Gender Performance in Physics Practicals

TL;DR

This study analyzes gender-based performance patterns in physics practicals over three semesters, revealing differences in achievement and stability across various topics, and demonstrating the usefulness of visual orbit methods alongside statistical models.

Contribution

The paper introduces a visual orbit method for analyzing longitudinal binary data and compares it with GEE models to study gender performance in physics practicals.

Findings

Males tend not to achieve distinctions in mechanics and overall marks.

Females tend to achieve distinctions in overall marks.

Performance stability varies across topics, with optics and OVM being most stable.

Abstract

An analysis of longitudinal student Physics practicals data over a period of three semesters is conducted. In particular, we study the association of the gender of students and their Physics practicals marks in mechanics, thermodynamics, optics, electricity, and overall marks (OVM). Together with gender, all variables are binarized, i.e. distinction mark is coded 1, and zero otherwise. To visualize performance of students, the qualitative method of plotting a two-dimensional orbit is used to represent binary multivariate longitudinal data of each student. Analysis of orbits reveals information of patterns in the data. This study gives a good indication of which Physics practical each gender group perform better in. Our visual analysis indicate that male students tend not to get distinctions in both mechanics and OVM, but that females tend to get distinctions in OVM. We have also observed that students' marks is most stable (i.e. least changing) in optics and OVM, and most frequently changing in electricity. A comparison to the GEE statistical model indicates that visual results present initial insights to help and complement statistical analysis.