Not Just for Men: A Case Study of the Teaching and Learning of Information Technology in Higher Education

Abstract

Previous research has indicated that women areavoiding the `hard' end of computer studies on coursesin higher education. In this paper we challenge someof the descriptions of computing and suggest thatcomputing is best understood as a concrete sciencecharacterised by the acquisition of artistry. Wereport findings from a case study of men and women onIT courses in one higher education institution in theUK. Students followed common first-year modulesinvolving the use of workbooks aimed at encouragingindependent learning. Our methodology involvedobservations of the coaching styles of male andfemale tutors in computer laboratories. Thirty-fourone-and-a-half-hour sessions were observed. Attendancewas higher for the sessions led by female tutors, butmale students had higher attendance rates overall. Wefound that the male tutors had more short interactionswith female students and intervened more directlymanipulating the keyboard or mouse, but that both maleand female tutors spent longer with men in the class.However, women students we observed appearedconfident, were more vocal and were sought out bytheir peers as advice givers. Women tutors adopted amore active coaching style, which encouragedcollaboration between students and greater peerinteraction. We conclude that we should use casestudies to re-describe women's presence withincomputing and render it more visible. From ourobservations of women in computer laboratories it isclear that computing is not just for men.