iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

We were initially interested in looking for possible linguistic bias against non-native English speakers, but instead, we stumbled upon a possible tool to help close the gender gap in math and other STEM fields.

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We find the well-documented gender gap, with male students performing slightly higher on numerical questions than female students. However, with writing questions, the gap goes away!

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Students tend to do worse on these kinds of writing questions in comparison to more traditional numerical questions, but the score difference between question types is consistent for all students, regardless of linguistic background, living situation, international status, … but not gender!

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Are writing questions in math fair? | Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning Indiana University Logo

New article by Lex Konnelly, Jason Siefken, Pocholo Umbal, and me: "Are writing questions in math fair?" scholarworks.iu.edu/journals/ind... Main take-aways: Yes, math questions that require written explanatory prose seem to be fair, with the right questions, rubrics, and grader training.

scholarworks.iu.edu

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Nathan Sanders @ludling.bsky.social · 17/03/2025

Came here to say exactly the same!

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Reposted by Nathan Sanders

NateintheWild @nateinthewild.com · 28/11/2024

Ok I will admit that I was VERY hesitant to get on a new social media platform. I already have like 6 and honestly the internet isn't that fun these days, but I have to admit I'm really enjoying Bluesky! Please consider sharing this post to help me grow my Bluesky audience to match the rest!

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Nathan Sanders @ludling.bsky.social · 22/11/2024

As a kid, I loved Pepto Bismol so much that I would complain about having a stomach ache when I was actually perfectly fine!

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Reposted by Nathan Sanders

Nicole Maines @nicoleamaines.bsky.social · 20/11/2024

I don’t know what to say today, but fortunately I gave some answers in this that I stand by. glaad.org/nicole-maine...

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Reposted by Nathan Sanders

Linguischick @cocchino.bsky.social · 15/11/2024

Hey! I'm teaching "Linguistics of Sign Languages" at the Linguistics Society of America's Summer Institute this summer (w/ Ryan Lepic). There are going to be so many great classes and instructors. I'd appreciate if you'd share this and send good students our way! center.uoregon.edu/LSA/2025/pro...

center.uoregon.edu

The Linguistics of Sign Languages

Linguistics Society of America Summer Institute

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Teaching in Linguistics Community of Practice (TiLCoP) Canada has joined Bluesky! Find us at: bsky.app/profile/tilc... We've been a bit quiet on social media after taking a much needed rest from publishing the 2nd edition of Essentials of Linguistics essentialsoflinguistics.ca.

bsky.app

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So, using more writing questions in STEM could help cut the gender gap, without disadvantaging students based on language ability. Preprint available here: sanders.phonologist.org/Papers/konne...

sanders.phonologist.org

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Result: Yes! But a cool additional result we didn't anticipate: Writing questions are also fair for gender, essentially erasing the well-known gender gap in STEM (which was replicated in our non-writing questions).

sanders.phonologist.org

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Just got notice that our co-authored "Are writing questions in math fair?" is finally in the production pipeline for Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning! Main research Q: Are writing questions ("explain…", etc.) in math fair for students across different linguistic backgrounds?

sanders.phonologist.org

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Better yet, \text{} from the amsmath package! It preserves spaces, accents, etc. It treats its argument as text, while \mathrm{} treats its argument as math, which is usually not what's intended, though it is good for differential operators, like $\mathrm{d}x$.

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And yes to the emotional labour! I hope to be able to teach my students how and why AI will fail them, so they'll be more careful. That's one of the goals of our sample assignment! It highlights some reasons why AI can't be trusted to write their essays for them. If they still use it after that… 🤷‍♂️

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journals.linguisticsociety.org

Lex Konnelly and I wrote about generative AI in linguistics in our LSA proceedings paper: journals.linguisticsociety.org/proceedings/... It includes a sample essay assignment that is ChatGPT-proof! (at least for now) It's for syntax, but the basic concept could easily be used for any subdiscipline.

AI hype in the classroom | Proceedings of the Linguistic Society of America

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Alt National Park Service @altnps.bsky.social · 13/11/2024

That's great! Hope you had a wonderful visit.

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Reposted by Nathan Sanders

Thanks for following us on Bluesky! We’re the official resistance team for the National Park Service.

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