Factors Mediating the Effect of Gender on Ninth-Grade Turkish Students' Misconceptions Concerning Electric Circuits.

By Selen Sencar, A. Eryılmaz. 2004

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This study was designed to identify and analyze possible factors that mediate the effect of gender on ninth-grade Turkish students' misconceptions concerning electric circuits. A Simple Electric Circuit Concept Test (SECCT), including items with both practical and theoretical contexts, and an Interest- Experience Questionnaire about Electricity (IEQ) were administered to 1,678 ninth-grade students (764 male, 914 female) after the completion of a unit on electricity to assess students' misconceptions and interests-experiences about electricity. Results of the concept test indicated that general performances of the students were relatively low and that many students had misconceptions in interpreting electric circuits. When the data were analyzed using MANOVA and follow-up ANOVAs, a gender difference for males was observed on the dependent variable of total scores on the 10 practical items; however, there was no signi- ficant gender difference on the dependent variable of total scores on the six theoretical items. Moreover, when the same data were analyzed using MANCOVA and follow-up ANCOVAs, controlling students' age and interest-experience related to electricity, the observed gender difference was mediated on the total scores on the practical items. 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Res Sci Teach 41: 603-616, 2004 There is a consensus in the literature noting that differences between sexes initiate at birth and proceed through childhood (Bem, 1981; Eccles, Adler, & Meece, 1984; Linn & Hyde, 1989). Historically, two explanations have been suggested to account for the girls' lower performance in achievement: the biological explanation and the sociological explanation. First, gender imbalance was thought to be the result of different brain structures; however, explanations based on gender- specific socialization had displaced the brain difference model. While much of the earlier debate in the 1970s focused on the roles played by biological and sociological factors (Maccoby & Jacklin, 1973; Sherman, 1978), most of the recent research has been directed towards identifying sociocultural factors that contribute to the observed gender differences. Bem (1981), Eccles et al. (1984), and Linn and Hyde (1989) all proposed that early differences between boys and girls in science become magnified by cultural influences from society and school. Related literature has shown that males outperform females (Erickson & Erickson, 1984; Greenfield, 1997; Johnson,

Subfields: Education, General Agricultural and Biological Sciences, Management, Monitoring, Policy and Law

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