Research in Science Education, 1993, 23, 10-14

IS ACHIEVEMENT IN AUSTRALIAN CHEMISTRY GENDER BASED?

John Beard, Charles Fogliani, Chris Owens & Audrey Wilson Charles Sturt University University of Western Sydney University of Wollongong

ABSTRACT

This paper compares the performances of female and male secondary students in the 1991 and 1992 Australian National Chemistry Quizzes. Male students consistently achieved a higher mean score in all Year groups (7 to 12), even though the numbers of female and male entrants were approximately equal. Implications for class tests and assessment tasks are addressed.

INTRODUCTION

The Royal Australian Chemical Institute introduced a National Chemistry Quiz in 1982, with two papers: a Senior Paper (Years 11 and 12) and a Junior Paper. A third paper (Years 7 and 8) was introduced in 1989, and a separate paper for Year 11 in 1992. The number of students taking the Quiz has increased from 8,750 (150 schools) in 1982, to over 63,500 (850 schools) in 1992. Schools from all Australian states, Fiji, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea participate.

The Quiz aims to encourage a better understanding of the nature of chemistry and its relevance to society. Some of the items specifically relate to chemistry in everyday living. Each paper in the Quiz is non-syUabus based and contains thirty multiple choice questions designed to stimulate interest in chemistry. Items have been classified (based on Bloom's 1956 Taxonomy of cognitive objectives) into knowledge; comprehension; application; and analysis categories (see the two books of past papers by Beard, Fogliani, Owens, & Wilson, 1992a, 1992b). In the 1991 Quiz for Years 11 and 12, the percentages of questions in each category were: knowledge 17%, comprehension 23%, application 43%, and analysis 17% respectively. A high standard is demanded by the Quiz; less than 130 students scored 29 or 30 out of 30 in 1991 and 1992. No penalty is applied for incorrect answers and various awards are given for levels of achievement.

The main aim of this paper is to report and to compare the performances of male and female students in the 1991 and 1992 Quizzes.

RESULTS

The numbers of males and females entering the Quiz are approximately equal. The numbers of students entering increases by the year level (3,000 in Year 7 to 12,350 in Year 12). About a thousand fewer females than males in Year 12 and 500 fewer in Year 11 participated in the Quiz in 1991 and 1992. In contrast, more females than males in Years 7-10 participated. However, there were approximately twice as many males as females for each Year group in the top 150 students. The ratio of male:female ranged, across the Years, from 1.8 to 3.4 in 1991 and from 1.5 to 5.3 in 1992.

Overall, males performed better than females with the mean scores for males ranging from 0.47 to 2.01 marks above the females' mean scores (standard deviations were around 4). For each Year the mean scores for males and females were significantly different at the 0.001 level except for Year 7 in 1992 where the level of significance was 0.01 (using a t-test analysis).

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For each of Years 7-12, a higher percentage of males gave correct answers for the majority of questions, increasing from 18 out of 30 items in Year 7 (for 1992) to 28 out of 30 items in Year 12.

Males often performed better in questions involving the interpretation of graphs and, for four of the five questions used in more than one year level, the differences between the performances of males and females widened as the year level increased.

In the Year 12 1992 paper, the percentage of males selecting the correct answer exceeded the percentage of females by more than 10% in six questions. Four of these six questions required chemical calculations to be performed. (A total of 12 questions out of 30 involved calculations.) The differences in percentages of males with the correct answer to females with the correct answer ranged from 11% to 14%. A higher percentage of females than males gave the correct answers to two questions but the differences were much lower (3% and 4%). One of these questioned was concerned with "the effect of a catalyst on an isolated chemical reaction" and the other involved the completion of a flow chart on the preparation of ammonium sulphate.

A similar situation exists with the results of male and female students in Years 7-11. For the questions that either gender answered more successfully, the difference in the numbers of items and in the percentages of those correct to not correct are generally in the males' favour. The differences for Years 7 and 8 are not as great as for the other four year levels.

Overall, for Year 12 in 1992, the difference between males and females omitting items is small. More males than females omitted 5 of the questions whereas more females omitted 20 of the items and for the remaining 5 items, the omission rate was the same. The average difference in percentages of omission was 0.3%. The item most omitted was a calculation question which almost 5% of students omitted. For this item, 0.7% more females than males refrained from answering.

DISCUSSION

The finding in this study that males perform consistently better than females in chemistry in Years 7 - 12 is supported by two other major recent studies (Rae, 1993; Rosier, 1988). Rosier commented on the achievement of Australian lower secondary students (14 year olds, about Year 9) in the Second International Science Study (SISS). Male students scored a mean of 59.8% and female students 56.0%. There was a significant difference at the 95% confidence level. On the 15 chemistry items, the mean scores were 49.5% and 46.1% respectively with a significant difference at the 95% confidence level. Rosier noted that the better performance by male students in the SISS was significant on questions requiring comprehension and application but not knowledge.

Rae (1993) analysed Victorian Higher School Certificate chemistry examinations from 1987-1990 and found that the male cohort made more correct responses in multiple choice items. In addition on several items in each examination "the success rate for male students exceeded that for female students by 10% or more". Almost half of these items involved chemical calculations.

Alternative explanations for qender differences It cannot be said conclusively from these results that males perform better in chemistry than females because the sample, though large, was self selected and because the Quiz format may have been gender biased.

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The samples of males and females taking the Quiz were not random or equivalent as only some schools out of the total national school sample are involved in any year, and most schools do not enter all their students studying chemistry. The proportion of females studying public examination chemistry in Year 12 in Australia in 1990 was 17,530 out of 40,597 students, i.e. 43.2% (Dekkers & De Laeter, 1993). The 5,412 females who participated in the 1991 Quiz represent about 30% of the females in Year 12 studying chemistry.

Format and content of the Quiz The format of the Quiz may favour male over female students who sit for multiple choice tests~examinations (Murphy, 1978; Harding, 1979; Rennie & Parker, 1991; Woolnough & Cameron, 1991). Murphy (1978) mentioned the possibility that "the attitude of females to objective tests is low". Rennie and Parker (1991) suggest that item and test formats plus item context are very likely to be involved in the explanation of the females' lower performance in multiple choice questions.

Although attempts were made to minimise the effects of item context, there were two examples in the 1992 Quiz which may favour males. Question 12 (Year 12) was about moles and involved "a stone about the size of a cricket ball" while question 12 (Years 7 & 8) related to metals "used in alloys such as solder and bronze".

Another factor which may have contributed to the difference in performance is "males' greater willingness to guess" rather than to omit items in multiple choice tests (Rennie & Parker, 1991). However, the differences were slight in this study. Boys often show a confident assurance and are less inhibited about guessing when they are not certain of the correct answer. The use of guessing by males in the Australian National Mathematics Competition has also been noted (Clements, personal communication, 1993) but in this Competition, there is a penalty for guessing.

Mathematics and science Gender differences in mathematical ability have been proposed by many researchers but there is "normally more variations in these skills within groups of males or females than there ever is between them" (Murphy, 1978). In the United Kingdom, the areas of mathematics showing the greatest gender differences are application of number, measurement, rate and ratio, concepts of fractions and decimals, and computations with fractions (Shuard, 1986). Gardner (1974) concluded that girls did not perform as well as boys "on tests measuring numerical skills, mathematical reasoning and formal operational thinking'.

The mathematical skills required to answer the questions in the Quiz include facility with percentages, fractions, logarithms to base 10, addition, division and finally ratio and proportion. No advanced mathematical ability is required to answer almost all multiple choice questions except for one or two questions in Years 11 and 12. However in the 1992 Year 12 paper, four out of the six questions in which the average percentage of males correct exceeded the average percentage of females correct by at least 10% involved chemical calculations.

Gardner (1974), Head (1985), Sjoberg (1990) and others have suggested that biological, environmental and social aspects of science or chemistry would be more interesting to females and hence one would expect they might perform better on such questions. In fact girls in Years 7-12 performed less well than boys on questions which emphasized these aspects in both the 1991 and 1992 Quizzes. The results on 45 such questions given to Years 7-12 show boys did better than girls on 34 questions while girls out-performed boys on 11 questions. Of the 16 questions on biological, environmental and social aspects of science

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given to Years 11 and 12, ten involved mathematical calculations and the boys performed better in all ten cases.

In-school and out-of-school e.xperiences Some researchers including Yates (cited in Jones, 1993) still claim that the school curriculum is biased towards the interests of males and that inequality is quite widespread. The school attended is an important factor in students' performance but there is conflicting evidence on whether single-sex schools or single-sex classes in mathematics and science is the best environment for females.

Gardner (1974) evaluated many studies of secondary students' interests in science and concluded there is "a substantial body of evidence showing that boys display more interest in science than girls". This may no longer be correct in 1993 given the increase in the number of females studying science subjects to Year 12 although more males participated in the Chemistry Quiz than females. However boys may still be more interested in physics. Gardner noted that boys engage in tinkering more frequently than girls with mechanical and electrical objects. Tinkering outside of school such as repairing equipment, was identified by Gardner as showing the highest correlation with gender differences in performance in science subjects.

Rennie and Parker (1991) related the different out-of-school experiences for males and females with their different performances in science subjects. Males will perform better in areas where they are more familiar with the context. Hence in both chemistry and physics males often have an advantage.

IMPLICATIONS FOR STUDENT EVALUATION

Teachers at all levels of the education process should be aware that the exclusive or extensive use of multiple choice questions in assessment for chemistry and other science subjects might advantage male students. If multiple choice questions are balanced by structured questions and essay questions, then girls are less likely to be disadvantaged (Harding, 1979 and Rennie & Parker, 1991).

Also it is difficult to test Bloom's (1956) higher categories of "synthesis" and "evaluation" using only multiple choice questions. Some academics and teachers use multiple choice question extensively in the evaluation of students because the answers can be easily marked. It would be interesting to compare male and female students' performance on practical work, course work and a final examination that consisted of multiple choice questions.

CONCLUSION

Gender differences in science were first noted in the 1970s. It may be thought that with the greater encouragement given to girls to undertake chemistry subjects, with attempts at gender equity in schools and the community, and with more females continuing on with chemistry at senior years of school and at university, that there may now be a change in the achievement of females in chemistry compared to that of males. However, this large study would indicate that females are not performing as well as males in chemistry although there are several possible alternative explanations for the results obtained in the study.

REFERENCES

Beard, J.H., Fogliani, C.L., Owens, C. & Wilson, A. (1992). Multiple choice chemistry questions cate,qorized accordinq to Bloom's taxonomy. Senior Years 11 & 12. Bathurst: CASAC.

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Beard, J.H., Fogliani, C.L, Owens, C. & Wilson, A. (1992). Multiple choice chemistry questions cate.qorized accordinq to Bloom's taxonomy. Junior Years 7-10. Bathurst: CASAC.

Bloom, B.S. (Ed.) (1956). Taxonomy of educational objectives. The classification of educational .qoals. Handbooks 1 & 2. New York: Longmans.

Dekkers, J., & De Laeter, J.R. (1993). Chemistry enrolments in Australian secondary schools, Chemistry in Australia. 60(2), 76-77. Gardner, P.L (1974). Sex differences in achievement, attitudes, and personality of science

students: a review. Research in Science Education. 4, 231-258. Harding, J. (1979). Sex differences in objective test performance. Physics Education, 14,

280-284. Head, J. (1985). The personal response to science. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Jones, C. (1993). School gender bias eases but girls still at a disadvantage. The Weekend

Australian, April 3-4, 44. Murphy, R.J.L. (1978). Sex differences in examination performance: do these reflect

differences in ability or sex-role stereotypes? Educational Review, 30(3), 259-263. Rae, I.D. (1993). Gender differences in responses to multiple-choice items in senior secondary

chemistry examinations. Chemeda: The Australian Journal of Chemical Education. (37), 3-6.

Rennie, L.J., & Parker, L.H. (1991). Assessment of learning in science: the-need to look closely at item characteristics. The Australian Science Teachers Journal, 37(4), 56-59.

Rosier, M. (1988). Sex differences in science achievement. Unicorn., 14(4), 274-276. Shuard, H. (1986). Primary mathematics today and tomorrow. York: Longman and School

Curriculum Development Committee. Sjoberg, S. (1990). Gender equality in science classrooms. What Research Says to the

Science and Mathematics Teacher, 6. The Key Centre for School Science and Mathematics, University of Technology, Perth, Western Australia.

Woolnough, J.A. & Cameron, R.S. (1991). Girls, boys and conceptual physics: an evaluation of a senior secondary physics course. Research in Science Education, 21,337-344.

AUTHORS

DR. JOHN BEARD, Lecturer, Department of Science, Charles Sturt University-Mitchell, Bathurst, NSW 2795. Specializations: chemical education, environmental science.

CHARLES FOGLIANI, Senior Lecturer, Department of Science, Charles Sturt University-Mitchell, Bathurst, NSW 2795. Specialization: chemical education.

CHRIS OWENS, Lecturer, Chemistry Department, University of Western Sydney, Nepean, Kingswood, NSW 2747. Specializations: chemical education, analytical chemistry.

DR. AUDREY WILSON, First Year Coordinator, Chemistry Department, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522. Specialization: chemical education.