A study in engaging female students in computer science using role models

Black, Jonathan; Curzon, Paul; Myketiak, Chrystie; McOwan, Peter W.

doi:10.1145/1999747.1999768

Cited by 31 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 12 publications

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“…Hence, in recent years there have been many studies that have tried to reverse this trend and that have shown good results in terms of changing the image of this discipline and modifying the perception about the type of jobs that computer scientists hold: Workshops to show high school students the way computer scientists work [10], a campaign that distributed a booklet on women in computing to secondary schools [12], LEGO Mindstorms and App Inventor summer camps for high school girls [13,14], summer camps to emphasize possible careers that rely on computer technology [15], and numerous workshops [16,17] and summer camps [18,19] using Scratch programming environment.…”

Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Europe Code Week (CodeEU) initiative shaping the skills of future engineers

Moreno-León

Robles

2015

2015 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)

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The growth of employment opportunities in the information technology sector and the shortage of well-trained professionals in this field are a recurring theme in recent years in both Europe and North America. In this sense, research studies that analyse the causes of the reduction of students who are interested in computer science mainly point to young people being unaware of the type of tasks computer scientists perform. Therefore, in order to try to reverse this trend many types of initiatives have been organized seeking to bring the world of computing to children and adolescents. In the same vein, the main objective of the Europe Code Week, an initiative which was held in parallel in 38 countries and in which more than 100,000 people participated, is to show the beauty and fun associated with programming as a means of attracting young people to computer science to get endow the European labour market with well-trained professionals who are required in this field. In this paper, in addition of presenting the goals and most relevant facts of this initiative, its relationship to other similar research work is analysed, the lessons learned after its first two iterations are shared, and suggestions to improve future editions are made, with special focus on improve the possibilities of assess its impact and results more accurately.

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Section: Related Workmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Europe Code Week (CodeEU) initiative shaping the skills of future engineers

Moreno-León

Robles

2015

2015 IEEE Global Engineering Education Conference (EDUCON)

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“…There is essentially an imbalance between the genders in computing with a great under representation of girls enrolled in computing programs [1], [3], [15], [16]. Black et al [15] reports that women have mostly been a minority in computing; with female enrolment in computing undergraduate programs declining in many countries, with no promised change in sight.…”

Section: Gender Differencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Black et al [15] reports that women have mostly been a minority in computing; with female enrolment in computing undergraduate programs declining in many countries, with no promised change in sight.…”

Section: Gender Differencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Perceptions of malaysian female school children towards higher education in information technology

Sien

Mui

Tee

et al. 2014

Proceedings of the 52nd ACM Conference on Computers and People Research

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Malaysia, like many countries, faces a shortage of students enrolling in computing undergraduate programs. This paper investigates the impact of technology on female secondary school children's choice of studying information technology (IT) in higher education. Malaysian female secondary school students from various ethnicities participated in a proprietary survey conducted in various cities in both East and West Malaysia. Despite the lack of technological support provided by government funded schools in terms of functioning computers and access to computers, there is a strong and encouraging trend in the respondents' interests in wishing to learn more about IT and their intentions to study an IT-related undergraduate degree. The respondents' perceptions on careers in IT are largely positive -unlike the generally held belief that there are not many available jobs in the industry, and IT is a male-dominated field, difficult and boring. This is the first known Malaysian study that focuses on the perceptions of female indigenous school students towards higher education and careers in IT.

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“…One of the major factors influencing this reality is suggested by research and widely recognized in CS education forums. It has been recognized that there are biases and negative perceptions that the population in general, the media and in particular high school students hold of CS [5,2,4,7,6,3]. As female university students and a female faculty member in CS, we are convinced that it is a worthwhile enterprise to demystify the negative perceptions about CS and about the role of women in CS so as to encourage more female students to pursue a career in CS.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…We are aware of several very valuable initiatives that share our goals (e.g. [5,2,4].) Additionally, WICS activities and in particular Try/CATCH show that events run essentially by dedicated and responsible student volunteers make an impact and provide added benefits.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Try/CATCH - a CS outreach event organized by female university students for female high school students

Wang

Tang

Zhang

et al. 2012

Proceedings of the Seventeenth Western Canadian Conference on Computing Education

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Try/CATCH (Computing and Technology Conference for Her) is a computing science female high school outreach event, which is run and organized almost exclusively by graduate and undergraduate students in the School of Computing science at Simon Fraser University. In this paper we describe the Try/CATCH event, including main activities that took place during the event and how this event started and evolved to its current version. We also analyze how Try/CATCH 2011 was perceived and experienced by the high school student participants as well as the university student organizers, based on postworkshop self-perception surveys and interviews.Results obtained so far are very encouraging, indicating a positive influence on the student participants and the event organizers.

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A study in engaging female students in computer science using role models

Cited by 31 publications

References 12 publications

The Europe Code Week (CodeEU) initiative shaping the skills of future engineers

The Europe Code Week (CodeEU) initiative shaping the skills of future engineers

Perceptions of malaysian female school children towards higher education in information technology

Try/CATCH - a CS outreach event organized by female university students for female high school students

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