Is science really for me? Gender differences in student attitudes toward science

Abstract

The question of whether single-sex or co-ed schooling has any impact on students' attitudes toward science is highly contested and warrants research from all corners of the world. This study adds to our current knowledge by investigating different attitudinal indices of Grade 9 science students (N = 356, M age = 14.5 years) in single-sex and co-ed schools in terms of involvement in science instruction, enjoyment of science, value of science, engagement in practical work, influences of family, teachers, peers, and friends, interest in, and confidence for future participation in science. A total of 356 questionnaires was completed using a 43 Likert-type attitude questionnaire, and these served as the basis for data analysis in the study. The analyses indicated a relationship between gender and school type on students' attitudes toward science across all seven attitudinal dimensions examined. The findings revealed that:(a) attitudes toward science among students from co-ed schools were significantly lower than those of single-sex schools (p < 0.001) and (b) compared to boys in co-ed schools, girls in single-sex schools had a similar attitude toward science in terms of enjoyment, confidence, and future participation in science, and they were more engaged in science activities such as displaying experiments or doing small group activities. The findings also show that, in addition to students' personalities, gender, and other factors, there is a school factor involved in shaping their attitude toward science.

Examining components of attitudes towards mathematics among senior secondary school students in Nigeria

“…This concern has led researchers into a variety of studies that identified gender differences that could influence the number of girls in science and mathematics-related careers (Oakes, 2000). In the US, boys tend to hold more positive attitudes toward mathematics than girls (Kahle, 2003;Kurth, 2007) and this disparity in gender seems to prevail as pupils move from the primary school to the high school level (Kanai & Norman, 1997). Also in the US, Meyer and Koehler (1990) found gender disparities, favouring males, in students' self-confidence in learning mathematics, perceived usefulness of mathematics, perceptions of mathematics as a male domain and students' attributions to success or failure in mathematics.…”

STEMing together: a comparison of co-ed and all-female informal learning environments

“…Several existing studies examined the impact of co-ed versus same-sex formal and informal STEM experiences. For example, Iwuanyanwu (2022) found that female students in single-sex schools had higher attitudes toward science than their counterparts in coed schools. Schilling and Pinnel (2019) found that single-sex engineering camps had a greater positive effect on female campers' self-efficacy through activities allowing campers to take risks, such as project-based learning (PBL) tasks.…”

Gender- and academic level-bias in MATS when measuring attitude towards science in Indonesia: A Rasch analysis

“…The Test of Science Related Attitudes Scale by Fraser was reduced (from 70 to 14 items) to suit elementary students. Based on gender, males outperform females in ATS in various places, such as in Africa (Iwuanyanwu, 2022), Hong Kong (Ma, 2022), Hungary (Szalkay et al, 2021), Spain (Toma et al, 2019). However, ATS literature on gender is still limited and an unresolved issue (Mao et al, 2021).…”