Verdugo-Castro Sonia, Sánchez-Gómez Mª Cruz, García-Holgado Alicia
GRIAL Research Group, Department of Didactics, Organization and Research Methods, Research Institute for Educational Sciences, Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain.
GRIAL Research Group, Department of Didactics, Organization and Research Methods, Universidad de Salamanca, Salamanca, Spain.
Educ Inf Technol (Dordr). 2022;27(9):12301-12336. doi: 10.1007/s10639-022-11110-8. Epub 2022 May 28.
Differences in the representation of diversity in higher education, emphasising the gender gap in some areas, are issues addressed from different research domains. Socially, gender roles have been constructed and are also related to professions. In this context, the Social Cognitive Career Theory explores the possible causes of segregation. This segregation is evident in Europe and Spain, as indicated by the European Institute for Gender Equality. This paper describes the design and validation process of an instrument to find out what opinions university students have about higher education studies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM), according to gender. After drafting the questionnaire, it was piloted in a non-experimental quantitative design in Spain. Subsequently, a validity and reliability study was applied to validate the items and construct their dimensionality. The process was implemented using Reliability Analysis and Exploratory Factor Analysis. Also, the dimensionality consists of five scales: Gender Ideology, Perception and Self-perception, Expectations about Science, Attitudes and Interests. Based on the results, it is concluded that the opinion about STEM studies is conditioned by personal elements, such as motivations, educational background and family and social influences, such as people who judged their decision, were their references or studied STEM programs. Finally, it is essential to pay socio-educational attention to the modulating components of decisions about which higher education studies to pursue. Awareness of the factors involved in the decision helps the educational community to establish mechanisms to prevent horizontal gender segregation. The instrument designed, validated and presented in this study provides a glimpse of possible causes for the gender gap in STEM higher education.
高等教育中多样性呈现的差异，其中强调了某些领域的性别差距，是不同研究领域所探讨的问题。在社会层面，性别角色已经形成，并且也与职业相关。在这种背景下，社会认知职业理论探讨了隔离现象的可能成因。正如欧洲性别平等研究所所指出的，这种隔离在欧洲和西班牙都很明显。本文描述了一种工具的设计与验证过程，该工具旨在了解大学生对科学、技术、工程和数学（STEM）高等教育学习的看法，且是按性别分类的。在起草问卷后，于西班牙采用非实验性定量设计进行了预测试。随后，应用了效度和信度研究来验证项目并构建其维度。该过程使用了信度分析和探索性因素分析来实施。此外，维度由五个量表组成：性别意识形态、认知与自我认知、对科学的期望、态度和兴趣。基于这些结果，可以得出结论，对STEM学习的看法受到个人因素的制约，如动机、教育背景以及家庭和社会影响，比如评判他们决定的人、作为他们参考的人或学习STEM课程的人。最后，对选择高等教育学习决策的调节因素给予社会教育关注至关重要。了解决策中涉及的因素有助于教育界建立预防横向性别隔离的机制。本研究设计、验证并展示的工具揭示了STEM高等教育中性别差距的可能成因。
