Article

Women catch up: gender differences in learning programming concepts

Authors:

Renée McCauley,

Briana B. Morrison,

Suzanne Westbrook,

Timothy FossumAuthors Info & Claims

SIGCSE '06: Proceedings of the 37th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education

Pages 17 - 21

https://doi.org/10.1145/1121341.1121350

Published: 03 March 2006 Publication History

Abstract

This paper describes a multi-institutional study that used categorization exercises (known as constrained card sorts) to investigate gender differences in graduating computer science students' learning and perceptions of programming concepts. Our results show that female subjects had significantly less pre-college programming experience than their male counterparts. However, for both males and females, we found no correlation between previous experience and success in the major, as measured by computer science grade point average at graduation. Data also indicated that, by the time students completed their introductory courses, females reported nearly equal levels of mastery as males of the programming concepts. Furthermore, females generally considered the programming concepts to be no more difficult than did the men.

References

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Cited By

Yong SGates P(2022)Emergency Online Programming ClassesInternational Journal of Virtual and Personal Learning Environments10.4018/IJVPLE.29530512:1(1-19)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2022
https://doi.org/10.4018/IJVPLE.295305
Choi S(2021)“Better Communication Leads to a Higher Output?” An Analysis of Pair Communication on Pair Programming ProductivityIEEE Transactions on Professional Communication10.1109/TPC.2021.311039964:4(338-353)Online publication date: Dec-2021
https://doi.org/10.1109/TPC.2021.3110399
Duran RHaaranen LHellas AZhang JSherriff MHeckman SCutter PMonge A(2020)Gender Differences in Introductory ProgrammingProceedings of the 51st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education10.1145/3328778.3366852(692-698)Online publication date: 26-Feb-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3328778.3366852
Show More Cited By

Index Terms

Women catch up: gender differences in learning programming concepts
1. Social and professional topics
  1. Professional topics
    1. Computing education
      1. Computing education programs
        Computer science education

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Published In

cover image ACM Conferences

SIGCSE '06: Proceedings of the 37th SIGCSE technical symposium on Computer science education

March 2006

612 pages

ISBN:1595932593

DOI:10.1145/1121341

Program Chairs:
Doug Baldwin
SUNY Geneseo
,
Paul Tymann
Rochester Institute of Technology
,
Susan Haller
SUNY Potsdam
,
Ingrid Russell
University of Hartford

ACM SIGCSE Bulletin Volume 38, Issue 1
March 2006
553 pages
ISSN:0097-8418
DOI:10.1145/1124706
Issue’s Table of Contents

Copyright © 2006 ACM.

Permission to make digital or hard copies of all or part of this work for personal or classroom use is granted without fee provided that copies are not made or distributed for profit or commercial advantage and that copies bear this notice and the full citation on the first page. Copyrights for components of this work owned by others than ACM must be honored. Abstracting with credit is permitted. To copy otherwise, or republish, to post on servers or to redistribute to lists, requires prior specific permission and/or a fee. Request permissions from [email protected]

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Published: 03 March 2006

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March 3 - 5, 2006

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Overall Acceptance Rate 1,595 of 4,542 submissions, 35%

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Cited By

Yong SGates P(2022)Emergency Online Programming ClassesInternational Journal of Virtual and Personal Learning Environments10.4018/IJVPLE.29530512:1(1-19)Online publication date: 1-Jan-2022
https://doi.org/10.4018/IJVPLE.295305
Choi S(2021)“Better Communication Leads to a Higher Output?” An Analysis of Pair Communication on Pair Programming ProductivityIEEE Transactions on Professional Communication10.1109/TPC.2021.311039964:4(338-353)Online publication date: Dec-2021
https://doi.org/10.1109/TPC.2021.3110399
Duran RHaaranen LHellas AZhang JSherriff MHeckman SCutter PMonge A(2020)Gender Differences in Introductory ProgrammingProceedings of the 51st ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education10.1145/3328778.3366852(692-698)Online publication date: 26-Feb-2020
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3328778.3366852
Grass BCoto MCollazos CPaderewski PManresa-Yee CSansó R(2018)Academic emotions in women who learn to programProceedings of the XIX International Conference on Human Computer Interaction10.1145/3233824.3233860(1-4)Online publication date: 12-Sep-2018
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3233824.3233860
Quille KCulligan NBergin SDavoli RGoldweber MRößling GPolycarpou I(2017)Insights on Gender Differences in CS1Proceedings of the 2017 ACM Conference on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education10.1145/3059009.3059048(263-268)Online publication date: 28-Jun-2017
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/3059009.3059048
Aal Kvon Rekowski TYerousis GWulf VWeibert A(2015)Bridging (Gender-Related) BarriersProceedings of the Third Conference on GenderIT10.1145/2807565.2807708(17-23)Online publication date: 24-Apr-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2807565.2807708
Choi K(2015)A comparative analysis of different gender pair combinations in pair programmingBehaviour & Information Technology10.1080/0144929X.2014.93746034:8(825-837)Online publication date: 1-Aug-2015
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1080/0144929X.2014.937460
Grams DFrank TRehberger SVogel-Heuser B(2014)Female characteristics and requirements in software engineering in mechanical engineering2014 International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Learning (ICL)10.1109/ICL.2014.7017783(272-279)Online publication date: Dec-2014
https://doi.org/10.1109/ICL.2014.7017783
Weibert Avon Rekowski TWulf V(2013)Informatik erschließen: Ein curricularer Ansatz für MädchenInformatik-Spektrum10.1007/s00287-013-0696-x36:3(230-241)Online publication date: 12-Apr-2013
https://doi.org/10.1007/s00287-013-0696-x
Weibert Avon Rekowski TFestl LMalmborg LPederson T(2012)Accessing ITProceedings of the 7th Nordic Conference on Human-Computer Interaction: Making Sense Through Design10.1145/2399016.2399147(785-786)Online publication date: 14-Oct-2012
https://dl.acm.org/doi/10.1145/2399016.2399147
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