Date of Award
2004
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Education
Department
Fischler Graduate School of Education and Human Services
Advisor
Thomas Geismar
Committee Member
Charles Schlosser
Committee Member
Maryellen Maher
Keywords
computer science education, computer use confidence, diversity of technology experiences, father support, female students, Florida Council of Independent Schools, future academic intentions, future occupational intentions, gender awareness initiatives, gender issues, gender stereotyping, laptop access, mandatory faculty proficiency, mandatory student proficiency, mother support, school size, sex stereotypes, single-sex programs, student motivation, teacher support, technology policies, technology programs, usefulness, womens education, women’s attitudes toward computer science
Abstract
To see whether positive female student attitudes toward computer science were correlated to technology policies and programs at independent schools, data were collected on both student attitudes and school technology. Over 500 students, both males and females, taking advanced mathematics courses that qualified them academically to pursue advanced computer studies, were given the Computer Related Attitude and Intentions Scale, a 40-question Likert survey based on the Fennema-Sherman instrument and consisting of 9 scales: Teacher Support, Mother Support, Father Support, Confidence, Intrinsic Value, Usefulness, Gender Stereotyping, Future Academic Intentions, and Future Occupational Intentions. Twenty-five private high schools representing 41% of the independent high schools associated with the Florida Council of Independent Schools were also given an online 40-item demographic questionnaire of school policies and programs. Seven subscales were investigated including: Diversity of Technology Experiences, Mandatory Student Proficiency, Mandatory Faculty Proficiency, Gender Awareness Initiatives, Career Guidance, Single-Sex Programs, and Laptop Access.
The results supported the primary hypothesis and showed that female students had less positive attitudes toward computer science than males on all attitudinal measures, except gender stereotyping. A significant positive relationship was found between School Size and Confidence in using the computer and School Size and Teacher Support for both male and female students. Due to the unequal sample size between schools, the remaining 6 hypotheses regarding relationships between positive female attitudes and school policies and programs were not supported by the data.