PSY 322 Final Project Proposals
Introductory Programming: Bridging the Gender Gap?
Team Members: Sharla Cloutier, Meera Krishnan, Yan Zhong
Advisor: Professor Cooper
Abstract
The purpose of this project was to examine the social interactions in introductory programming classes at PrincetonUniversity in order to identify and suggest possible methods for bridging the “digital gender divide”. Based on past studies, we hypothesized that males would be more comfortable in both programming and computing than females; females would be more willing to seek help from both peers (particularly males) and preceptors; and males would be more willing to help females. With the prevalence of iPods in today’s college campuses, we wanted to examine if such personal music devices would have any effect in lessening the gender differences. In a survey conducted on ORF 201 and COS 126 classes, we found that our hypotheses were mostly supported. Significantly, females were more willing to seek the aid of preceptors (outside of precept), while the music devices seemed to have some effect in alleviating the programming-comfort gender gap. This suggests that there may be potential, through accessible technology and willing teachers, for improvement in the gender gap.
Introduction:
In the study of gender and computers, it is crucial to address whether the technology gap is really being bridged in classrooms today. That is, are guys and girls seeking the same level of help in computing classes from the professor, preceptors, or peers (of either gender)? Do girls feel like they need more help, or do guys feel like they need less help, maybe due to a stereotype threat (i.e. “girls can’t compute” “guys are supposed to be good at computers”)? This would presumably help us realize how females and males feel about their “roles” in the computing environment, even though females and males are both exposed to technology at an ever-increasing rate.
By conducting a survey geared toward first-time programmers in the COS 126 and ORF 201 classes, we would like to examine if females really do seek out help from preceptors or male peers more often than males seek out help from preceptors or female peers, which we hypothesize will happen due to the fact that girls may have been raised in an environment where they feel less comfortable with computers. We hypothesize that females, by “recognizing” that they are females through a gender question placed at the beginning of the survey, feel like they need a lot of help and are still less comfortable with computers, while the opposite effect is true for males. Furthermore, the introductory courses will allow us to examine a broader spectrum of people (with limited or no computing experience).
We also want to explore the perceived benefit of the recent iPod revolution. We hypothesize that increased ownership of iPods has had a positive influence on how students feel about technology and their ability to interact with a computer configuration (i.e. a screen with text and associated keypad). The iPod and othermusic-based technology products seem to have the effect of decreasing computing anxiety among the current college population through intrinsic motivation.
We will study the correlation between iPod ownership(and active use) and level of comfort with computers in general in these COS and ORF classes. A related question is whether iPod ownership reduces the gap between males and females in level of computing comfort, assuming a gender gap truly does exist. This gender variance will be discovered upon analysis of the ability of iPods to decrease computing anxiety, when participants will be classified according to gender. A survey to measure these variables and trends will be quantitative and rather quick to fill out so that a large sample size can be examined.
Some survey questions follow:
Please indicate your gender:
MaleFemale
On a scale from 1-10 (1- least, 10- most),
How comfortable were you with computers in general before taking the course?____
How comfortable are you with computers in general after taking the course?____
On a scale from 1-10 (1- least, 10- most), rate how comfortable you are with:
Programming______
Seeking out help from preceptors ______
Seeking out help from peers______
Helping peers______
Assignments______
Lectures______
I am most comfortable receiving help from a:
Male studentFemale studentDoesn’t matter
I am most comfortable giving help to a:
Male studentFemale studentDoesn’t matter
Do you own an iPod, and if so, for how long have you owned it?
How often do you use it?