Sex-related differences on objective tests among undergraduates

Anderson, Johnston

doi:10.1007/bf00579461

Cited by 27 publications

(14 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…Many boys may overrate their abilities. Anderson (1989) linked confidence and willingness to take risks in answering multiple choice questions to better results by boys. Girls made more omissions, and this conservatism is believed to be consistent with sex-role stereotyping.…”

Section: Confidence In Learning Mathematicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Students’ attitudes towards mathematics in single-sex and coeducational schools

Norton

Rennie

1998

Math Ed Res J

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This paper examines students' attitudes towards mathematics at the secondary school level. Using five of the Fennema-Sherman scales, the attitudes of boys and girls in Grades 8 to 12 in four schools were compared: a single-sex boys" and a single-sex girls' private school, and a state and a private coeducational school. Multivariate analysis of variance was used to guide an exploration of how students' attitudes varied according to grade, sex and educational setting. There were no differences between students in the two coeducational schools. In general, students' attitudes were found to be less positive in more senior grades; and overall, boys had more positive attitudes than girls. There were dear differences between boys and girls on the Mathematics as a Male Domain scale, with girls being less stereotyped in their perceptions than boys. Except for this scale, effects related to the sex of the student were small, and effects relating to grade level and school type on all variables were also small. Implications are drawn for future research in this area.

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Section: Confidence In Learning Mathematicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Students’ attitudes towards mathematics in single-sex and coeducational schools

Norton

Rennie

1998

Math Ed Res J

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“…There is evidence [7,8] that this type of question can disadvantage female respondents, with both a higher abstention rate and more incorrect attempts. In the present case, the 'rubbish' and 'blank' categories (F or G) accounted for 27 out of 66 (41%) of the female students but only 17 out of 88 (19%) of the males; at the other end, 39 (44%) of the male students gave answers which were more or less complete, compared with only 11 (17%) of the females.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Do third‐year mathematics undergraduates know what they are supposed to know?

Anderson

Austin

Barnard³

et al. 1998

International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and

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The paper describes a test, covering 155 third-year undergraduates in 15 different institutions, to examine the extent to which certain core first-year material is retained and understood. The topics considered explore ideas such as the definition of differentiability, the principle of mathematical induction, understanding of basis and dimension, and perceptions about the real numbers. Also included are a question in mechanics and one on elementary aspects of group theory. As well as recording the students' results (according to the criteria set out below), the paper includes an; lysis of the answers given by the students to each question and also some of their comments, as recorded on their scripts. Their misconceptions indicate that the foundations laid in the first year, on which their subsequent knowledge is built, is often very flimsy. Data collected include information on the final degree award of most of the test group. It is found that even among those students who subsequently achieved good degrees, the retention of first-year material is demonstrably weak and suggests some cause for concern among those who teach them.

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“…The third example is similar to the second, but was attempted by a di erent group. The fourth example was attempted by a third group of students; it has some similarities with the ®rst example, but also with the kinds of question discussed in [1]. The ®rst example is of the more`open' type and was a compulsory component of the examination.…”

Section: Gender E Ects (I)mentioning

confidence: 97%

“…When, for example, multiple-choice or true/false questions were used as part of the assessment, it was found [1] that there were signi®cant gender e ects, some of which may be ascribed to di erent attitudes to risk-taking [2]. Some of these e ects may be put down to the fact that the student will lose marks for guessing wrongly, while there is no penalty for abstention, so that the`safer' option is to abstain if in real doubt.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Gender-related differences on open and closed assessment tasks

Anderson¹

2002

International Journal of Mathematical Education in Science and

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The use of short assessment tasks can provide valuable information about undergraduates' knowledge and understanding. However, it is known that there are gender-related di erences in performance on certain types of objective tests, both among school pupils and university undergraduates. This article focuses on undergraduate learning, using a mixture of tasks presented in either an open or closed form. Although the success rate in performing the given tasks seems to depend on the degree of openendedness inherent, more unexpected is the consistent di erence in achievement between men and women students.

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Sex-related differences on objective tests among undergraduates

Cited by 27 publications

References 9 publications

Students’ attitudes towards mathematics in single-sex and coeducational schools

Students’ attitudes towards mathematics in single-sex and coeducational schools

Do third‐year mathematics undergraduates know what they are supposed to know?

Gender-related differences on open and closed assessment tasks

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