Sources of Gender Disparities in Learning
College experiences affect male and female engineering students differently.
By Hyun Kyoung Ro and David B. Knight
Engineering programs have provided a variety of college experiences to improve the recruitment and retention of female students. Following Terenzini and Reason’s college impacts framework, we defined college student experiences as curricular emphases (what students learn), instructional approaches (how students learn), and co-curricular experiences (what activities students participate in outside of class). In this study, we investigated how those experiences affect engineering learning outcomes for men and women differently.
This study was part of a larger cross-sectional investigation of curricular, instructional, and organizational practices and policies, as well as undergraduate engineering students’ educational experiences and learning. We used a nationally representative, weighted survey sample of 4,901 students in 120 engineering programs in the United States. Independent variables included a variety of college experiences: curricular emphases on core engineering thinking, professional skills, and broad systems perspectives; instructional approaches such as group learning and student-centered teaching; and co-curricular participation in different types of clubs. Dependent variables were self-reported learning outcome measures that have been emphasized by engineering programs, the ABET accreditation process, and members of the engineering workforce: fundamental skills, design skills, contextual competence, interdisciplinary skills, leadership skills, communication skills, and teamwork skills. We used a multilevel regression approach to test how college students’ experiences influence those learning outcomes differently by gender.
Results show that women self-reported lower fundamental and design skills than men, after controlling for other student characteristics and experiences. Although women reported lower design skills than men overall, they reported higher design skills than men when they experienced higher levels of emphasis on professional skills in their courses, such as project management skills. When taught in an environment that emphasizes professional skills, women may learn design skills better or have higher self-confidence about their design capabilities. When women reported that their instructors more often used student-centered teaching methods, they also reported higher design skills, whereas the use of this pedagogy did not correlate with men’s design skills. This finding is consistent with previous literature, which indicated that small group experiences enhance the attitudes and achievements of women in STEM fields.
Men and women also differed in self-reported leadership skills when curricular emphases differed. While women reported higher leadership skills when their curricula more strongly emphasized professional skills, men reported higher leadership skills when their curricula more strongly focused on core engineering thinking. These findings accord with the argument supported by the literature that men and women prefer different curricula that may enhance students’ interests differently; this difference in preference may result in differential learning between men and women.
Women who participated in non-engineering clubs or activities (e.g., civic or church organizations, student government, Greek life, etc.) reported greater fundamental skills, contextual competence, and communication skills than men. Women who participated in engineering clubs for women or underrepresented minorities (e.g., National Society of Black Engineers, Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, or Society of Women Engineers) reported higher communication skills than men. Participation in such organizations may provide a peer network through which women can learn from one another collaboratively, provide leadership and mentoring opportunities that may boost their confidence levels in their own skill sets, or provide experiences to help them develop their skill sets in environments outside the classroom.
We did not find any significant relationship between gender and self-reported interdisciplinary skills. Although women may prefer broad, interdisciplinary approaches for presenting content and contextual consideration in solving engineering problems, our study suggests that it would be incorrect to assume that they have greater self-assessments of their interdisciplinary skills than men.
We suggest continuing to investigate specific experiences that programs could offer as ways to help female students develop a variety of learning outcomes. Our approach demonstrates the importance of investigating interaction effects by student demographics to uncover how college experiences affect subpopulations of students differently.
Hyun Kyoung Ro is an assistant professor of higher education and student affairs at Bowling Green State University and David B. Knight is an assistant professor and director of international engagement of engineering education at Virginia Tech. This article is excerpted from “Gender Differences in Learning Outcomes from the College Experiences of Engineering Students,” in the July 2016 Journal of Engineering Education, based on work supported by the National Science Foundation Grant 0550608.