Women’s Sense of Belonging in Computer Science Education: The Need for a Collective Response

Widdicks, Kelly; Ashcroft, Alice; Winter, Emily; Blair, Lynne

doi:10.1145/3481282.3481288

Cited by 11 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 23 publications

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“…As presented in Table 4, and in contrast to what has been previously reported by other authors [14][15][16], this sample did not show statistically significant differences between women and men in relation to self-efficacy or sense of belonging. Thus the sample of female students that are part of this study did not show a lower sense of belonging nor having less self-efficacy than their male co-students.…”

Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 91%

“…Some studies report that female students feel a low identity with their male peers, pointed out as being one of the causes of desertion at an early stage [10,14]. While in careers related to computer science, Widdicks et al [15], mention that women have a lower sense of belonging, since these types of careers are contained within an environment of gender biased stereotypes, affecting their self-efficacy and academic performance.…”

Section: Introduction and Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Belongingness of Chilean Engineering Students: A Gender Perspective Approach

Becerra-Cid,

Quezada-Espinoza,

Truyol

2023 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

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Students' affective characteristics, such as motivation, attitudes, self-efficacy, expectations, and sense of belonging, are relevant topics for higher education research. Much research indicates that having a sense of belonging in academic, social, and community settings are critical to students' development, engagement, and persistence. Prior research on women's participation in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) careers discusses the need to improve their sense of belonging as a socio-cognitive variable related to the gender imbalance in participation in STEM areas. Women's sense of belonging is crucial to higher education institutions, especially in highly masculinized careers such as engineering. It increases academic motivation and can influence their success in higher education. However, statistics worldwide show that the increase in the sense of belonging and, thus, in the participation of women in STEM areas has not risen enough to reduce the gender gap. In the current research work, we present data collected over one semester in an Engineering School at a large private university in Chile. Our main objective is to diagnose and analyze the students' sense of belonging in social and academic areas, their self-efficacy, and perceived institutional support from a gender perspective. With a quantitative approach, survey data was collected to assess students' sense of belonging as engineering students. The validated survey consists of 33 items distributed in four constructs: 1) Sense of belonginggeneral, 2) sense of belonging-interactions, 3) Self-efficacy and 4) Perceived institutional support. From this, we identify and discuss the student's sense of belonging and how it interacts with self-efficacy and perceived institutional support. This research allows us to have evidence that supports the visibility and creation of initiatives on the services offered to students, which impact their sense of belonging.

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Section: Discussioncontrasting

confidence: 91%

Section: Introduction and Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Belongingness of Chilean Engineering Students: A Gender Perspective Approach

Becerra-Cid,

Quezada-Espinoza,

Truyol

2023 ASEE Annual Conference &Amp; Exposition Proceedings

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“…Women have also been found to be underrepresented in CS education, in many countries and contexts, in numerous studies [42], [43], [44], [45], [46]. Common factors that lead to dropouts are lower confidence, previous background, and sense of belonging in CS [41], [47], [48]. To address the fact that students enroll in CS1 with different prior experiences, some institutions have successfully divided their students into different cohorts based on prior experience [49].…”

Section: Student Success Factors In Computing Educationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These findings align with previous research [46], where avoiding stereotypes, emphasizing collaborative learning, making connections with students' lives and interests, and having meaningful positive interactions with TAs and course coordinators were identified as factors to enable broad participation. It is possible to explain why the female students reported experiencing more stress in labs (S3), receiving more assistance from classmates (S4), and experiencing a wider variation in tutoring quality (S19, S20, S22, and S25) by these learning design recommendations, along with lower confidence, previous background, and a sense of belonging [41], [47], [48]. For further inquiry into this topic, more studies specifically designed to investigate gender differences in assessment situations are needed.…”

Section: Differencesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Engineering Students’ Experiences of Assessment in Introductory Computer Science Courses

Riese

Stenbom

2023

IEEE Trans. Educ.

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This study evaluates the generalizability of previously identified perceptions among engineering students of assessments in introductory programming (CS1). The students' perceptions of their instructors' and teaching assistants' (TAs) roles in these assessments are also studied, and differences based on prior programming experience, gender, and course explored.Background: Basic programming skills are desirable also for students who are not majoring in computer science (CS). Students' experience of assessments has not been fully explored.Research Questions: 1) How do engineering students experience the assessment (lab assignments, midterm exam, and project) in their CS1 courses? 2) What are the students' perceptions of the TAs and instructors in relation to these assessment situations? 3) What significant differences can be found based on students' prior experience in programming, gender, and course?Methodology: Previously identified themes from an interview study worked as a framework for the formulation of 25 statements used in a survey among 137 students in six CS1 courses (second part of a mixed-method study). Descriptive statistics, Mann-Whitney U Test, and Kruskal-Wallis tests with Bonferroni corrections, were used to analyze the data.Findings: Laboratory assignments were experienced as an opportunity to learn while the exams were viewed as predictable. The projects were perceived as authentic, although varying in difficulty, and as a huge leap from the lab assignments. Students perceived the instructors to put their touch on the course but viewed their TAs as carrying out the assessments, and experienced variations between TAs. Female students experienced these variations to a larger extent and perceived received feedback as less useful.

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“…If all members of the CS community are not only recruited into the sector without bias, but then listened to and respected within the community, the advantages of this cannot only be seen in the bottom line of an organization (Hunt, et al, 2018), but lead to higher employee retention (Holtzblatt & Marsden, 2018), an increased sense of belonging (Widdicks, et al, 2021), and the creation of services which contain fewer amounts of bias, and therefore advantage the customers more significantly (Criado Perez, 2019). Therefore, further research in this area is essential to uncover any potential changes which should be implemented in the sector to ensure that when women, or any under-represented group for that matter, are in the room, they are heard, listened to, and their views are given the same heed as any other.…”

Section: Further Research Required and Conclusionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Feminist Thematic Discourse Analysis in Cs

2022

Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on ICT, Society and Human Beings (ICT 2022), the 19th International Conferenc

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How conversation takes place is a well-researched area in the field of Linguistics, particularly when it comes to how Feminist Methodologies are applied to this. What remains to be seen, however, is the application of these techniques in the field of Computer Science. Although some research has started to emerge in this area, this paper argues that there needs to be an examination of the subtleties in conversation, through a union of three methodological practices: thematic analysis, feminist methodologies, and discourse analysis. This reflective paper summarises a consideration on discourse and conversation analysis, the existing cross over with feminist research, and presents areas of further research within the field of Computer Science.

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Women’s Sense of Belonging in Computer Science Education: The Need for a Collective Response

Cited by 11 publications

References 23 publications

Belongingness of Chilean Engineering Students: A Gender Perspective Approach

Belongingness of Chilean Engineering Students: A Gender Perspective Approach

Engineering Students’ Experiences of Assessment in Introductory Computer Science Courses

Feminist Thematic Discourse Analysis in Cs

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