Do educational interventions reduce the gender gap in communication skills?- a systematic review

BACKGROUND

Efficient doctor-patient communication is essential for improving patient care. The impact of educational interventions on the communication skills of male and female students has not been systematically reviewed. The aim of this review is to identify interventions used to improve communication skills in medical curricula and investigate their effectiveness in improving the communication skills of male and female medical students.

METHODS

A systematic review of the literature was conducted using the PRISMA guidelines. Inclusion criteria were as follows: used intervention strategies aiming to improve communication skills, participants were medical students, and studies were primary research studies, systematic reviews, or meta-analyses.

RESULTS

2913 articles were identified based on search terms. After title, abstract, and full-text review, 58 studies were included with interventions consisting of Training or Drama Courses, Curriculum-Integrated, Patient Learning Courses, and Community-Based Learning Courses. 69% of articles reported improved communication skills for both genders equally, 28% for women more than men, and 3% for men more than women. 16 of the 58 articles reported numerical data regarding communication skills pre-and post-intervention. Analysis revealed that post-intervention scores are significantly greater than pre-intervention scores for both male (p < 0.001) and female students (p < 0.001). While the post-test scores of male students were significantly lower than that of female students (p = 0.01), there is no significant difference between genders for the benefits, or difference between post-intervention and pre-intervention scores (p = 0.15), suggesting that both genders benefited equally.

CONCLUSION

Implementation of communication training into medical education leads to improvement in communication skills of medical students, irrespective of gender. No specific interventions benefitting male students have been identified from published literature, suggesting need of further studies to explore the phenomenon of gender gap in communication skills and how to minimize the differences between male and female students.

Ambivalenter Sexismus gegenüber jugendlichen Mädchen

Zusammenfassung. Ambivalenter Sexismus besteht aus offen feindseligen (hostiler Sexismus) und scheinbar wohlwollenden (benevolenter Sexismus) Sichtweisen auf Frauen. Obwohl anzunehmen ist, dass ambivalent-sexistische Einstellungen nicht nur gegenüber Frauen, sondern auch gegenüber Mädchen bestehen und sich bereits im Jugendalter herausbilden, wurden auf Mädchen bezogene Einstellungen und jugendliche Stichproben bisher kaum untersucht, vermutlich auch aufgrund des Fehlens eines geeigneten Messinstrumentes. Wir stellen ein deutschsprachiges Instrument zur Messung ambivalent-sexistischer Einstellungen gegenüber jugendlichen Mädchen zum Einsatz bei Jugendlichen und jungen Erwachsenen vor. Zur Prüfung der Kriteriumsvalidität untersuchten wir mit 1 128 Jugendlichen den Zusammenhang zwischen ambivalent-sexistischen Einstellungen gegenüber Mädchen und einem Geschlechtergerechtigkeitsindex. Die Konstruktvalidität prüften wir in 2 Stichproben junger Erwachsener (Studierende der Sozialwissenschaften, N = 441, und des Polizeivollzugsdienstes, N = 153), die zusätzlich ein etabliertes Inventar zur Messung des ambivalenten Sexismus gegenüber Frauen sowie verwandte Skalen ausfüllten. Die Ergebnisse verweisen auf Reliabilität und Validität des Inventars zur Messung des Ambivalenten Sexismus gegenüber jugendlichen Mädchen (ASI-Mäd).

Can I dismiss the stereotype – as my teacher did? Influence of stereotype activation and an immigrant teacher on student learning

Lower vocabulary in German is repeatedly reported for students with Turkish migration background attending school in Germany. We investigated whether in students of Turkish descent (a) learning vocabulary is impaired when the teacher activates the negative stereotype that students with Turkish family language learn less well and (b) whether a Turkish-origin teacher, as an ingroup expert model, can mitigate negative effects of the activation of the stereotype. In an experimental study, Turkish- and German-origin students (N = 182) living in Germany worked individually on a tablet on a vocabulary learning task instructed by a teacher in a video tutorial who introduced herself with either a Turkish or German name. Before the task, the teacher either mentioned that students in general (no stereotype activation) or students who speak Turkish in their families (stereotype activation) often have difficulties acquiring new vocabulary. A multiple-group regression analysis showed that Turkish-origin students learned significantly more under stereotype activation with the Turkish-origin teacher than in all other conditions. Results suggest that students are particularly motivated to learn when the teacher represents their ingroup targeted by negative stereotypes and openly addresses potential difficulties students of the stigmatized ingroup may encounter. We discuss the findings in light of the literature on stereotype threat and on the role of ingroup expert models.

Women rate the competence of their occupational role higher than men do: Evidence from two different samples

Gender stereotypes play a potent role in how the work of men and women is perceived and valued. Stereotypes also influence the way people look upon themselves. In the present research, two studies are reported where men and women at work rated the degree of warmth and competence of a person with their own occupation, and how they think people in general would perceive a person in the same occupation. A wider gap between own perceptions and that of people in general was expected for women than for men, as it was assumed that the view of other people’s perceptions would serve as a proxy for stereotype threat for women. Study 1 comprised 449 participants (74 % women) working within the public sector, mainly in social, caring, and education professions, and Study 2 comprised a convenience sample of 189 participants (70 % women) from a variety of sectors and professions. Both studies yielded consistent results; contradictory to what was expected, men and women did not differ in terms of how they thought people in general would perceive the competence of their occupation, instead women rated the competence of their own occupation higher than men did, even after controlling for type of occupation and educational level. Warmth displayed only minor gender differences. The results are discussed in relation to research on counter-reactions against stereotype threat, how the concept of competence could be understood, as well as other possible explanations of the unexpected results.

Die Qualität des Lehrkraftverhaltens in Lehrkraft-Kind-Dyaden

Zusammenfassung. Das Verhalten von Lehrkräften in Lehrkraft-Kind-Dyaden kann auf den beiden universalen orthogonalen Dimensionen interpersonalen Verhaltens beschrieben werden: Communion (z.B. Wärme, Bedürfnisbefriedigung) und Agency (z.B. Lenkung, Kontrolle). Bestimmte Kombinationen auf diesen Dimensionen haben sich als günstig erwiesen: Schülerinnen und Schüler lernen besonders motiviert und viel, wenn ihre Lehrkraft starke Communion zeigt. Weniger eindeutig ist, ob eine moderat starke oder starke Agency der Lehrkraft besonders vorteilhaft ist. Wir untersuchen unter Verwendung des neu konstruierten Fragebogens zum Lehrkraftverhalten in dyadischen Lehrkraft-Lernenden-Beziehungen, ob Lehrkräfte ihre Agency komplementär zur Kompetenz des Kindes ausrichten und ob sich dies auch in stärkerer Agency gegenüber Gruppen von Kindern niederschlägt, deren mittlere Kompetenz geringer ist, nämlich (a) Kindern mit sonderpädagogischen Förderbedarf, (b) Kindern mit nichtdeutscher Erstsprache und (c) Jungen. Zweiundsiebzig Lehrkräfte beschrieben ihr Verhalten gegenüber fünf Kindern ihrer Klasse ( N = 302) auf jeweils 13 Items, die in einem Zirkumplex acht Facetten unterschiedlicher Kombinationen von Communion und Agency erfassen. Noten wurden als Proxy für Kompetenzen genutzt. Wie erwartet korrelierten Facetten mit sehr starker Agency positiv ( r = .54 und .65) und Facetten mit sehr schwacher Agency negativ ( r = –.46 und –.59) mit den Noten des Kindes. Nach Aggregation der Angaben über die Gruppen von Kindern zeigte sich, dass Lehrkräfte gegenüber Kindern mit sonderpädagogischem Förderbedarf oder mit nichtdeutscher Erstsprache auf Verhaltensfacetten mit starker Agency höhere Ausprägungen aufwiesen als gegenüber Kindern ohne das entsprechende Merkmal, unabhängig von der Stärke der Communion der Facetten. Diese Unterschiede verschwanden meist nach Kontrolle der Noten. Gegenüber Jungen (relativ zu Mädchen) gaben die Lehrkräfte höhere Ausprägungen auf Facetten mit (moderat) starker Agency bei gleichzeitig nur (moderat) schwacher Communion an, auch nach der Berücksichtigung der Noten. Die Ergebnisse werden bzgl. der Forschung (a) zum Zusammenhang zwischen Lehrkraftverhalten und Motivation der Lernenden und (b) zu den Ursachen des geringeren Bildungserfolgs von Jungen diskutiert.

The academic success of boys and girls as an identity issue in gender relations: when the most threatened is not the one expected

The present research aims to determine whether girls' higher academic achievement, which should grant them a higher academic status than boys, could prevent them from experiencing social-identity threat on this dimension. Because they fear situations questioning their superiority, we argue that an unfavorable intergroup comparison would be more threatening for the high-status, rather than low-status, group on the dimension of academic achievement. Two studies were conducted, respectively, in high school, where girls should represent the high-status group (Study 1), and middle school, where students might perceive their own group as the high-status group (Study 2). Although both middle-school and high-school students perceived girls as the high-status group, they appraised the outgroup superiority differently. Indeed, it had more impact on girls' perceived threat and boys' perceived challenge in high school (Study 1), but not in middle school (Study 2). The results, however, did not show significant impact of context on performance.

How Personal and Social Selves Influence the Development of Children and Adolescents at School

Abstract. How do different aspects of students' self-relate to their development at school? In educational psychology, this question has been examined essentially only in terms of the influence of the ability self-concept, a central part of the personal self. Starting with a literature review on why and how the ability self-concept impacts motivation and student outcomes, we argue that social selves – learners' knowledge about their group memberships and associated evaluations – have an impact, too. Students are more intrinsically motivated and more successful if they experience fit between learning environment and important self-aspects. Accordingly, we suggest a model according to which students try to increase fit by exerting primary control, i. e., by proactively changing the environment, with the self as agent. To that end (i) they mentally project the self as different from the actual self, with the mental self-projection serving as a self-evaluative standard and motiving behaviors aiming at its attainment, (ii) they choose behavioral options that allow for the enactment of important self-aspects, (iii) they choose interaction partners who share important self-aspects or are supportive of their behavioral enactment, and (iv) they switch between or prioritize different values, to best match affordances and constraints of the learning environment. If a student repeatedly fails to achieve fit through primary control, secondary control strategies are deployed, i. e., internal processes aimed at minimizing losses and saving resources for the pursuit of more attainable goals. To that end, students either disidentify with the learning environment or redefine their selves in a reactive manner, with, in many cases, detrimental effects on their academic outcomes. We hope to inspire educational psychologists to more systematically investigate the different self-aspects' impact on social and academic development of learners at school.

Overdiagnosis of ADHD in boys: Stereotype impact on neuropsychological assessment

There is vigorous debate regarding the possibility that ADHD is overdiagnosed in boys. We investigated the impact of the gender stereotype depicting boys as inattentive and impulsive on neuropsychological assessment (observation of psychology students and child's cognitive performance). In experiment 1, after the stereotype was activated, psychology students rated a "boy," a "girl," or a "child" on a behavioral assessment scale. In experiment 2, 103 children (boys and girls) completed neuropsychological tasks under stereotype threat or neutral conditions. The gender stereotype led psychology students to assess a child's behaviors more negatively if they thought the child was a boy. Boys' performance on one cognitive score declined following stereotype threat. Regression path analyses suggested moderation by stigma consciousness. Additionally, there were mediating and suppressing (through stereotype endorsement) effects. Our results suggest that the gender stereotype might contribute to the overdiagnosis of ADHD in boys.