Some subscribers to Phys-L might be interested in a discussion list post "Threats to At-Risk Students: Stereotype & The Belief in Fixed Intelligence" [Hake (2014)]. The abstract reads:
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On 30 May 2014, there were:
(1) three threads containing 33 posts on the POD archives at <http://bit.ly/SjUBE9> concerning Leonard Geddes' "Learnwell Projects" piece "Why Good Students Do 'Bad' in College" <http://wp.me/p3GGxn-t>; and
(2) one thread containing 15 posts on the PhysLrnR archives at <http://bit.ly/SkeKKo> concerning Paul Tough's NYT piece "Who Gets to Graduate" <http://nyti.ms/1nD3Z1E>.
The above posts primarily concern two threats to at-risk students: (a) the "Stereotype Threat" – see "Whistling Vivaldi: How Stereotypes Affect Us and What We Can Do" [Steele (2011)] <http://amzn.to/1hhk1yc>; and (b) what might be called "The Belief in Fixed Intelligence Threat" – see "Mindset: The New Psychology of Success" [Dweck (2007)] at <http://amzn.to/1wzVqZA>.
These two threats have been recently discussed in a "Physics Today" article "Psychological insights for improved physics teaching" [Aguilar, Walton, & Wieman (2014)] at <http://stanford.io/1tXfxPc>.
REFERENCES [URL shortened by <http://bit.ly/> and accessed on 31 May 2014.]
Hake, R.R. 2014. "Threats to At-Risk Students: Stereotype & The Belief in Fixed Intelligence." Post of 30 May 2014 20:13:16-0700 to AERA-L and Net-Gold. Online on the OPEN! AERA-L archives at <http://bit.ly/1pFKkO6>. The abstract and link to the complete post are being transmitted to several discussion lists and are on my blog "Hake'sEdStuff" at <http://bit.ly/1gPSLGo> with a provision for comments.