Gender differences in achievement and attitude in college mathematics

Abstract

The first component of the study tracked 367 freshmen at Colorado State University who had taken calculus in their first semester in either 1991 or 1998. Grades were collected for these students over their next seven semesters in natural science courses and compared. The purpose was to describe the current situation and the trend of gender differences over time in achievement and participation. In addition SAT scores and college GPA were compared. The second component of the study looked at gender differences in attitude toward mathematics. A survey derived from the Fennema-Sherman Attitude Survey was used for 214 students taking second semester calculus in the spring semester of 2004 from Colorado State University. In addition course grade information was requested on the survey, which was used to find relationships with various attitude constructs. The gender gap is increasing in SAT and Mathematics SAT score in favor of males, while females have an advantage in college GPA. Males outnumbered females by about three to one, but of these students the proportion of male to female participation in mechanical and electrical engineering courses favors males, while remaining the same in chemistry, civil engineering, mathematics, and physics. Achievement in fourteen natural science courses yielded only one significant gender difference in favor of females for the current (1998) sample. Similar findings were found for the early (1991) sample, therefore there was little change in gender differences in achievement from 1991 to 1998. The results for the attitude portion of the study found significant gender differences in confidence toward mathematics, the level at which mathematics is stereotyped as a male domain, and the level of perceived encouragement from mother and father. Females had more positive responses in each of these areas except the level at which mathematics is perceived as a male subject. When course grades were analyzed with the attitude constructs, only one of the three courses, college composition, showed a significant interaction. Females that were more stereotypical of mathematics as a male domain performed better in college composition than females that were less stereotypical and the opposite was true for males.