Impact of Instructor Gender on Student Performance and Attitudes in a Chemistry Course for Freshman Engineers

Emma Kaeli; Tyler Byrne Cole; Bradley Joseph Priem; Rachel Lauren Shapiro; Paul DiMilla; Rachelle Reisberg

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Conference: 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Columbus, Ohio
Publication Date: June 24, 2017
Start Date: June 24, 2017
End Date: June 28, 2017
Conference Session: Women in Engineering Division Technical Session 3
Tagged Division: Women in Engineering
Tagged Topic: Diversity
Page Count: 11
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--28466
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/28466
Download Count: 629

Paper Authors

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Emma Kaeli Northeastern University

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Emma Kaeli is a fourth-year undergraduate student at Northeastern University, majoring in chemical engineering and pursuing minors in mathematics and materials science and engineering. Outside of class, Kaeli works as a chemistry tutor and participates in undergraduate research in a materials science laboratory on campus. She also has held co-op positions with Rogers Corporation's Innovation Center and the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.

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Tyler Byrne Cole Northeastern University

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Tyler Cole is a fourth year undergraduate student completing a B.S. in Chemical Engineering and a M.S. in engineering management at Northeastern University. He has been involved in the Connections Chemistry Review program and first year engineering tutoring for two years. Tyler has held a co-op positions at Genzyme and Amgen.

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Bradley Joseph Priem Northeastern University

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Bradley Priem is a second year undergraduate student at Northeastern University, majoring in chemical engineering and minoring in biochemical engineering. He has been involved in the Connections Chemistry Review program for one year. He has also held an undergraduate research position in a biomaterials laboratory on campus.

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Rachel Lauren Shapiro Northeastern University

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Rachel Shapiro is a fifth year undergraduate student studying chemical engineering at Northeastern University. She has been involved in the Connections Chemistry Review program for the past 3 years. Rachel works in a chemical engineering lab on campus, has held a co-op position at Davol, Inc., a co-op position at Entrega Biosciences, and ia currently completing her third co-op with McKinsey & Company.

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Paul DiMilla Northeastern University

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Paul A. DiMilla is an Associate Teaching Professor in Chemistry & Chemical Biology and Chemical Engineering at Northeastern University. During his academic career at Carnegie Mellon University, Boston University, and Olin College he has been the recipient of the first Whitaker Young Investigator Award from the BMES, a Searle Scholar Award, and an Early Career Development Award from the NSF as well as a three-time recipient of the Omega Chi Epsilon Outstanding Faculty Award from the Northeastern Student Affiliate of AIChE. He also has led industrial R&D teams at Organogenesis Inc. and Polymerix Corporation developing tissue-engineered medical products and drug- generating biodegradable polymers, respectively, and has co-founded Automated Cell, Inc. In addition to being an inventor on 11 issued US patents, he has published the textbook General Chemistry for Engineers with Cognella Academic Publishing.

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Rachelle Reisberg Northeastern University

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Rachelle Reisberg is Assistant Dean for Engineering Enrollment and Retention as well as Director of Women in Engineering at Northeastern University. Prior to joining Northeastern University, Rachelle held a wide range of management positions in IBM, Hanover Insurance, and was the President of a high tech start-up company.

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Abstract

This study analyzes correlations between the gender of engineering students and their instructors and student perceptions, interactions, and successes in a general chemistry course for freshman engineers. Previous studies have shown that female engineering students are, in general, more comfortable seeking help than their male counterparts. Female students are also more likely to seek supplemental instruction (SI), including attending lecturer and TA office hours and lecturer-led reviews. As retention of female students is a critical initiative for undergraduate engineering programs, understanding the motivation of students to utilize, or not utilize, SI resources is important to improving student and program success.

The data for this study are based on students enrolled in a required fall-semester general chemistry course for freshman engineers at Northeastern University. Thirteen instructors, consisting of three male and one female lecturers and seven male and two female TAs, served as providers of SI. More than 400 students (~25% female) were surveyed after completing this course in Fall 2015 about their attitudes toward their lecturers and TAs, including approachability, competence, intimidation, and trust. This study seeks to understand the basis for these findings and the impact that lecturer and TA gender has on use of SI and subsequent student success.

This study shows that the instructor gender had a statistically significant impact on the reported comfort of a student with and perceived competence of an instructor. Female students reported less comfort with male instructors, while male students reported that they perceived female instructors to have a lower level of competency. Despite these findings, less than 1% of students reported that the gender of an instructor affected their use of SI. It was found, however, that students, especially female students, more often reported that they found their male instructors to be more intimidating than female instructors. It was also found that students who had reported having an intimidating male instructor were less likely to seek SI. As shown in previous studies, use of SI has had a positive impact on student performance in a course. Therefore it is possible that the gender of a student and their instructor could impact overall student performance.

Citation
Format

Kaeli, E., & Cole, T. B., & Priem, B. J., & Shapiro, R. L., & DiMilla, P., & Reisberg, R. (2017, June), Impact of Instructor Gender on Student Performance and Attitudes in a Chemistry Course for Freshman Engineers Paper presented at 2017 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Columbus, Ohio. 10.18260/1-2--28466

TY - CPAPER
AB - This study analyzes correlations between the gender of engineering students and their instructors and student perceptions, interactions, and successes in a general chemistry course for freshman engineers. Previous studies have shown that female engineering students are, in general, more comfortable seeking help than their male counterparts. Female students are also more likely to seek supplemental instruction (SI), including attending lecturer and TA office hours and lecturer-led reviews. As retention of female students is a critical initiative for undergraduate engineering programs, understanding the motivation of students to utilize, or not utilize, SI resources is important to improving student and program success.

The data for this study are based on students enrolled in a required fall-semester general chemistry course for freshman engineers at Northeastern University. Thirteen instructors, consisting of three male and one female lecturers and seven male and two female TAs, served as providers of SI. More than 400 students (~25% female) were surveyed after completing this course in Fall 2015 about their attitudes toward their lecturers and TAs, including approachability, competence, intimidation, and trust. This study seeks to understand the basis for these findings and the impact that lecturer and TA gender has on use of SI and subsequent student success.

This study shows that the instructor gender had a statistically significant impact on the reported comfort of a student with and perceived competence of an instructor. Female students reported less comfort with male instructors, while male students reported that they perceived female instructors to have a lower level of competency. Despite these findings, less than 1% of students reported that the gender of an instructor affected their use of SI. It was found, however, that students, especially female students, more often reported that they found their male instructors to be more intimidating than female instructors. It was also found that students who had reported having an intimidating male instructor were less likely to seek SI. As shown in previous studies, use of SI has had a positive impact on student performance in a course. Therefore it is possible that the gender of a student and their instructor could impact overall student performance.

AU - Emma Kaeli
AU - Tyler Byrne Cole
AU - Bradley Joseph Priem
AU - Rachel Lauren Shapiro
AU - Paul DiMilla
AU - Rachelle Reisberg
CY - Columbus, Ohio
DA - 2017/06/24
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Impact of Instructor Gender on Student Performance and Attitudes in a Chemistry Course for Freshman Engineers
UR - https://peer.asee.org/28466
DO - 10.18260/1-2--28466
ER -