Impact of scaffolding and question structure on the gender gap

Abstract

We address previous hypotheses about possible factors influencing the gender gap in attainment in physics. Specifically, previous studies claim that male advantage may arise from multiple-choice style questions, and that scaffolding may preferentially benefit female students. We claim that female students are not disadvantaged by multiple-choice style questions, and also present some alternative conclusions surrounding the scaffolding hypothesis. By taking both student attainment level and the degree of question scaffolding into account, we identify questions which exhibit real bias in favour of male students. We find that both multi-dimensional context and use of diagrams are common elements of such questions.

Design and validation of a test for representational fluency of 9th grade students in physics and mathematics: The case of linear functions

“…Although we do not find a significant gender gap in our test, other studies have shown gender gaps to exist and persist in various concept inventories and tests with a broader scope than ours [46][47][48][49]. Recent studies [50,51] point to the use of a multidimensional context and the use of diagrams (phase diagrams, free body diagrams, multidimensional graphs, etc.) in the questions as factors which can create a bias in favor of male respondents, thus offering a possible explanation for the gender gap.…”

Gender Differences in Norwegian Engineering Students’Understanding of Newtonian Mechanics

“…Item 12, motion in two dimensions, is treated extensively in Physics 2, which explains why it is a problematic item in the Physics 1 cohort, due to lack of pre-training. However, the result indicates that a multidimensional context may be a partial explanation for some of the gender gap as shown by Dawkins et al (2017). It is also noteworthy that item 6, which Traxler et al (2017) removed, generally has a relatively small gender gap (<10%) in this context.…”

“…Even though "feminine" and everyday wording (McCullough and Meltzer 2001) did not affect the gender gap does not mean that the structure of the test is biased. Dawkins et al (2017) have shown that a higher degree of scaffolding decreases the gender gap, although they are not able to sufficiently explain why the effect of a higher degree of scaffolding in the items should be investigated.…”

“…Is the test itself intrinsically biased, in wording, examples or format? The research of Dawkins et al (2017) suggests that the structure and scaffolding of the test might be important.…”

A Strategy of Scaffolding Development to Increase Students Problem-Solving Abilities: The Case of Physics Learning with Causalitic-Thinking Approach

“…Rokhmat (2013) and Rokhmat et al (2015Rokhmat et al ( , 2017aRokhmat et al ( , 2017bRokhmat et al ( , & 2017c) developed a scaffolding worksheet to assist students in solving physics problem and to increase their PSAs. Dawkins, Hedgeland, and Jordan (2017) developed scaffolding in the structure of questions to reduce the gap of gender, while Maries, Lin, and Singh (2017) investigated the appropriate designing of scaffolding to improve student's representation consistency. Quintana and Reiser et al (2004) used scaffolding to design a software tool for scientific inquiry.…”