Teaching and Learning Online:Assessing the Effect of Gender

Context on Active Learning

Bruce M. Wilson Kerstin HamannPhilip H. Pollock

Department of Political ScienceUniversity of Central Florida

Ideas As a modality, the on-line discussion

group… …allows instructors to design small,

interactive forums, even in large course settings.

…holds the promise of “democratizing” student interaction, allowing marginalized groups to become involved in discussions of course content.

Questions

Students may be required to post messages to an on-line discussion group. But how much interaction takes place in these settings?

Does the gender composition of the on-line discussion group affect student behavior within the group? If so, how?

Gender-based rhetorical styles The democratization claim

Social decontextualization Neutralization of social status cues:

appearance, social status, accent, etc. The counter-claim

Male control / female marginalization transferred unchanged from face-to-face to on-line context

Computers bring “familiar baggage to the new frontier” (Herring 1994)

Early studies Raised doubts about democratization claim Found male style: independent assertions,

self-promotion, authoritative orientation Versus female style: attenuated assertions,

apologies, personal orientation Early work based on uncontrolled field

observations of small numbers of subjects

Experimental studies: 2 main findings 1. Male dominant pattern in face-to-

face communication greatly reduced in computer-mediated settings. For example, Bhappu et al. (1997)

2. Gender composition of group has large effect on use of gender stereotypic styles. For example, Postmes and Spears

(2002)

Natural field research Some evidence that gender-specific

styles persist in on-line settings Wolfe’s (1999) study of gender-balance

groups In terms of the level of participation,

women achieve parity with men in on-line discussions Wolfe (2000), Clawson & Choate (1999),

Oxley et al. (2003), Pollock & Wilson (2002), Hamann et al. (2001), Wilson et al. (2002).

Current study Long-term goal: Identify type of on-

line communication that best enhances student-student interaction.

Analyzed student postings to 50 discussion groups in 3 different upper-level comparative politics courses. 1,908 messages containing 14,442

statements made by 453 students (164 males, 289 females).

Coding and Design

Coding protocol based on Henri (1992) Each statement coded for dependency

(independent, direct, indirect), evaluative content (evaluative or cognitive), and depth (surface or in-depth).

Analyzed gender differences overall and in groups having different proportions of males and females.

Overall gender differences:

Mea

n p

rop

ort

ion

of

stat

emen

ts

1.0

.8

.6

.4

.2

0.0

Males

Females

.

Findings Student messages tended to be

independent, not ‘interactive’ (direct or indirect responses to others). Contrary to expectations, women were more

likely than men to make independent statements.

Messages were more likely to be cognitive than evaluative.

Students eschewed social comments or ‘meta statements’ about what they learned.

The effect of gender composition

Percentage female

100%71-90%51-70%50%<50%

Mea

n P

ropo

rtio

n D

epen

den

t

.8

.7

.6

.5

.4

.3

.2

Males

Females

Findings Females in all-female groups did not

talk to each other very much They wrote relatively short messages

containing mostly independent statements

In groups more heavily populated with males, female behavior was different Women wrote longer messages

containing a larger proportion of dependent statements

How much inter-gender communication takes place?

Percentage female

71-90%51-70%50%<50%

Pro

po

rtio

n

.8

.7

.6

.5

.4

.3

.2

.1

% statements male

% female responses male

Findings Baseline: Proportion of statements

made by males. This decreases as gender composition

becomes more female. In male-tilted and gender balanced

groups, women made above-the-baseline responses to males.

In female-tilted and female-dominant groups, women made below-the-baseline responses to males.

Conclusions All students displayed a preference for

independent statements. Reliance on independent statements

specified by gender context. Gender balanced groups displayed more

apparent interaction than did female-skewed groups.

Inter-gender interaction also apparently more robust in gender-balanced contexts.

Next steps in the research

Link participation to satisfaction Student evaluations

Link participation to outcomes Broaden the analysis to include

number of postings read by students (part of the critical thinking and peer-learning process)

Assess effect on course grades

Establishing a relationship

Disseminating the results “Teaching and Learning Online: Assessing the Effect of

Gender Context on Active Learning” with Philip H. Pollock and Kerstin Hamann, Journal of Political Science Education, 2005.

“Enhancing Active Learning: Designing Critical Thinking Exercises Using the Internet,” with Kerstin Hamann. Politics & Policy. 2003

“Evaluating the Impact of Internet Teaching: Preliminary Evidence from American National Government Classes,” with Philip H. Pollock. PS: Political Science and Politics. 2002

“The Best of Both Worlds?: Web-Enhanced or Traditional Instruction in American National Government,” with Hutch Pollock and Kerstin Hamann, The Political Chronicle. 2000