Dive Brief:
- A new study of 976,000 college and graduate STEM students in the United States and Canada by STEM networking platform Piazza tracks responses to more than 2.3 million questions over nearly four terms, analyzing disparities in class participation by gender.
- According to eCampus News, the “confidence gap” is relatively large in robotics, where women answer 41% fewer questions than men and do so anonymously far more frequently — earning an anonymous rate 10% higher than men.
- Researchers recommend creating opportunities for participation outside of the traditional lecture, where women may feel intimidated to ask and answer questions.
Dive Insight:
Piazza found that Penn State’s female students answer questions more than men in both STEM and computer science fields. The opposite is true at Cornell and Carnegie Mellon, leading to higher confidence gaps by gender at both universities. Overall, astronomy and astrophysics seems to lead to lower average confidence gaps, along with accounting/finance, economics, and business. At the other end of the spectrum, with robotics, is bioengineering and computer science.
Virtually all schools are striving to increase the participation by women in STEM fields. This study indicates course design is a key strategy to support engagement. Piazza recommends online components that allow students to remain anonymous while being engaged.