Characterizing the gender gap in introductory physics
Characterizing the gender gap in introductory physics
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DOI：
10.1103/physrevstper.5.010101
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发表时间：
2009-01-01
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Finkelstein, Noah D.
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Kost, Lauren E.;Pollock, Steven J.;Finkelstein, Noah D.
前期研究[S]；J.波洛克等人，物理学。Rev. ST物理建造。Res. 3,1(2007)]表明，尽管使用了互动参与技术，但在博尔德科罗拉多大学的一项概念学习调查中，男女之间的表现差距从测试前到测试后仍然存在。这些发现与先前发表的研究结果相反[M]。洛伦佐等人。[j].中国生物医学工程学报，2006,32(1)。这项研究首先确定了其他各种性别差异。男女学生在课程成绩上有微小但显著的差异。男性和女性对物理和数学的先验理解有显著差异。女性选修高中物理的可能性低于男性，尽管她们选修高中微积分的可能性是一样的。男性和女性对物理学的态度和信念也不同。对这些背景因素进行分析，以确定每个因素与概念性后测的表现和性别之间的关联程度。按五分位数分组，我们观察到具有相似测试前得分的男性和女性在测试后得分上没有显著差异（p>0.2）。在控制了这些重要的先验因素后，对测试后的数据使用两种回归模型（多元回归和逻辑回归）进行建模，以估计测试后分数的性别差异。这些先前的因素约占观察到的性别差距的70%。结果表明，在我们学校的互动物理课堂上存在性别差异，但这主要与之前的物理和数学知识以及进入的态度和信仰的差异有关。
Previous research [S. J. Pollock et al., Phys. Rev. ST Phys. Educ. Res. 3, 1 (2007)] showed that despite the use of interactive engagement techniques, the gap in performance between males and females on a conceptual learning survey persisted from pretest to post-test at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Such findings were counter to previously published work [M. Lorenzo et al., Am. J. Phys. 74, 118 (2006)]. This study begins by identifying a variety of other gender differences. There is a small but significant difference in the course grades of males and females. Males and females have significantly different prior understandings of physics and mathematics. Females are less likely to take high school physics than males, although they are equally likely to take high school calculus. Males and females also differ in their incoming attitudes and beliefs about physics. This collection of background factors is analyzed to determine the extent to which each factor correlates with performance on a conceptual post-test and with gender. Binned by quintiles, we observe that males and females with similar pretest scores do not have significantly different post-test scores (p>0.2). The post-test data are then modeled using two regression models (multiple regression and logistic regression) to estimate the gender gap in post-test scores after controlling for these important prior factors. These prior factors account for about 70% of the observed gender gap. The results indicate that the gender gap exists in interactive physics classes at our institution but is largely associated with differences in previous physics and math knowledge and incoming attitudes and beliefs.