Computer science camps to reduce the gender gap: a proposal for effective design and impact evaluation

Research shows that female and male students in undergraduate computer science programs view computer culture differently. Female students are interested more in the use of computers than in doing programming, whereas male students see computer science mainly as a programming activity. The overall purpose of our research was not to find new definitions for computer science culture but to see how male and female students see themselves involved in computer science practices, how they see computer science as a successful career, and what they like and dislike about current computer science practices. The study took place in a mid-sized university in Ontario. Sixteen students and two instructors were interviewed to get their views. We found that male and female views are different on computer use, programming, and the pattern of student interactions. Female and male students did not have any major issues in using computers. In computing programming, female students were not so involved in computing activities whereas male students were heavily involved. As for the opinions about successful computer science professionals, both female and male students emphasized hard working, detailed oriented approaches, and enjoying playing with computers. The myth of the geek as a typical profile of successful computer science students was not found to be true.

The pharmacy profession has significantly changed over the years. Pharmacy students' perceptions of their coursework and future career aspirations may vary in relation to gender. The present study explored the motivations of pharmacy students to enter pharmacy school, their satisfaction with the academic program, future plans after graduation, and perceptions about the pharmacy profession in relation to gender. Data were collected using a cross-sectional descriptive validated questionnaire built by the research team. The study was conducted at twelve public and private universities offering pharmacy programs. In total, 918 pharmacy students have completed the online questionnaire, with a 98% response rate. Most participants reported that family encouragement was a motive to enter pharmacy school. The results of the Chi-Squared Test indicated a significant difference between female and male participants with respect to the following motives: High school grades (p = 0.009), being good at science (p = 0.013), working with patients(p = 0.024), professional status (p = 0.014), working in a family business (p = 0.001) and job opportunities (p = 0.001). The majority of male participants and female participants perceived pharmacy jobs as prestigious jobs. In addition, male and female students believed that it was a profession with well-paid jobs. Females were significantly more motivated by their high school degrees, goodness at science, working with patients, and professional status to enter pharmacy school. Pharmacy students are satisfied enough with the academic program. Male and female pharmacists have different career aspirations in the pharmaceutical sectors. It is recommended that students be educated about career planning to help them accomplish their goals. Future research could benefit from longitudinal studies to explore changes in pharmacy students' motivations, satisfaction, and career aspirations over time.

A opção pela medicina e os planos em relação ao futuro profissional de estudantes no início do ciclo profissional foram avaliados em pesquisa que utilizou metodologia qualitativa de análise de duas questões abertas, uma delas sobre a opção pelo curso, os fatos e fatores que influenciaram a escolha, e outra sobre os planos futuros em relação à profissão e aos fatores que, no momento, orientam esses planos. A justificativa para o estudo foi reconhecer que as motivações para a escolha da medicina são complexas e mutáveis no decorrer do tempo e que a opção pela especialização tem sido precoce. Os resultados encontrados confirmaram várias achados da literatura para a opção pela medicina, incluindo os mecanismos inconscientes, mas diferiram no fato de a inserção no mercado de trabalho e a possibilidade de bons salários estarem entre os mais citados, depois do altruísmo. Em relação aos planos para o futuro, fica evidente a preocupação em conciliar vida profissional e vida pessoal com qualidade. Embora muitos estudantes ainda não tenham planos definidos e queiram apenas fazer um bom curso, o exercício de especialidade médica e a preocupação com a residência médica já estão presentes nesta fase do curso.

Background: No healthcare without a workforce has been a universal truth. However, shortages and misdistribution of the qualified healthcare workforce have become global concerns affecting nearly all countries, especially less-developed countries.Methods: Cross sectional study done on house surgeons in AIMS, BG Nagar, Mandya district, involving 178 house surgeons. Simple proportions were used to analysis the data.Results: Out of 178 house surgeons, 177 (99.4%) had plan for future academic career and service. 158 (88.7%) had plan for PG course and 19 (10.6%) planned for general practice, 80 (94%) planning to do super specialization and 84 (47.1%) plan to teach in medical colleges. Majority of house surgeons 161 (91.4%) have expressed to work in urban area and 17 (9.5%) in primary health centre in rural areas.Conclusions: Almost all the house surgeons have planned well in advance about their future academic and career plan.

Despite the current growing popularity of the computer science (CS) major, women remain sorely underrepresented in the field, continuing to earn only 18% of bachelor’s degrees. Understanding women’s low rates of participation in CS is important given that the demand for individuals with CS training has grown sharply in recent years. Attracting and retaining more women to high-paying fields like CS may also help narrow the gender pay gap. Further, it is important that women participate in developing new technology so that technology advances serve the needs of both women and men. This paper explores the background characteristics, career aspirations, and self-perceptions of 1636 female first-year college students in the United States who intend to major in CS and compares them with 4402 male CS aspirants as well as with 26,642 women planning to major in other STEM sub-fields. The findings reveal a unique profile of women who pursue the CS major and notes many significant differences between men and women in CS and between women in CS and those in other STEM fields. For instance, women in CS tend to earn lower high school grades than women in other STEM fields, but earn higher SAT verbal scores. They also rate themselves higher than men in CS and women in other STEM fields on measures of their artistic ability, but rate themselves lower on other self-ratings, including academic and leadership ability. Further, women in CS are more likely to be undecided in their career plans than men in CS and women in other STEM fields. Understanding the unique characteristics of women in CS will help inform policies and recruitment programs designed to address the gender gap in computing.

Objective: To explore the roles of College Students’ Innovative Entrepreneurial Training Plan Program (SIETP) on improving scientific research ability and clarifying career planning of medical students. Methods: Questionnaire survey was used to investigate 200 undergraduates in different majors of Health Science Center of Yangtze University. The questionnaire consists of three parts: the status of respondents participating in scientific research, the distribution of students participating in scientific research activities in different majors and grades, the effects of SIETP on medical students’ scientific research ability and career planning. Results: The survey showed that 87% of students were willing to participate in scientific research. 65% of students didn’t familiar with scientific research. Of the 200 students, only 44 (22%) had participated in scientific research projects, among which clinical medicine students account for the largest proportion, 61.4%. The proportion of senior students participating in scientific research activities was higher than that of junior students, and the proportion of male students was higher than female students. SIETP could significantly improve scientific research awareness, literature consulting ability, project design ability, data analysis and processing ability of students (P Conclusion: The medical students in our university had insufficient understanding and low participation in scientific research. SIETP could help students improve their scientific research literacy, it has a good guiding role for medical students’ future career planning.

Students’ attitudes towards people with a disability, their perceptions of the characteristics of a successful occupational therapist, and their future career plans were surveyed on entry to and exit from the Bachelor of Occupational Therapy course at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. Factors impacting on students’ career plans were also examined. Questionnaires were administered to 84 students on the first day of the course in 1994 and to 59 students on the last day of the course in 1997. Descriptive statistics were used to summarise and compare the data. While generally positive on entry to the course, students’ attitudes were even more positive on completion. Entry and exit perceptions of the characteristics considered important to being a successful occupational therapist were closely aligned with the values and ideals of the profession. At both survey points, students indicated a reluctance to pursue work in non‐metropolitan areas and in psychosocial, research and academic fields. Clinical placements and particular clinicians were identified as having the greatest impact on students’ career plans. These findings provide support for the notions that student self‐selection into occupational therapy may assist in bringing aware students to the course and that clinical experiences during the course serve as potent influences on future career plans. Tailored use of the processes of socialisation within occupational therapy courses may assist in attracting therapists to particular geographical and clinical areas.

The substantial decline in female enrollment in computer science programs has been a cause of concern, especially as the application of computer technology to an ever-wider range of human endeavor expands. While many studies have examined the attitudes and perceptions of female computer science students, little attention has been paid to studying empirically how classroom interventions-such as curricular choices and pedagogical approaches-may result in disparate impacts in the learning outcomes of male and female students. This study examines recent research articles in leading journals and conference proceedings of computer science education to analyze the gender composition of the subject pool, the extent to which cognitive learning results are disaggregated by gender, and whether there are gender differences in outcomes. This study found that about one-third of studies indicated the gender composition of the subjects, and about one-third of those research subjects were female. About ten percent of papers disaggregated research findings by gender; of those, 30% found differences between male and female subjects. No studies recommended gender disaggregation of data in future work. The lack of data for learning outcomes by gender may be one of the contributors to the paucity of female computer science students; it is possible that interventions found to be more (or less) effective would show different outcomes if the data were considered in light of the gender of the participants. Thus, further research into potential gender differences in the effectiveness of computer science instructional tools is recommended.

The low and shrinking numbers of female students studying computer science is a well-known problem in most of the western countries. The dominant perception about computer science field considered it as a masculine domain. In contrast, this study was performed in the IT department where female students are dominant compared to male students. The purpose of this study is to explore the influence of different factors on female students in choosing a career in the IT field. A survey was deployed to collect responses of female students in the IT department. The results show that female students are interested in computer science stream and nullify the dominant perception of computer science as a masculine domain. They want to learn technology, become an active member of the digital native world, and interested in coding literacy.

Female students are underrepresented in computing careers and in computing majors at the college or university level. This underrepresentation starts in high school. Only 20% of Advanced Placement (AP) Computer Science (CS) A exam takers in 2014 nationally were female. In addition to being underrepresented, female students tend to have a lower pass rate on the exam than male students. Failing the exam could reduce interest in computing as a career. Sisters Rise Up 4 CS was created at the Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) to help more female high school students pass the AP CS A exam. It offers help sessions, near-peer role models, exposure to a college campus, and a community of learners. Sisters Rise Up 4 CS is based on Project Rise Up 4 CS, which was also created at Georgia Tech to help increase the number of African-American students that pass the AP CS A exam. However, Sisters Rise Up 4 CS does not include the financial incentives offered by Project Rise Up 4 CS. Project Rise Up 4 CS has resulted in statistically significant positive changes in attitudes for participants and a large increase in the participants' perception of their ability to pass the exam. Even students who did not pass the exam have reported positive benefits from being in Project Rise Up 4 CS. This paper summarizes the findings from Project Rise Up 4 CS from 2013-2015 and presents the findings from the pilot of Sisters Rise Up 4 CS from 2014-2015. We used a mixed-methods approach to evaluate the project and to judge the effectiveness of the project elements.

This study examines the value undergraduate students (n = 4458) place on proficiency in languages other than English (LOTEs) in terms of their personal interests, major(s), and career plans. Combining quantitative and qualitative analyses of large‐scale survey data, the study further explores the reasons students outline for (not) enrolling in LOTE courses and what would motivate them to enroll in language courses in the future. Results indicate that students attached most value in relation to personal interests, followed by career plans and major. In addition, students' demographics and prior experience with language can also impact their future enrollment decisions. The results suggest that not only should institutions lead the way by emphasizing the importance of learning languages, but also that language programs need to listen to students' voices and help them establish clear links between their academic majors, their future career and study plans as well as their personal interests.

BackgroundToday, women constitute about half of medical students in several Western societies, yet women physicians are still underrepresented in surgical specialties and clustered in other branches of medicine. Gender segregation in specialty preference has been found already in medical school. It is important to study the career preferences of our future physicians, as they will influence the maintenance of an adequate supply of physicians in all specialties and the future provision of health care. American and British studies dominate the area of gender and medical careers whereas Swedish studies on medical students’ reasons for specialty preference are scarce. The aim of this study is to investigate and compare Swedish male and female medical students’ specialty preferences and the motives behind them.MethodsBetween 2006 and 2009, all last-year medical students at Umea University, Sweden (N = 421), were invited to answer a questionnaire about their future career and family plans. They were asked about their specialty preference and how they rated the impact that the motivational factors had for their choice. The response rate was 89% (N = 372); 58% were women (N = 215) and 42% were men (N = 157). Logistic regression was used to evaluate the independent impact of each motivational factor for specialty preference.ResultsOn the whole, male and female last-year students opted for similar specialties. Men and women had an almost identical ranking order of the motivational factors. When analyzed separately, male and female students showed both similarities and differences in the motivational factors that were associated with their specialty preference. A majority of the women and a good third of the men intended to work part-time. The motivational factor combining work with family correlated with number of working hours for women, but not for men.ConclusionsThe gender similarities in the medical students’ specialty preferences are striking and contrast with research from other Western countries where male and female students show more differences in career aspirations. These similarities should be seized by the health care system in order to counteract the horizontal gender segregation in the physician workforce of today.

It is important to complement the scientific literature with the data regarding the impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the social, work and health practices as well as on the daily life of dentists, and to promote adequate public policies. The aim of the study was to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the career plans of dentists in Colombia. As part of global research on the impact of COVID-19 on dentistry, a crosssectional survey was administered via digital media to dentists in Colombia. The validated questionnaire included inquiries regarding sociodemographic variables, the perception of the risk of contagion with COVID-19 and the impact of COVID-19 on the dentists' career plans. The variables were summarized in absolute and relative frequencies, and a binomial logistic regression analysis was carried out to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on career plans according to the independent variables. A total of 5,370 dentists answered the survey (women: 3,878; median age: 45 years; response rate: 16.85%). Most of the dentists (96%) believed that COVID-19 infection was a risk for them and 81.96% reported that the COVID-19 pandemic had some impact on their career plans, including reducing working hours (77.96%), retiring early (26.54%) and changing their career away from dentistry (18.15%). The regression model showed that older adults (OR = 1.62; 95% CI: 1.16, 2.26), general practitioners (OR = 1.21; 95% CI: 1.02, 1.44), private practice owners (OR = 2.33; 95% CI: 1.94, 2.79), private practice associates (OR = 2.20; 95% CI: 1.84, 2.63), and those with 'very probable' risk perception (OR = 4.29; 95% CI: 1.35, 13.60) had a significantly greater chance of the pandemic having an impact on their future career plans. The pandemic has had a great impact on dentists' career plans. Dentists who are most fearful of the risk of contagion, those who are older and those who have their private practice are thinking about reducing working hours, retiring early or changing their career.

This paper presents the results of research on female students at three different faculties of informatics: Novi Sad in Serbia, Plovdiv in Bulgaria and Tirana in Albania. The idea of this paper is to analyze and compare female students' attitudes towards studying informatics (Computer Science - CS or Information Communication Technologies -- ICT and their expectations for future career. Therefore, we have collected female students' opinions, experiences, attitudes, and perspectives, on current studies, employment opportunities and expectations of future professional careers. Reliable statistical tests were used for a detailed analysis of student responses. The obtained results indicate that the opinions of female students vary, depending on the place where they study.

Career planning is a process that starts from knowing and understanding oneself, realizing the opportunities within himself and various choices with all his abilities, classifying choices, making decisions, developing his future career in achieving goals and plans to make plans for a job. The three main aspects of career planning are knowledge and understanding of oneself, knowledge and understanding of work, and the right way of thinking between oneself and the world of work. which is the main key in planning a future career that is in accordance with its capabilities will also be able to know the interests, talents, strengths and weaknesses that we have. So that it can facilitate us in planning our future careers