GSE/RES: Gender Differences in Early Science Experiences leading to 8th Grade Science Achievement-related Choices

Goodman Research Group Inc, Cambridge MA

Investigators

Abstract

Intellectual Merit: This project explores how early science experiences in formal and informal settings are related to 8th grade gender-based differences in science achievement-related choices. The research is guided by the Eccles Expectancy-Value (EV) Model of Achievement-Related Choices and is designed to follow overlapping cohorts of children, girls and boys, as they progress from third grade to eighth grade. The study starts with 1150 students from classrooms across six randomly selected Massachusetts school districts, with the goal of having complete data at the end of three years for 800 students (assuming 20% annual attrition). The key data collection tool is a science experiences questionnaire administered annually for three years to all students in the sample, supplemented by: in-depth in-person interviews with a subset of students, a parent questionnaire, a teacher questionnaire, a science specialist questionnaire, and informal science community scans. Broader Impacts: This research advances our knowledge about attracting girls into science, in particular the role of early experiences, interests, and aspirations. Considering the science career model as a chain across the life-course, ultimate science career selection can be linked back to earlier points in time, including graduate and undergrad science degree attainment and high school and middle school science course choice and career aspiration. Gender disparities have been documented at all of these points. However, to date, little systematic research has examined how experiences earlier than middle school affect successive links in the science life-course chain, and how these relationships differ by gender. The knowledge gained from this project should help teachers and informal educators consider activities that narrow rather than widen gender gaps, take an informed approach to engaging both girls and boys in science, and work with parents to understand their role in their child?s achievement-related choices. The impacts will extend more broadly to inform both school district practices and federal level funding decisions regarding programs addressing gender equity in the sciences.