Will Current Educational Reforms Narrow the Gender Gap In Science?

[3355506]沙维尔森多年来，科学领域的性别差异在两个重要方面表现得很明显。首先，早在小学时代，男性在传统的科学成就衡量标准上就优于女性。其次，有持续的证据表明，与男性相比，女性在科学中表现出更多的负面影响（例如，较低的自我概念，较低的表现期望），并在科学课堂上报告较少的积极体验（例如，较少的师生互动）。目前，人们普遍认为，如果科学教学和测试改为与科学本身平行的方法（例如，假设检验、动手实验），女性将有机会更清楚地展示她们所知道的东西，从而提高成绩、积极的课堂体验和积极的学生影响。反过来，女学生可能会把科学视为一个向她们开放的领域，而不是一个为男性保留的领域。尽管倡导科学课程和考试改革的人提出，对女性来说，这种积极的结果将会发生，但很少有甚至没有研究探讨过这个问题。这项研究的目的是检验新的教学方法是否真的会缩小或消除科学领域现有的性别差距。因此，本研究旨在评估男女学生在以表现为基础的课堂（即强调探究、科学方法论和“实践”实验的课堂）中的教育体验，并确定可能产生或消除性别差异的课堂教学方法。

9355506 Shavelson Over the years, gender differences in science have been evident in two significant ways. First, as early as elementary school, males outperform females on traditional measures of science achievement. Second, there is persistent evidence that in comparison to males, females express more negative affect in science (e.g., lower self- concepts, lower performance expectancies) and report fewer positive experiences in the science classroom (e.g., fewer student-teacher interactions). Currently, there is a general belief that if science teaching and testing change to parallel methods of science itself (e.g., hypothesis testing, hands-on experimentation), females will have the opportunity to show more clearly what they know, leading to increased achievement, positive classroom experiences, and positive student affect. In turn, female students may come to view science as a field that is open to them rather than a domain reserved for males. Although advocates of science curricular and testing reform propose that such positive outcomes for females will occur, there is little to no research which has explored this issue. The purpose of this study is to examine whether new methods of teaching will, indeed, result in narrowing or eliminating the existing gender gap in science. Therefore, this study aims to assess the educational experiences of male and female students in performance-based classrooms (i.e., those stressing inquiry, scientific methodology, and "hands-on" experimentation) and to identify the instructional methods within classrooms that may give rise to or eliminate gender differences.