Student-centered Assessment helps students examine their own learning. Effective feedback on performance--and assistance on how to reflect on it--encourages persistence. So give students feedback they can productively use, i.e., timely, contextualized, and actionable.

Encouragement increases self-efficacy: the belief in one’s ability to successfully perform a task. Because we are more likely to engage in tasks we believe we can perform successfully, encouragement may be especially useful for attracting women to male-stereotyped fields and helping them to persist in the face of difficult challenges. Faculty can help by explicitly noting students’ good work, by actively encouraging their computing pursuits, and by encouraging a “growth mindset”.

Interacting with faculty and teaching assistants, both in and outside of the classroom, is a powerful way to give students encouragement, to impart tacit professional knowledge, and to help students begin to see themselves as computer scientists. These interactions can take place in class or in lab, during office hours, or in other settings, and are important for sustaining student interest in computing.

Stereotype threat occurs when we fear our actions will confirm negative stereotypes about our “group.” When activated, stereotype threat harms performance and motivation by reducing feelings of competence, belonging, and trust. Note that stereotype threat can affect the performance of anyone in a situation where a stereotype-based expectation of poor performance is evoked. It can be mitigated by reframing tasks to remove associations with stereotypes, by giving effective encouragement, and with self-affirmations.