Research-based assessment of students' beliefs about experimental physics: When is gender a factor?

TL;DR

This study investigates gender differences in students' beliefs about experimental physics using the E-CLASS assessment, revealing a gender gap that diminishes when accounting for preinstruction scores and demographics.

Contribution

It provides the first large-scale analysis of gender differences in E-CLASS responses and explores how these differences vary across student and course demographics.

Findings

Gender gap exists in pre- and postinstruction scores.

Differences vary by course level and major.

Postinstruction gap reduces when controlling for initial scores and demographics.

Abstract

The existence of gender differences in student performance on conceptual assessments and their responses to attitudinal assessments has been repeatedly demonstrated. This difference is often present in students' preinstruction responses and persists in their postinstruction responses. However, one area in which the presence of gender differences has not been extensively explored is undergraduate laboratory courses. For example, one of the few laboratory focused research-based assessments, the Colorado Learning Attitudes about Science Survey for Experimental Physics (E-CLASS), has not been tested for the existence of gender differences in students' responses. Here, we utilize a national data set of responses to the E-CLASS to determine if they demonstrate significant gender differences. We also investigate how these differences vary along multiple student and course demographic slices, including course level (first-year vs.\ beyond-first-year) and major (physics vs.\ non-physics). We observe a gender gap in pre- and postinstruction E-CLASS scores in the aggregate data both for the overall score and for most items individually. However, for some subpopulations (e.g., beyond-first-year students) the size or even existence of the gender gap depends on another dimension (e.g., student major). We also find that for all groups the gap in postinstruction scores vanishes or is greatly reduced when controlling for preinstruction scores, course level, and student major.