with an introduction, then the method, procedure, results and a discussion of the study. The overall hypothesis for this experiment was If skills can be acquired through effort over time, then the

stereotype of lesser underlying ability may become less credible and certainly will become less threatening to their sense of belonging (Dweck, 702) In order to gain a good scale for Study 1 a total of 997 students were used. There were 465 male and 532 female students used for this study. In Study 2 they had to assess the relation between sense of belonging and other variables found in earlier research to be related to math achievement and representation. There were 133 participants, 56 men and 77 women. In Study 3 537 females and 471 males were participants from a calculus class were asked to partake in the study. This number of students for each of their studies allowed for a more accurate and reliable result of these studies. The authors of this article did extensive research to make their findings as accurate as possible. They included charts, graphs and tables to help readers visualize the results of their findings. Their findings were that an environment that produces math as a fixed ability is a cause to why students lose their confidence in their abilities. Womens initial sense of belonging did not predict a later desire to continue math, but over time as their sense of belonging decreased, the studies predicted their lower intentions to pursue math. This paper was written for other college students and professors alike. It shows not only womens sense of belonging but mens as well. Professors can learn from this research by making their classrooms more accepting and open to all students. They need to focus on improving students abilities not to focus on the stereotype that math is a fixed ability. It also can pertain to other science field not just the math domain. The thesis of this paper is students sense of belonging is an

important variable to study when considering the causes and cures of the representation gap in math and science domains (Good, 715). One of the most obvious uses of rhetoric is logos. Good, Rattan and Dweck use research and case studies to prove their thesis and hypothesis. The paper appeals to college students because the participants of their studies were actual college students. The paper shares information about classroom settings and explains why students might feel the way they do in a math or science environment. Professors and students will benefit from this paper. Catherine Good, Aneeta Rattan and Carol S. Dweck spent a lot of time creating this paper and doing the research. Their hard work has shown that because of stereotypes and sense of belonging, women are less likely to further their studies in math. This also applies to students in general. Many people will learn from this research and use the results in their futures.

Works Cited Good, Catherine, Aneeta Rattan, and Carol S. Dweck. "Why Do Women Opt Out? Sense of Belonging and Women's Representation in Mathematics." Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. 102.4 (2012): 700-717. Print.