Survey population and response rates.

The lack of diversity in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) is a significant issue for the sector. Many organisations and educators have identified lack of representation of historically marginalised groups within teaching materials as a potential barrier to students feeling that a Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) career is something that they can aspire to. A key barrier to addressing the issue is providing accessible and effective evidence-based approaches for educators to implement. In this study, we explore the potential for adapting presentation slides within lectures to ‘humanise’ the scientists involved, presenting their full names and photographs alongside a Harvard style reference. The intervention stems from an initial assumption that many formal scientific referencing systems are demographic-neutral and exacerbate prevailing perceptions that STEM is not diverse. We adopt a questionnaire based methodology surveying 161 bioscience undergraduates and postgraduates at a UK civic university. We first establish that students project assumptions about the gender, location, and ethnicity of the author of a hypothetical reference, with over 50% of students assuming they are male and Western. We then explore what students think of the humanised slide design, concluding that many students see it as good pedagogical practice with some students positively changing their perceptions about diversity in science. We were unable to compare responses by participant ethnic group, but find preliminary evidence that female and non-binary students are more likely to see this as good pedagogical practice, perhaps reflecting white male fragility in being exposed to initiatives designed to highlight diversity. We conclude that humanised powerpoint slides are a potentially effective tool to highlight diversity of scientists within existing research-led teaching, but highlight that this is only a small intervention that needs to sit alongside more substantive work to address the lack of diversity in STEM.

科学、技术、工程与数学（Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics，简称STEM）领域的多样性缺失是该行业面临的重大问题。众多机构与教育工作者均指出，教学材料中历史边缘化群体的代表性不足，可能会成为阻碍学生产生“STEM职业是自身可追求的目标”这一认知的潜在因素。解决这一问题的关键障碍之一，是为教育工作者提供可及且有效的循证实施路径。本研究探索了将讲座演示幻灯片进行“人性化”改造的潜力，即通过在幻灯片中展示相关科学家的全名与照片，并附上哈佛格式参考文献的方式。该干预措施基于一项初始假设：多数正式科学引用体系均为人口统计学中性，且会加剧大众对“STEM领域缺乏多样性”的固有刻板印象。我们采用基于问卷的调研方法，对英国一所市政大学的161名生物科学本科生与研究生开展调查。首先证实，学生们会对假想参考文献的作者的性别、所在地与族裔做出预设，其中超过50%的学生认为该作者为男性且来自西方。随后我们调研了学生对“人性化”幻灯片设计的看法，结果显示多数学生认为这属于优质教学实践，部分学生还因此对科学领域的多样性形成了更积极的认知。我们未能按参与者族裔分组对比研究结果，但发现初步证据表明，女性与非二元性别学生更倾向于认可这一优质教学实践，这或许反映出白人男性群体在接触旨在凸显多样性的相关举措时所表现出的脆弱性。最后我们得出结论，人性化PowerPoint幻灯片是在现有以研究为导向的教学中凸显科学家群体多样性的潜在有效工具，但同时也强调，这仅为一项小型干预措施，需与更具实质性的工作相结合，才能切实解决STEM领域的多样性缺失问题。