Gender Differences in Problem Solving Strategies in Engineering & Computer Science

Abstract

Throughout education past high school, it has become common for more males to take classes regarding engineering and computer science than for females too. However, this gap does not only begin to form when students are registering for classes; this gap could start to become apparent throughout these students’ high school education. My research focuses on looking for where this gap forms through the lens of problem solving strategies. Through this, this paper discusses if there are any similarities / differences in problem solving strategies between males and females in high school who have shown interest in Engineering and/or Computer Science. I used a survey method discussing different approaches to problems and how often these approaches are used by the participants. Through data analysis, I could recognize a couple major findings. This includes that although both males and females claim that discipline is one of the most important skills in problem solving, when cross checked with the multiple choice questions, while 80% males responded that they had discipline when approaching a difficult academic problem, 87% females said they only felt that they had discipline sometimes. From the free response questions, I found that females value collaboration much more often than males, matching the results from the multiple choice questions. This research provides insight for further research focusing on finding where the prevalent gap becomes apparent in high school students between the amount of males versus females who sign up for engineering and computer science courses.