Measuring attitudes towards biology major and non-major: Effect of students’ gender, group composition, and learning environment

Abstract

This study examined the effect of collaborative learning (CL) versus traditional lecture-based learning (TL) pedagogies and gender group composition in effecting positive or negative attitudes of biology major and nonmajor men and women students. The experimental research method was administered in experimental and control groups to test the hypotheses. Students’ attitudes refer to their positive or negative feelings and inclinations to learn biology. A nine-factor attitude scale was administered in (1) single-gender nonmajor biology, (2) mixed-gender nonmajor biology, (3) single-gender major biology, and (4) mixed-gender biology major groups. Men (221) and women (219) were randomly assigned into single and mixed-gender classes without groups and single-gender groups (4M) or (4W) and mix-gender (2M+2W) groups. In CL nonmajor and major single-gender groups, women demonstrated significantly higher positive attitudes than men. In contrast, men’s attitudes were significantly improved in mixed-gender CL groups for major and nonmajor sections, and the effect size was larger in mix-gender classes. Women feel less anxious in single-gender groups but more anxious in mixed-gender groups. In mixed-gender groups, men’s self-efficacy, general interest, and motivation enhanced significantly; overall, men experienced greater satisfaction and triggered their desire to collaborate better, affecting all nine attitudinal factors. There was an interaction effect demonstrating the teaching pedagogy’s impact on improving students’ attitudes toward biology; students’ gender and gender-specific group composition have been the most influential factor for nonmajor students. These findings suggest that there is a need for developing gender-specific and context-specific learning pedagogies, and instructors carefully select gender grouping in teaching undergraduate science subjects.

Simulations to Teach Science Subjects: Connections Among Students’ Engagement, Self-Confidence, Satisfaction, and Learning Styles

“…First, the study empirically showed that tertiary students were highly engaged and satisfied with the simulation-based activities to support their learning of science subjects including physics, chemistry, and biology. Although this study did not focus on student achievement explicitly, learners' engagement reflects their emotional, behavioral, and cognitive attachment with the learning process which has a direct impact on student success and achievement (Farrell & Brunton, 2020;Almasri et al,2021). Since engagement is a reflector of the level of learners' involvement and interaction with the learning environment (Bond, 2020;Khlaif et al, 2021;Almasri et al,2021), students' high engagement and satisfaction with this innovative pedagogical approach are very encouraging to accept the idea of using computer simulations for the teaching of science subjects such as physics, chemistry, and biology in higher education settings.…”

“…Although this study did not focus on student achievement explicitly, learners' engagement reflects their emotional, behavioral, and cognitive attachment with the learning process which has a direct impact on student success and achievement (Farrell & Brunton, 2020;Almasri et al,2021). Since engagement is a reflector of the level of learners' involvement and interaction with the learning environment (Bond, 2020;Khlaif et al, 2021;Almasri et al,2021), students' high engagement and satisfaction with this innovative pedagogical approach are very encouraging to accept the idea of using computer simulations for the teaching of science subjects such as physics, chemistry, and biology in higher education settings. Particularly, this finding supports the premise that the use of computer simulations is a great source of effectively anchoring the learners with the learning process.…”

“…Also, very little is known if students’ engagement and satisfaction with this teaching technique have significant differences in respect of their gender or the subject area of teaching. The authors found that the gender of students' influences the success or the failure of students' achievements and attitudes in science subjects and suggest that contexts and prevailing socio-cultural attitudes and beliefs surpass the impact of learning style (Almasri et al, 2021 ). Moreover, previous research has documented several factors that influence learner engagement (Khlaif et al, 2021 ).…”

The impact of e-learning, gender-groupings and learning pedagogies in biology undergraduate female and male students’ attitudes and achievement

“…Gulf Cooperation Council member nations (GCC) region includes Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, and Oman, which share similar socio-cultural contexts with traditional and conservative societies characterized by gender segregation within schools and universities educational systems (Alsuwailan, 2006;Dakhli & El-Zohairy, 2013;Dakhli et al, 2010;Lightfoot, 2014;Mansour & Al-Shamrani, 2015b). Among the studies that tackled socio-cultural and gender issues within the educational field in the GCC countries, only our previous research brought quantitative insights about how gender-grouping affected female and male students´ attitudes within in-classroom biology courses delivered under a collaborative and traditional pedagogy (Almasri et al, 2021). However, Almasri's (2021) study considered major and non-major biology students toward face-to-face learning modality and did not shed light on the e-learning modality.…”

“…Although CL has been praised for boosting student learning, retaining STEM students, and satisfying several National Science Education Standards, it presents some shortcomings (Slavin, 1996a(Slavin, , 2010van der Linden et al, 2000). Previous research has demonstrated that students may not always collaborate to facilitate learning (Rummel and Spada 2005;Wang et al, 2010) and that CL may not always result in equal learning gains or improved class performance for all students (Gnesdilow et al, 2013a) because a variety of characteristics can impact, such as gender (Almasri et al, 2021;Eddy & Brownell, 2016), gender grouping (Gelbgiser & Albert, 2018) and the learning environment (Al-Samarraie et al 2018;Gogoulou et al 2007;WAnG and Education 2009). Most of the studies performed considering a particular socio-cultural context and social identities showed a genderbased pattern within collaborative and traditional face-to-face learning settings in the United States (Gnesdilow et al, 2013b;Guo et al, 2018;Myaskovsky et al, 2005;Sormunen-Jones et al, 2000), the United Kingdom (Carli, 2001;Milliken and Martins 1996;Takeda & Homberg, 2014), Netherlands (Harskamp et al, 2008) and China (Zhan et al, 2015b).…”