Change the game, not the girl: Understanding the role of gender-science stereotypes in science competitions

Science competitions do not seem as appealing to girls as they do to boys. Even though participation in a science competition is linked to promoting science interest, self-beliefs, and future science careers, girls seem more reluctant to join, and are less successful than boys. As hundreds of thousands of secondary school students take part in a science competition each year, these out-of-school science activities could be a significant source for gender inequity. This is why in depth research to understand success and failure in science competitions, the mechanisms behind them, and the role of gender are of great importance. Although several studies reported about gender differences in science competitions, no systematic analysis of the gender gap is available to date. The first aim of this dissertation was therefore to determine the status quo on gender differences in science competitions and to identify theoretical frameworks and factors explaining participation and achievement. Since prior publications in the context of both science education and science competitions have indicated gender-science stereotypes as the main negative influence on female self-beliefs, the second aim of this dissertation was understanding the role of gender-science stereotypes in mechanisms explaining participation and achievement. By means of a systematic review, publications on science competitions were analyzed to determine the degree of the gender gap and identify factors and theories explaining participation and success. Participation and achievements in science fairs were comparable, but gender differences were found to be especially large in science Olympiads. Especially in the physics and chemistry Olympiad, gender-science stereotypes were suggested to have a negative influence on female self-concept and interest, thereby affecting participation and achievements. Eccles et al.’s (1983) expectancy-value theory of achievement motivation was recommended as most suitable theoretical framework for explaining gender differences. Subsequently, a moderated mediation analysis was performed to examine gendered participation and success in the German chemistry Olympiad on the basis of expectancy-value theory. The results confirmed the negative impact of gender stereotypes on girls. Although female self-concept and interest positively predicted further participation, gender-science stereotypes were found to negatively predict further participation. Interest was found to mediate this relationship between stereotypes and participation. There was no link between self-concept and stereotypes, but self-concept did predict achievement for male and female participants. Interest positively predicted male participants' willingness to continue with the competition. Finally, a latent profile analysis was executed to characterize profiles distinguished by career motivation, interest, and domain identification. Four profiles were identified and participant membership was predicted by gender-science stereotype endorsement, support from parents and teachers, and gender. Profile membership of the least successful profile harboring the most girls, had the strongest link with gender-science stereotypes and the weakest link with support from parents. In summary, the findings reported in this dissertation stressed the need for change in science competition structures to help diminish the negative effects of gender-science stereotypes on girls. Further research could contribute to understanding the relation between different science competitions, science education, and top performers in science education. Furthermore, future research could provide more insight into the role of parents and teachers and the influence of participation in science competitions on students. Changes and interventions improving gender equity of science competitions could be focused on strengthening female self-concept through role models, actively involving teachers, providing authentic and ungendered career information, and involving parents in the fight against gender stereotypes. In the future, this research could be extended to other minority groups and make a decisive contribution to reducing inequity in science education

Editorial: Designing for contemporary relevance and authenticity—Identity as a lens for reimagining science activities at the interface of science education and communication

[no abstract available

Equity-Focused Decision-Making Lacks Guidance!

Learning Analytics are an academic field with promising usage scenarios for many educational domains. At the same time, learning analytics come with threats such as the amplification of historically grown inequalities. A range of general guidelines for more equity-focused learning analytics have been proposed but fail to provide sufficiently clear guidance for practitioners. With this paper, we attempt to address this theory–practice gap through domain-specific (physics education) refinement of the general guidelines We propose a process as a starting point for this domain-specific refinement that can be applied to other domains as well. Our point of departure is a domain-specific analysis of historically grown inequalities in order to identify the most relevant diversity categories and evaluation criteria. Through two focal points for normative decision-making, namely equity and bias, we analyze two edge cases and highlight where domain-specific refinement of general guidance is necessary. Our synthesis reveals a necessity to work towards domain-specific standards and regulations for bias analyses and to develop counter-measures against (intersectional) discrimination. Ultimately, this should lead to a stronger equity-focused practice in future

Positioning responsible learning analytics in the context of STEM identities of under-served students

Addressing 21st century challenges, professionals competent in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) will be indispensable. A stronger individualisation of STEM learning environments is commonly considered a means to help more students develop the envisioned level of competence. However, research suggests that career aspirations are not only dependent on competence but also on STEM identity development. STEM identity development is relevant for all students, but particularly relevant for already under-served students. Focusing solely on the development of competence in the individualisation of STEM learning environments is not only harming the goal of educating enough professionals competent in STEM, but may also create further discrimination against those students already under-served in STEM education. One contemporary approach for individualisation of learning environments is learning analytics. Learning analytics are known to come with the threat of the reproduction of historically grown inequalities. In the research field, responsible learning analytics were introduced to navigate between potentials and threats. In this paper, we propose a theoretical framework that expands responsible learning analytics by the context of STEM identity development with a focus on under-served students. We discuss two major issues and deduce six suppositions aimed at guiding the use of as well as future research on the use of learning analytics in STEM education. Our work can inform political decision making on how to regulate learning analytics in STEM education to help providing a fair chance for the development of STEM identities for all students

Towards a more individualised support of science competition participants – identification and examination of participant profiles based on cognitive and affective characteristics

Science competitions target students interested in science with the aim to support them in developing science competence and career aspirations. Contrary to the common belief that science competition participants are exceptionally competent and strongly motivated to pursue a science career, there is growing evidence that the entirety of participants is rather heterogeneous in terms of their cognitive and affective characteristics. For science competitions to better support all participants in developing competence and career aspirations, a better understanding of the cognitive and affective characteristics of the entirety of participants is required. This study examined the Physics Olympiad as a specific type of science competitions, leading to a nuanced characterisation of N = 155 Physics Olympiad participants. Latent profile analyses revealed four participant profiles distinguished by specific patterns in cognitive abilities, physics interest, and physics self-efficacy. Profiles differed in their performance in the competition and their physics career aspiration. Grade level, gender, previous participation in the competition, and teacher support explained differences in profile membership. Our findings emphasise that Physics Olympiad participants are a heterogeneous group with varying needs and offer implications for more individualised support activities to better support the entirety of participants in developing science competence and career aspirations

Ein Seminarkonzept zur Erstellung digitaler Unterrichtsmaterialien in den Naturwissenschaften

Der Klimawandel, das Artensterben oder die Umweltverschmutzung – es gibt zahlreiche großen Themen, die unsere Gesellschaft vor Herausforderungen stellen. Die Begegnung mit globalen Herausforderungen führt zu komplexen Fragestellungen, für deren Erarbeitung neben umfassenden naturwissenschaftlichen Kenntnissen auch der Einbezug von gesellschaftlich geprägten Werten und Normen erforderlich sind (Sadler, 2004). Diese zumeist kontrovers diskutierten Fragestellungen werden in der Literatur als Socio-Scientific issues (SSI) bezeichnet, die sowohl naturwissenschaftliche Bezüge als auch gesellschaftliche Relevanz aufweisen sollten (Sadler, 2011). Die Bearbeitung von SSI im Schulkontext ermöglicht es, naturwissenschaftliche Inhalte für Lernende greifbar zu machen und einen hohen Realitätsbezug herzustellen. Doch die Integration von SSI in den naturwissenschaftlichen Unterricht kann Lehrkräfte vor Herausforderungen stellen (z. B. Dunlop & Veneu, 2019; Levinson, 2004). Eine zentrale Herausforderung besteht dabei darin, dass es an ausreichender Unterstützung beispielsweise durch die Kollaboration mit Kolleginnen und Kollegen aus anderen Fachbereichen mangelt (Garrecht et al., 2022; Pedersen & Totten, 2001). Gerade diese Zusammenarbeit zwischen unterschiedlichen Fachbereichen kann es aber möglich machen, Lernenden eine umfassende und realistische Bearbeitung von SSI zu ermöglichen. Die Zusammenarbeit zwischen Lehrkräften sollte dabei bereits im Laufe des Lehramtsstudiums angebahnt werden (siehe z. B. Seremet et al., 2021). Eine zweite zentrale Herausforderung für die Implementation von SSI im Unterricht besteht darin, dass es geeigneter Materialien bedarf, die der Komplexität des Themas gerecht werden. Hierzu bietet sich der Einsatz von digitalen Lernprodukten wie Erklärvideos und Podcasts an, die die Komplexität der Inhalte auf einer für die Lernenden ansprechenden Weise darstellen können (z. B. Cébrian-Robles et al., 2021). Im Rahmen des Beitrags wird daher ein Seminarkonzept vorgestellt, das angehende Lehrkräfte der Naturwissenschaften auf eine interdisziplinäre Vernetzung verschiedener Fachbereiche zur Entwicklung von digitalen Lernprodukten im Kontext von SSI vorbereiten soll. Die Struktur und der Ablauf des Kurses, die ersten entstandenen Lernprodukte sowie die gesammelten Ergebnisse aus der Pilotierung im Sommersemester 2022 werden im Beitrag vorgestellt