# The impact of scaffolding and question structure on the gender gap

## TL;DR

This study investigates how question format and scaffolding influence the gender gap in physics achievement, challenging previous assumptions and identifying question features that favor male students.

## Contribution

It provides new insights by showing female students are not disadvantaged by multiple-choice questions and identifies question features that introduce bias.

## Key findings

- Multiple-choice questions do not disadvantage female students.
- Questions with multi-dimensional context and diagrams favor male students.
- Certain question features contribute to gender bias in physics assessments.

## 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.