Gender Differences in Undergraduate Physics Courses: A Comparative Study of Persistence

Ashiqul Islam Dip

doi:10.11648/j.sjedu.20170501.13

Abstract

We have investigated the difference in persistence between male and female students while taking undergraduate physics courses. To quantify the persistence of a certain group of students, we have defined ‘persistence index’ as the inverse of the decrease rate of the number of that group of students while taking a specific course. We have collected the data from three consecutive workshops on various topics of physics. After plotting the number of participations against the number of days attended, we have calculated the decrease rates and persistence indices for both male and female student groups on each workshop and compared the persistence indices on a bar diagram. The comparative statistics show that the persistence indices of female student groups are significantly higher than that of male student groups. This leads us to the conclusion that the female students are more persistent than male students while taking an undergraduate physics course.

Highlights

It is a well-documented fact that the disciplines of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) are pre-dominated by male students
Some other studies indicate that women show lower levels of conceptual knowledge than men in both beginning and ending of introductory physics courses [6, 7]
Comparison Between the Persistence Indices of Male and Female Participant Groups In Figure 7, we show the comparison between the persistence indices of male and female participants graphically

Summary

Introduction

It is a well-documented fact that the disciplines of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) are pre-dominated by male students. According to the research of Kost et al, women show less involvement in learning and problem solving [7] These gender differences increase, for both conceptual knowledge and involvement, along with the evolution of the course [6, 7]. In lecture-based physics courses, Sawtelle et al [9] obtained the same result, as did Cavallo et al [10], and Lindstrom and Sharma [11] Another investigation by Kost-Smith et al [12] says, women exhibit less expert attitude than men. The numbers of the participants in both groups start to decline, and on the last day, the number of female students and the number of male students become nearly equal. We were inclined to conduct a formal research to check the validity of our hypothesis

Methods

Results

Conclusion