Attitudes of sixth form female students towards the IT field

It is well-known that girls are not interested in computer science, information systems (IS) and software engineering studies. While the underlying reasons for this phenomenon have been studied in the US, Canada and Australia, only a few studies have been carried out in Europe and none in Scandinavia. To fill this gap in the research, we have analyzed the qualitative responses of 64 female sixth-form students concerning their attitudes towards studying information technology (IT), including Computer Science, Information Systems and Software engineering disciplines, and their views on IT as a profession. The results suggest that the IT field is seen in quite a positive light by the girls. Although many of the respondents do not consider IT to be their profession, they nevertheless have positive attitudes towards the field. According to the respondents, the field is growing and developing; it is respected, and seen as the field of future. Girls who want to become IT professionals see that the profession entails good employment possibilities and benefits and is respected. Some girls have negative views towards the field. These views illustrate the underlying reasons that these girls do not want to study IT. These girls did not perceive the field to be human-related (the work is only computer-related, according to the respondents). The need for skills in mathematics and physics are also listed as key reasons that some girls do not want to become IT students The results of the study suggest that there is a need to clarify among sixth form students the fact that IT jobs can be divided into computer science, information systems and software engineering, all of which require different competences

Why do women like working in building conservation?

There is a perception that Building Conservation as a career is different from the mainstream, and it appears to be more attractive to women - at whatever level - than many other careers in the construction industry. Whilst recruitment and publicity can be targeted, the culture within the construction industry can be a barrier to entry for anyone that is &quot;different.&quot; As Clara Greed (1999) discovered in her research &quot;the traits, beliefs and lifestyle peculiar to the construction tribe&quot; can inhibit the entry to the industry of a number of groups outside the traditional pool. The growth of women in the workforce generally (some 50% according to Turrell et al, 2000) is nowhere near being matched within the construction industry as a whole - the Construction Industry Board placed it at around 8.6% in 2000 across all positions. The various UK industry and professional bodies are actively supporting the need to attract women, with the CITB saying they want a 10% year on year increase in participation, the RICS have their own Raising the Ratio working group and the RIBA have carried out research to find out &quot;why women leave architecture.&quot;Of course the whole of the industry is not unfriendly to women - there are a number of us who have been in the industry for many years and recognise it as a fulfilling and exciting career - a number of women work as surveyors working on historic buildings. The initiatives that are working towards change might have something to learn from Building Conservation - while the shortage of skills is just as severe in work with historc buildings - this area of work holds an attraction to women, not found elsewhere. This paper draws on research carried out to explore some of the reasons for this.The study involved sending a questionnaire to twenty women already working in Building Conservation (the response rate was over 100%) and arranging for questionnaires to be completed by school students (male and female) choosing university courses in one school (60 questionnaires sent out, with 35 returned at a response rate of 58%)The research showed that the majority women working in Building Conservation did not agree that men heavily dominated their sector of the industry, whereas within other areas of the construction industry men make up approximately 90% of the workforce. The research found that women often perceived the Construction Industry to be \u27cut-throat\u27, \u27egotistical\u27 and \u27financially beneficial\u27, whereas they thought Building Conservation required \u27patience\u27, \u27care\u27 and \u27attention to detail\u27.Of the women who took part in the research, 87% were working in Building Conservation because of a personal interest , and the main aspect of that attarction was history and architecture. The study examined attitudes of school students choosing careers and the research shows that when male and female sixth form students were told what Building Conservation was about and what it involved, 43% would consider a career in it and 49% would be interested in talking part in a work experience placement working with historic buildings. The shortage of people working in Building Conservation could be reduced if more people were educated about the profession in a way relevant to their skills and interests. In order to assist this action, the study examined ways to introduce Building Conservation careers to school girls and drew on the initiatives that the university is doing to promote careers in the built environment to schoolgirls.<br /

A meta-analysis of global youth environmental knowledge, attitude and behavior studies

There is a considerable body of literature on research on environmental knowledge, attitude and action. A lot of research has occurred on the primary and secondary school populations and the general population. However, much less emphasis has been placed on studies that concern post-compulsory education students in the range from 16 to 18 years old. The purpose of this review was to give an overview of environmental knowledge, attitude and action research with a particular emphasis on youth. The findings of a majority of studies reported a positive attitude towards the environment and a variety of levels of environmental knowledge. Behavior was not extensively studied. A number of studies found that females had a more positive attitude towards the environment than males. The majority of studies indicate that the main sources of environmental information for youth are television, books, newspapers, schools and friends. The main environmental problems mentioned by students were air pollution, water pollution, the loss of biological diversity and “population increase in the big cities” and hazardous waste. Most studies used quantitative techniques to gather data. The most commonly used instrument was a questionnaire with multiple choice questions and a Likert type scale particularly to measure attitudes. Considering the mainly quantitative nature of these studies, more appropriate sampling strategies, contextualized research instruments and statistical analysis should have been carried out to ensure more robust statistical findings.peer-reviewe

Girls' career aspirations

"This report evaluates the extent to which careers education, guidance and other provision raise aspirations and inform the choices of courses and careers by girls and young women to support their long-term achievement. It identifies weaknesses and examples of good practice in these areas... This small scale survey looked at the choices of courses and careers made by girls and young women at various stages in their education and training." - Cover & page 4

Examination of Student-Active Learning Practices in a College/Middle School Educational Collaboration

A college and middle school student teaching collaboration was developed to interest more college students in teaching K-12 science, to enhance diversity among K-16 teaching faculties, and to inspire the K-12 students to expand their knowledge beyond their classroom curriculum. To assess our results, we used a modified Likert survey instrument and self-reflective analysis in middle school and college students, respectively. Overall, middle school students expressed satisfaction in the science learning in which they participated. In addition, college students reported that they learned specific content when made responsible for teaching material to younger students. Collaborative projects such as this one may positively impact attitudes towards math and science learning among middle school students. Research suggests that middle school girls who have positive experiences in math and science classes select further training and career options in these areas. Similarly, college students reported increased interest in K-12 teaching. Collaborative project based learning could be successfully modified by other educators for use in alternative or mainstream educational settings

'Dressage Is Full of Queens!' Masculinity, Sexuality and Equestrian Sport

Attitudes towards sexuality are changing and levels of cultural homophobia decreasing, yet there remain very few openly gay men within sport. As a proving ground for heteromasculinity, sport has traditionally been a hostile environment for gay men. This article is based on an ethnographic study within a sporting subworld in which gay men do appear to be accepted: equestrian sport. Drawing on inclusive masculinity theory, equestrian sport is shown to offer an unusually tolerant environment for gay men in which heterosexual men of all ages demonstrate low levels of homophobia. Inclusive masculinity theory is a useful framework for exploring the changing nature of masculinities and this study demonstrates that gay men are becoming increasingly visible and accepted within once unreceptive locales, such as sport and rural communities. However, this more tolerant attitude is purchased at the expense of a subordinated feminine Other, perpetuating the dominance of men within competitive sport. © The Author(s) 2012

Identifying student- and class-level correlates of sixth-grade students’ listening comprehension

Despite the importance of listening, little investigation of potential correlates of listening comprehension in the language of schooling is done. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to investigate which student- and class-level characteristics are related to sixth-grade students' listening skills in Flanders. A sample of 974 students in 70 classes completed a listening test in order to gather information on their ability to understand and interpret oral information. Further, different questionnaires were administered to the students, their parents and teachers. The results of the hierarchical regression analysis with multilevel design showed that the differences in listening comprehension skills could be primarily attributed to differences in student-level characteristics. The results indicated that students with higher working memory ability, more vocabulary knowledge and lower extrinsic listening motivation performed significantly better on the listening test. In addition, the educational level of the parents and the language diversity in the class was significantly related to students' listening skills in the language of schooling. This study is an important starting point in unraveling the black box of listening skills in the elementary school context. Suggestions for further research and practice were made