Equity or Stereotypes in Science Education? Perspectives from Pre-University Students

Abstract

In this work, we explore the presence of stereotypes in pre-university students with respect to gender, science, and scientists. The possible differences between boys and girls, school stage, and rurality are analyzed. For this purpose, a sample of 404 participants between 13 and 18 years old were delivered a form with items from the Questionnaire on Opinions about Science, Technology, and Society. The responses were offered using a five-point Likert scale and agreement percentages were calculated. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used for the analysis, where the effect size was calculated for items associated with any of the three factors. Our findings show that the stereotyped ideas of gender in science were more intense in Compulsory Secondary Education (CSE) students in rural areas than in High School (HS) students from urban areas. In addition, perceptions of science and scientists showed greater agreement for CSE than for HS students. However, no differences were found between girls and boys. Regarding science items, there was a major agreement on the relationship between science and technology with problem solving, regardless of sex or school rurality. Finally, reflections on stereotypes and the presence of girls in STEM careers are provided.

Financial knowledge of pre-university students: Effects of age and gender

“…Based on the human capital theory [ 39 , 40 ], our study demonstrates that women obtain worse results in financial training, that age positively influences the acquisition of financial knowledge, and that this effect is greater in men than in women, causing a moderating effect on the relationship between age and financial knowledge. Parental attitudes about gender roles could facilitate the emergence of gender stereotypes that could condition students' preferences [ 22 ], explaining women's lower interest in acquiring financial knowledge [ 38 ].…”

“…Regarding high school students, a study carried out with data from 18 countries shows that there is a gender gap in financial knowledge that favours male students, so it seems plausible that parents can influence such knowledge [ 20 ]. Note that parental attitudes about gender roles may influence the decisions they make about teaching males and females about finances [ 21 ], facilitating the emergence of gender stereotypes in the students' preferences [ 22 ], which would explain a lower interest of women in acquiring financial knowledge in the pre-university stage. In addition, recent work suggests that women are less confident in their financial abilities than men [ 18 ], which might widen the gender gap as age increases and gender stereotypes become more widely accepted.…”

Two Perspectives on the Gender Gap in Computer Engineering: From Secondary School to Higher Education

“…As future work, we plan to improve this study by considering a more psychological approach, including variables relating to cognitive models by gender or a social approach, including variables with respect to the socio-economical level of the family of the students and other demographic variables in line with those proposed by [19]. Activities focused on promoting STEM among female students are crucial; however, the problem is that the work of female researchers promoting STEM areas would be more valued, as López and Pereira indicated in [35].…”

“…Fernándes-César et al in [19] explored the presence of stereotypes in pre-university students with respect to gender, science, and scientists, and Makarova et al in [20] explored how gender-science stereotypes can potentially influence young people aspirations to enrol in a STEM major at university; while other theories, such as the person-fit theory [21] or the attraction-selection-attrition (ASA) model [22] suggest that people choose jobs that match their personality, skills and principles.…”

Panorama do percurso acadêmico feminino em um curso de Engenharia de Computação

“…A questão de gênero na computação tem se tornado uma preocupação global, pois, cada vez mais, o número das ingressantes e egressas está em declínio [Lobo 2016;Michell et al 2018;Silva 2019;Fernández-Cézar et al 2020]. Este cenário por si só é alarmante e demanda estudos para detectar as dificuldades enfrentadas pelas alunas durante o curso.…”