Ameliorating gender differences in attitudes about science: A cross-national study

The outcomes of two studies reported here indicate that the teacher inservice workshops, combined with activity-based science lessons, affected students' attitudes and perceptions about electricity. Australian and U.S. studies produced different patterns explored and explained in the paper.This material is based upon research supported by the National Science Foundation under grant MDR-88-50570 in the United States and supported by a grant from the Special Projects Program of the Commonwealth Schools Commission in the Education of GirlsDD section of Projects of National Significance in Australia. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation or the Commonwealth Schools Commission.     

A path analysis of pre-service teachers' attitudes to computer use: applying and extending the technology acceptance model in an educational context

The purpose of this study is to examine pre-service teachers' attitudes to computers. This study extends the technology acceptance model (TAM) framework by adding subjective norm, facilitating conditions, and technological complexity as external variables. Results show that the TAM and subjective norm, facilitating conditions, and technological complexity were significant determinants of pre-service attitudes to computer use. A multiple square correlation revealed that the proposed model in this study explained 48.7% of the attitude to computer use. Various contributions to research and practice are discussed.     

Gendered study choice: a literature review. A review of theory and research into the unequal representation of male and female students in mathematics,science, and technology

This article presents an overview of the recent literature on gendered patterns of academic choice in mathematics, science, and technology. It distinguishes in this literature micro-level, macro-level, and institutional explanations. Micro-level explanations focus primarily on psychological constructs, that is, variables at the level of the individual students. Macro-level explanations focus primarily on socioeconomic conditions and cultural understandings of gender roles. Institutional explanations focus on design characteristics of (national) education systems. After a presentation of these perspectives and of recent research progress that has been made, the authors critically discuss the lacunae that still exist in explaining cross-national variety, and provide suggestions for designing future research in this field.