Gender and Science in the Swedish Compulsory School

This study investigates how Swedish pupils meet chemistry, physics and technology in compulsory school. It explores girls' and boys' actions in and thoughts about these subjects during grades 7 to 9. The pupils come from different worlds determined by gender and social background. In the classroom girls are given, and take upon themselves, the role of keeping lessons together, while boys' attempts to dominate the public arena create disorder. Girls and boys prefer different subject areas. Boys have a practical while girls have a more theoretical approach to science. Girls seek ‘connected knowledge’, and even the successful girls question their understanding. Girls who take an interest in physics and chemistry often have supporting scientist fathers or at least parents with a higher education. Technology is rejected by all girls. The mutual construction and reconstruction of gender and of science/technology contribute to gendered choices of study programmes in upper secondary school.     

Gender and physics

Unlike many other countries, physics is highly popular in secondary education in Scotland, with large numbers opting for study at the Higher Grade on which entry to higher education is based. This paper reports a project that explored the attitudes and perceptions of Scottish girls and boys towards physics over the age range of 10-18 years old. Towards the end of primary school, attitudes towards science are very positive and both boys and girls are looking forward to studying more science in secondary school, although there is no evidence that the introduction of primary science has been a factor. By the end of the second year of secondary school, these positive attitudes have declined quite markedly and a significant decline of girls' attitudes towards science relative to boys' attitudes was clearly observed. The success of the Standard Grade physics course (a 2-year course taken in third and fourth year, ages 14-16 approximately) is easy to observe in terms of the restoration of positive attitudes of boys and girls again as the pupils move through third and fourth year. This process is especially clearly marked among girls. Surprisingly, over 90 per cent of the observed fourth year pupils wanted to continue studies in physics but a marked decline in attitude is observed during the Higher Grade course (a 1-year course which follows Standard Grade), this being more marked for boys. If the number of girls in physics is an issue for concern within the structure of Scottish system, then the focus of attention should be the structure and nature of the science course in the early secondary school.     

How student characteristics affect girls' and boys' verbal engagement in physics instruction

This study investigated how student characteristics predict the nature of girls' and boys' verbal interactions with their teachers in physics classes. The sample included (N = 1378) students from 81 randomly selected high-school physics classrooms in Germany and the German-speaking part of Switzerland. At the beginning of the school year, the following student characteristics were assessed: cognitive abilities, pre-knowledge, self-concept, and interest. Each student was classified as having one of five profiles previously identified by Seidel (2006). Classroom instruction was videotaped four months after student characteristics were assessed. The videotaped classroom interactions were coded and analyzed with respect to the students' profiles. Multilevel analysis indicated the highest amount of verbal engagement for girls and boys with high-level cognitive and motivational-affective characteristics. There are significant interactions between student profile and gender for girls with high-level characteristics. We argue that the interaction between gender and other characteristics is a valuable predictor of verbal engagement in physics instruction.     

Girls and physics: teaching and learning strategies tested by classroom interventions in grade 11

In this quasi-experimental study various strategies are developed and empirically tested for an approach to physics instruction that should improve girls' and boys' attitudes toward and achievements in physics. Strategies include opportunities to integrate different pre-existing knowledge and the variation of teaching methods to enhance co-operation and communication in the classroom. The core of this study is an intervention in 31 classes of public schools in Switzerland. The intervention, one unit in optics and one in motion (velocity/acceleration), includes the first 40 lessons of the first physics course that all students have to attend at the upper secondary level. Data sources are various student and teacher questionnaires, tests and semi-structured interviews with teachers. Results of the entrance and final survey are presented. The focus will be on some of the applied strategies. Implications for the teaching and learning of physics and for teacher education are discussed.     

Teachers' views of teenage sexual morality

This paper examines the discourses of morality drawn on by secondary school teachers in England to describe their attitudes to pupils' developing sexual identities. Although teachers recognized their own formative role in the sexual socialization of pupils and identified homophobic attitudes among boys, they were ambivalent about how far they could intervene in homophobic bulling in school. However, they failed even to recognize the widespread misogynistic bullying of girls by boys as a problem. Teachers expressed anxieties about girls' ownership of sexual knowledge and sexual agency while perceiving boys to be sexually immature and less ‘responsible’. We explore possible reasons for teachers' neglect of misogynistic bullying and their labelling of girls as sexually precocious. We argue that the discourses shaping teachers' attitudes to sexual morality and sex education were largely embedded in a form of liberal individualism that impeded them from confronting the structurally reproduced relations of gender domination.     

Gender Inequality in Biology Classes in China and Its Effects on Students' Short-Term Outcomes

This study investigated gender inequality in biology lessons and analysed the effects of the observed inequality on students' short-term knowledge achievement, situational interest and students' evaluation of teaching (SET). Twenty-two biology teachers and 803 7th-grade students from rural and urban classrooms in China participated in the study. Each teacher was videotaped for 1 lesson on the topic blood and circulatory system. Before and after the lessons, the students completed tests and questionnaires. Chi-square analysis was conducted to compare the boys' and girls' participation rates of answering teachers' questions in the lessons. The findings revealed that in the urban classrooms the boys had a significantly higher rate of participation than did the girls, and hence also a higher situational interest. However, no such gender inequity was found among the rural students. The study also revealed that urban students answered more complicated questions compared with the rural students in general. The findings of this study suggest that the teachers should try to balance boys' and girls' participation and involve more students in answering questions in their lessons. The study also raises questions about long-term effects of students' participation in answering teachers' questions on their outcomes-knowledge achievement, situational interest and SET.     

Gender differences in introductory undergraduate physics performance: University physics versus college physics in the USA

Efforts to ameliorate gender disparity in pursuit of science careers in the USA have focused on equalizing girls' participation in pre-college science courses and out-of-school activities. Our examination of nearly 1500 US college students at 16 universities found that gender and preparation both have an impact on success in introductory college physics courses. In terminal, algebra-based physics females perform better than their male classmates. However, in calculus based introductory college physics courses, which are prerequisite to advanced study in many fields, women do significantly worse than their male counterparts with the same background. For both genders, taking a high school course that limits coverage and concentrates more time in in-depth study is associated with better performance in college physics. We conclude that efforts to ensure the success of women entering the physical sciences should concentrate on increasing the depth and reducing the vast coverage of most high school physics courses as well as addressing the apparent bias in college courses that mark the first step in careers within scientific research and engineering.     

Variables affecting physics achievement

Much research has focused on student views about physics concepts, with an emphasis on the identification of alternative conceptions, and how curricula and professional development may ameliorate the situation. However, there has been little work on determining the extent of, and in separating, the student and teacher/classroom level variables that may impact student physics achievement. This study examined the effect of different student and teacher/classroom level variables on student understanding of physics concepts using hierarchical linear modeling (HLM), a regression based technique. The data were collected from 68 different teachers and 3,119 students who were using a reform curriculum, Active Physics. Teachers and students completed surveys asking about their beliefs, their classes and their personal characteristics. Students also completed a physics achievement test. The data show that students of teachers who used Active Physics for a greater portion of the year scored higher on the achievement test than did students of teachers who did not use the curriculum as much. Furthermore, the data show that the achievement gap was narrowed between boys and girls and between students with different attitudes toward physics. Additionally teachers who received inservice instruction on how to implement Active Physics narrowed the gap between students with different views of their classroom involvement. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 46: 961–976, 2009     

Inequality in Experiences of Physics Education: Secondary School Girls' and Boys' Perceptions of their Physics Education and Intentions to Continue with Physics After the Age of 16

This paper explores the factors that are associated in England with 15-year-old students' intentions to study physics after the age of 16, when it is no longer compulsory. Survey responses were collated from 5,034 year 10 students as learners of physics during the academic year 2008–2009 from 137 England secondary schools. Our analysis uses individual items from the survey rather than constructs (aggregates of items) to explore what it is about physics teachers, physics lessons and physics itself that is most correlated with intended participation in physics after the age of 16. Our findings indicate that extrinsic material gain motivation in physics was the most important factor associated with intended participation. In addition, an item-level analysis helped to uncover issues around gender inequality in physics educational experiences which were masked by the use of construct-based analyses. Girls' perceptions of their physics teachers were similar to those of boys on many fronts. However, despite the encouragement individual students receive from their teachers being a key factor associated with aspirations to continue with physics, girls were statistically significantly less likely to receive such encouragement. We also found that girls had less positive experiences of their physics lessons and physics education than did boys.     

Teacher ratings of internal and external students in open and traditional class environments

Eleven open and 11 traditional school teachers rated the achievement and behavior of students in their third-, fourth-, and fifth-grade classes. On both measures, girls were rated higher than boys and internals higher than externals. Sex interacted with school environment, such that girls' achievement ratings exceeded those of boys only in open classes. A predicted locus of control by environment interaction was not found for either achievement or behavior rankings. The relationship of these results to those found in studies using standardized achievement test data, rather than teacher ratings, is discussed.     

Boys into Modern Languages: An investigation of the discrepancy in attitudes and performance between boys and girls in modern languages

It is widely acknowledged that girls outperform boys across the curriculum in the GCSE examinations which are taken at the end of five years' compulsory secondary education. However, the gap in performance between boys and girls in modern languages is very marked and may suggest a need to reassess patterns of teaching and learning. This paper examines the differences in attitudes between boys and girls in modern languages after five years' study in an attempt to give some explanation for the considerable discrepancy in performance. Although previous research findings relating to boys' and girls' attitudes to their studies were confirmed, the significance of teacher personality and classroom practices emerged clearly from pupil interviews with both sexes. The article recognises the changes in the nature of the modern languages curriculum brought about by the introduction of GCSE and the on-going implementation of the National Curriculum, but points to the limitations and frustrations posed by these new agendas. Drawing extensively on pupil interviews, factors are highlighted which significantly affect pupils' perspectives and attitudes towards modern languages, and tentative suggestions are made which could help to improve the performance of both boys and girls in this traditionally 'female' subject.     

The Production of 'Girl' in an Educational Setting

Producing 'girl' in educational discourse is defined with two strategic features: Interruptions and framing. Hypotheses are: (1) the teacher interrupts girls differently and more often than boys; and (2) the teacher offers different discursive spaces for girls and boys by framing and introducing their speech differently. The data are a Finnish native tongue lesson in the fifth grade (16 girls, 14 boys) with a female teacher. Students were asked to continue a drawing in groups (girls' groups and boys' groups) and to give a presentation to the class. The girls were interrupted more often and in a different way than were the boys. The style with the boys was a kind of conversation. With the girls the style could be summarised as 'let the girls have the floor'. The teacher also framed girls' and boys' speech differently. For the boys she offered authority and with the girls she encouraged co-operation. Two different discursive spaces were produced for girls and boys.     

A comparison of student perceptions of Dutch physics teachers' interpersonal behavior and their educational opinions in 1984 and 1993

According to the literature, in the 1980s the intended science curriculum exhibited a worldwide movement toward a curriculum for all, with a more contextually embedded approach. In writings about science teaching pedagogy, a trend can be observed to consider seriously students' conceptions, based on the premises of constructivism. This article examines consequences of these trends for teacher behavior and concludes that classes should become more student centered. In terms of the model for interpersonal teacher behavior (Wubbels & Levy, 1993), teachers must give their students more responsibility and act in a more understanding way. It is to be expected that teachers' beliefs and opinions have to change before this trend can be implemented in the classroom. We have therefore tested whether teachers' opinions about objectives and content of physics education, on the one hand, and the implemented curriculum, particularly teachers' interpersonal behavior, on the other, display the same trend observed in the intended curriculum. In 1984 and 1993, data on students' perceptions of their teachers' behavior were gathered from ninth-grade students of a random sample of Dutch physics teachers. Data on the teachers' self-perceptions of their behavior and their opinions about physics education also were included. The results show that teachers were more in favor of realistic teaching content in 1993 than in 1984, a shift that is in line with the trend in the intended curriculum. Students' perceptions indicated clearly that Dutch teachers behaved less dominantly and more cooperatively in 1993 than in 1984. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 34: 447–466, 1997.     

An intervention study to enhance girls' interest,self‐concept,and achievement in physics classes

Many interest studies have shown the decline of students' interest in physics during secondary education, particularly among girls. Research into physics‐related interests of students suggests applying different measures to reduce or reverse that trend such as: (a) suggesting curricular changes that do justice to the specific interests and experiences of girls, (b) improving the ability of teachers to support girls in the development of a positive physics related self‐concept, and (c) changing to an organizational setting that gives girls a better chance to improve their self‐concept about physics. The purpose of this study was to examine whether these hypothetically effective measures lead to an improvement of the situation for girls when implemented in the physics classroom. The intervention took a whole school year of some 60 one‐hour lessons and comprised 12 experimental and 7 control classes of seventh graders (age about 13). Their immediate and long‐term achievements, as well as their change of interest in physics, their subjectively experienced competence, and their physics‐related self‐concept were assessed by written tests at various stages of the intervention. The intervention proved successful and significantly improved most of these indicators for girls (and boys) in the experimental group. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 39: 870–888, 2002     

大学生英语四、六级考试成绩的性别差异

对3239名学习者的CET4、CET6考试成绩调查显示,男、女生在四、六级考试的总成绩上有明显差异,女生明显高于男生。女生在四级考试的听力、阅读、写作与综合测试四个分项的成绩上明显高于男生。女生在六级的阅读与写作两个分项的成绩上明显高于男生,但双方在听力与综合测试两个分项上的成绩差异不显著。     

An exploration of gender participation patterns in science competitions

This study investigated participation in a state-level science competition over most of its 35-year history. Issues examined included whether different gender patterns occurred with respect to entry rate, project topic (life science, physical science, earth science, and math), and project type (research or display). The study also examined to what extent the identified patterns reflected or contradicted nationwide patterns of girls' academic performance in science over roughly the same time period. It was found that although girls initially participated in the fair less frequently than boys, for the past 20 years their participation rate has been greater than that of boys. Examination of topic preferences over the years indicates that both girls and boys have traditionally favored life science; however, boys have been and continue to be more likely to prepare physical, earth, and math/computer science projects than girls. Another gender difference is that girls are generally less likely than boys to prepare projects based on experimental research as opposed to library research. The study provides some suggestions for teachers and teacher educators for addressing these disparities.