Do evidence-based active-engagement courses reduce the gender gap in introductory physics?

Abstract

Prior research suggests that using evidence-based pedagogies can not only improve learning for all students, it can also reduce the gender gap. We describe the impact of physics education research based pedagogical techniques in flipped and active-engagement non-flipped courses on the gender gap observed with validated conceptual surveys. We compare male and female students' performance in courses which make significant use of evidence-based active engagement (EBAE) strategies with courses that primarily use lecture-based (LB) instruction. The analysis presented here includes data from two-semester sequences of introductory algebra-based and calculus-based introductory physics courses. The surveys used to assess student learning in the first and second semester courses were the Force Concept Inventory and the Conceptual Survey of Electricity and Magnetism, respectively. The performance of male and female students in EBAE courses at a particular level is compared with LB courses in two situations: (I) the same instructor taught two courses, one of which was an EBAE course and the other an LB course, while the homework, recitations and final exams were kept the same, (II) student performance in all of the EBAE courses taught by different instructors was averaged and compared with LB courses of the same type also averaged over different instructors. In all cases, we find that students in courses which make significant use of EBAE strategies, on average, outperformed students in courses of the same type using primarily LB instruction even though there was no statistically significant difference on the pretest before instruction. However, the gender gap persisted even in courses using EBAE methods. We also discuss correlations between the performance of male and female students on the validated conceptual surveys and the final exam, which had a heavy weight on quantitative problem solving.