TY - GEN
T1 - The emerging role of self-perception in student intentions
AU - Dempsey, Jennifer
AU - Snodgrass, Richard T.
AU - Kishi, Isabel
AU - Titcomb, Allison
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2015 ACM.
PY - 2015/2/24
Y1 - 2015/2/24
N2 - Recruitment and retention of women has been a persistent problem in the field of computer science. With a growing number of jobs that require a computer science degree, this problem does not only affect computer science departments with low enrollment, but also impacts industry. There is still no universally accepted explanation for the underrepresentation of women in the computing field. Various solutions have been implemented in an attempt to resolve this problem and yet gender imbalance in fields related to computer science persists. In this paper we study how perceptions held by students inuence their intention to pursue computer science. Through a descriptive study, using a survey given out to first semester students in a computer science class, we measure perceptions, attitudes, self-efficacy, and identity, then we study the correlations between them and students' intentions to further pursue computer science. Our goal is to understand how determinative these constructs are to having students continue in the major. Interestingly, self-perception, in terms of self-efficacy (does the student feel they are able to use computer science techniques to solve a problem) and identity (does the student see themselves as a computer scientist), emerged as the primary driver for differences in intention. Many other aspects turned out not to exhibit statistically significant gender differences. Understanding at a detailed level what factors inuence students to pursue computer science is critical in devising effective interventions that may increase participation in computer science.
AB - Recruitment and retention of women has been a persistent problem in the field of computer science. With a growing number of jobs that require a computer science degree, this problem does not only affect computer science departments with low enrollment, but also impacts industry. There is still no universally accepted explanation for the underrepresentation of women in the computing field. Various solutions have been implemented in an attempt to resolve this problem and yet gender imbalance in fields related to computer science persists. In this paper we study how perceptions held by students inuence their intention to pursue computer science. Through a descriptive study, using a survey given out to first semester students in a computer science class, we measure perceptions, attitudes, self-efficacy, and identity, then we study the correlations between them and students' intentions to further pursue computer science. Our goal is to understand how determinative these constructs are to having students continue in the major. Interestingly, self-perception, in terms of self-efficacy (does the student feel they are able to use computer science techniques to solve a problem) and identity (does the student see themselves as a computer scientist), emerged as the primary driver for differences in intention. Many other aspects turned out not to exhibit statistically significant gender differences. Understanding at a detailed level what factors inuence students to pursue computer science is critical in devising effective interventions that may increase participation in computer science.
KW - Gender differences
KW - Perceptions
KW - Student intentions
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84942425082&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=84942425082&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/2676723.2677305
DO - 10.1145/2676723.2677305
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84942425082
T3 - SIGCSE 2015 - Proceedings of the 46th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education
SP - 108
EP - 113
BT - SIGCSE 2015 - Proceedings of the 46th ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education
A2 - Decker, Adrienne
A2 - Eiselt, Kurt
A2 - Tims, Jodi
A2 - Alphonce, Carl
PB - Association for Computing Machinery
T2 - 46th SIGCSE Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education, SIGCSE 2015
Y2 - 4 March 2015 through 7 March 2015
ER -