If a girl gets the message that she is not good at science, then she will be discouraged from choosing science subjects. She may get this message from the prevailing male stereotypes of scientists and engineers, or from a lack of female role models in those areas, which tell her that, as a girl, science is probably not for her. She may get the same message from poor achievement on science tests. In disciplines such as physics there is a consistent gender gap on standardised tests, with males outperforming females by a significant amount.
Hence, an understanding of gender bias in testing is crucial for increasing the participation of girls in STEM subjects. If, for example, girls are under-achieving because of the way that tests are written, then this is an important a factor to address. We have been analysing physics assessment data from high school students and UNSW Canberra students, in an attempt to identify patterns in gender gaps. We have identified some consistent characteristics of test questions which lead to large gaps, and from this we have developed strategies for minimising the gender gaps in our own assessment procedures.
Our take-home messages: if you aren’t looking for evidence of gender gaps in your own assessment, whatever your field, then you should be; and if you find evidence of gender bias, then you should do something about it. This talk will describe some of our main findings, and provide some interesting examples of our efforts at manipulating test questions in an attempt to decrease the gender gap.
Completing this workshop will contribute 1 hour of QTC Registered PD addressing Standards 6.2.2 from the Australian Professional Standards for Teachers towards maintaining Proficient Teacher Accreditation in NSW.
About Dr Kathryn Wilson
Kate is a senior lecturer in the School of Engineering and Information Technology and a member of the Learning and Teaching Group at UNSW Canberra where she teaches undergraduate engineering mechanics and a post graduate teaching program. She is a past member of the Sydney University Physics Education Research Group and held an ITET fellowship at UNSW Kensington before moving to ANU and then UNSW Canberra. She has published in physics education research and on student experience. Kate is also an author of a first year university physics textbook and two high school physics texts.
Free event