Bernadette Spieler

Reinforcing gender equality by analysing female teenagers' performances in coding activities: a lesson learned

The number of women in technical fields is far below the average number of males, especially in developed countries and across academic levels. Gender differences in STEM are already present in students aged 12 to 15 years. To address this gender bias at an early stage, a goal of the European project No One Left Behind included integrating the app Pocket Code, into different school lessons, thus making the study of STEM more accessible and attractive to young females. Data was collected over a period of two years through, e.g., submitted programs. The programs have been analysed to gauge the level of achievement of the learning goal defined by the teachers beforehand. With a focus on female teenagers, significant dependencies between whether or not the learning goal had been achieved could be seen based on the different ages of the students, the group constellation, and which teaching approach was used.