Frischseminar: Andreas Fidjeland

Abstrakt: With growing demand for STEM-skilled labor, policymakers are concerned with encouraging more students to pursue science and technology-related education. Emerging evidence indicate that early performance signals can have substantial effect on the choices students make with regards to course profiles or field of study. However, there is still much to be learned about how and why such signals shape student beliefs and affect future investment decisions. I revisit data collected for a randomized controlled trial aimed at promoting growth mindset among Norwegian high schoolers, and leverage unique features of the Norwegian exam system to identify the causal effect of being exposed to a high-stakes test on subsequent attitudes towards mathematics — a key prerequisite subject for most STEM degrees. I demonstrate that students randomly selected to sit for a math test, as opposed to a similar test in a language subject, report having less anxiety towards mathematics, having more confidence that they will do well in mathematics in the future and being more interested in math as a topic. Administrative records show that these students are also more likely to choose advanced math subjects in high school. Although average effects are meaningful and robust, they are particularly large among students for whom math is a relatively strong subject and those who overachieve on the test, relative to teacher assessed grades.