Moderating the Relationship Between Student’s Gender and Science Motivation

Abstract

Researchers are interested in students' motivation to learn science as it impacts other aspects of students' learning. One aspect of this motivation is the gender issue, how it impacts student's motivation and how it is mediated and moderated by other educational variables. The issue of gender impact on motivation has been studied for more than two decades, which makes the present research interested in studying how background variables as student's ability, school level and teacher's gender moderate the relationship between student's gender and the different components of science motivation. The research design is that of moderation design through multiple regression. The sampling was a cluster sampling. The instrument used was the socialcognitive motivation questionnaire, and data analysis was done using regression and moderation analysis in SPSS 25 Statistical Package. Eight hundred, thirty-seven students, from the primary, middle and secondary schools participated in the research. The research results indicated that each of the three variables moderated between student's gender and part of the components of science motivation. The research concludes that the science teaching methods need to be diverse to fit both male and female science students, which could assist the learning of science in the secondary school from the two genders. Moreover, utilizing different teaching methods would support all ability -level students. In addition, holding workshops for teachers that discuss the gender issue in science education can help address this issue.

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“…This finding corroborates previous studies. For example, Daher et al (2021) reported that female students had significantly higher scores in all the components of motivation towards science. Chumbley et al (2015) and Glynn et al (2011) also found that females had higher motivation and self-determination than males.…”

Impact of Science Process Skills on Thinking Skills in Rural and Urban Schools

“…Gender differences can be referred to as a differentiating factor in a person's abilities such as the ability to learn in class (Heeg & Avraamidou, 2021;Ikonen et al, 2019). Based on research (Bhagat & Chang, 2018;Daher et al, 2021;Gulacar et al, 2019) that female students are more active than male students. However male students are more talented in science than female students Ikonen et al, 2019;Lee & Kung, 2018).…”

“…One branch of science that requires direct understanding is physics. Physics is able to direct students in improving process skills to produce good cognitive (Daher et al, 2021;Krumphals & Haagen-Schutzenhofer, 2021). One way that can be done to help students understand physics is through practical activities.…”

Gender analysis in measurement materials: Critical thinking ability and science processing skills

“…Gender can be called a differentiating factor in one's abilities, such as learning in the classroom (Heeg & Avraamidou, 2021;Ikonen et al, 2019;Sultan et al, 2020). Based on research (Bhagat & Chang, 2018;Daher et al, 2021;Gulacar et al, 2019), female students are more active than male students. However, male students are more talented in science than female students (Bustami et al, 2020;Ikonen et al, 2019;Lee & Kung, 2018).…”