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Engagement, Persistence, and Gender in Computer Science: Results of a Smartphone ESM Study

While the underrepresentation of women in the fast-growing STEM field of computer science (CS) has been much studied, no consensus exists on the key factors influencing this widening gender gap. Possible suspects include gender differences in aptitude, interest, and academic environment. Our study c...

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Autores principales: Milesi, Carolina, Perez-Felkner, Lara, Brown, Kevin, Schneider, Barbara
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2017
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5403895/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28487664
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00602
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author Milesi, Carolina
Perez-Felkner, Lara
Brown, Kevin
Schneider, Barbara
author_facet Milesi, Carolina
Perez-Felkner, Lara
Brown, Kevin
Schneider, Barbara
author_sort Milesi, Carolina
collection PubMed
description While the underrepresentation of women in the fast-growing STEM field of computer science (CS) has been much studied, no consensus exists on the key factors influencing this widening gender gap. Possible suspects include gender differences in aptitude, interest, and academic environment. Our study contributes to this literature by applying student engagement research to study the experiences of college students studying CS, to assess the degree to which differences in men and women's engagement may help account for gender inequity in the field. Specifically, we use the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) to evaluate in real-time the engagement of college students during varied activities and environments. Over the course of a full week in fall semester and a full week in spring semester, 165 students majoring in CS at two Research I universities were “beeped” several times a day via a smartphone app prompting them to fill out a short questionnaire including open-ended and scaled items. These responses were paired with administrative and over 2 years of transcript data provided by their institutions. We used mean comparisons and logistic regression analysis to compare enrollment and persistence patterns among CS men and women. Results suggest that despite the obstacles associated with women's underrepresentation in computer science, women are more likely to continue taking computer science courses when they felt challenged and skilled in their initial computer science classes. We discuss implications for further research.
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spelling pubmed-54038952017-05-09 Engagement, Persistence, and Gender in Computer Science: Results of a Smartphone ESM Study Milesi, Carolina Perez-Felkner, Lara Brown, Kevin Schneider, Barbara Front Psychol Psychology While the underrepresentation of women in the fast-growing STEM field of computer science (CS) has been much studied, no consensus exists on the key factors influencing this widening gender gap. Possible suspects include gender differences in aptitude, interest, and academic environment. Our study contributes to this literature by applying student engagement research to study the experiences of college students studying CS, to assess the degree to which differences in men and women's engagement may help account for gender inequity in the field. Specifically, we use the Experience Sampling Method (ESM) to evaluate in real-time the engagement of college students during varied activities and environments. Over the course of a full week in fall semester and a full week in spring semester, 165 students majoring in CS at two Research I universities were “beeped” several times a day via a smartphone app prompting them to fill out a short questionnaire including open-ended and scaled items. These responses were paired with administrative and over 2 years of transcript data provided by their institutions. We used mean comparisons and logistic regression analysis to compare enrollment and persistence patterns among CS men and women. Results suggest that despite the obstacles associated with women's underrepresentation in computer science, women are more likely to continue taking computer science courses when they felt challenged and skilled in their initial computer science classes. We discuss implications for further research. Frontiers Media S.A. 2017-04-25 /pmc/articles/PMC5403895/ /pubmed/28487664 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00602 Text en Copyright © 2017 Milesi, Perez-Felkner, Brown and Schneider. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Psychology
Milesi, Carolina
Perez-Felkner, Lara
Brown, Kevin
Schneider, Barbara
Engagement, Persistence, and Gender in Computer Science: Results of a Smartphone ESM Study
title Engagement, Persistence, and Gender in Computer Science: Results of a Smartphone ESM Study
title_full Engagement, Persistence, and Gender in Computer Science: Results of a Smartphone ESM Study
title_fullStr Engagement, Persistence, and Gender in Computer Science: Results of a Smartphone ESM Study
title_full_unstemmed Engagement, Persistence, and Gender in Computer Science: Results of a Smartphone ESM Study
title_short Engagement, Persistence, and Gender in Computer Science: Results of a Smartphone ESM Study
title_sort engagement, persistence, and gender in computer science: results of a smartphone esm study
topic Psychology
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5403895/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28487664
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00602
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