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The Effectiveness of Single-Gender Engineering Enrichment Programs: A Follow-up Study
Final Paper 484KB |
programs to equivalent mixed-gender programs found female-only programs to be effective in
educating young girls about engineering, positively influencing their perceptions of engineers
and attitudes toward engineering as a career, with mixed results. A recent examination of gains
in content knowledge, self-efficacy, beliefs about gender equity and qualitative perceptions of
engineers using the Middle School Attitudes toward Engineering, Knowledge of Engineering
Careers Survey and the Draw an Engineer Test in equivalent post-4th grade, 2015 summer
programs found significantly positive results; females in the single-gender program showed
greater improvement in engineering content knowledge than females in a mixed-gender program,
as well as significant increases in self-efficacy and perceptions that women can be engineers. A
follow-up study was conducted to determine if changes in girls’ attitudes towards engineering,
perceptions of engineers and gains in content knowledge were sustained. A majority of the
students who participated during 2015 returned for the post-5th grade program in 2016 with 50%
more new students. Comparisons amongst the 2016 mixed- and single-gender programs and
between the 2015 and 2016 programs showed sustained effects for returning students, especially
girls, and a greater 2016 impact for girls who participated in the 2015 single-gender program.
Author(s):
Linda S. Hirsch
Center for Pre-College Programs
New Jersey Institute of Technology
United States
Suzanne Berliner-Heyman
Center for Pre-College Programs
New Jersey Institute of Technology
United States
Rosa Cano
Center for Pre-College Programs
New Jersey Institute of Technology
United States
Jacqueline Cusack
Center for Pre-College Programs
New Jersey Institute of Technology
United States