Berdousis, I. and Kordaki, M. (2014). Achievement in Computer Science Courses: Gender Issues. 8th International Technology, Education and Development Conference (INTED 2014), 10-12 March 2014, Valencia, Spain, pp. 6617-6623 (original) (raw)

The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between gender and achievement in the various subjects of CS. For this reason, the degrees (89 degrees) of all graduate students who enrolled from 2002 to 2008 (a 6-year period of graduation) at the Department of CS and Technology, University of Peloponnese, Greece were studied. To this end, the grades of these students in both; compulsory courses and electives were studied and quantitatively analysed. These courses are grouped into: compulsory courses and electives of the “Theoretical Computer Science” (TCS) division, compulsory courses of “Mathematics & Physics” (M&P) and electives of “General Education” (GE) that cover a wide range of subjects that can be applied to many different careers and students can choose them according to their interests. In terms of methodology this study can be characterized as a case study. The analysis of the data shows, that: (a) male students have slightly better, or even, mean grades in all of the mandatory courses in TSC division and in most of M&P compulsory courses, (b) both male and female students have low mean grades in compulsory “Mathematics” courses (mean grades<7,5), (c) female students have better mean grades in most of the electives in TCS division and GE, (d) in the aforementioned courses, female students have more “excellent” mean grades (grade >=8,5) than male students, and (e) there is a tendency for female students to perform slightly better than male students in those courses which are chosen by more female students.

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