Teaching and Learning Online: Assessing the Effect of Gender Context on Active Learning

1. Teaching and Learning Online:Assessing the Effect of Gender Context on Active Learning Bruce M. Wilson Kerstin Hamann Philip H. Pollock Department of Political Science University of Central Florida

2. Ideas • As a modality, the on-line discussion group… • …allows instructors to design small, interactive forums, even in large course settings. • …holds the promise of “democratizing” student interaction, allowing marginalized groups to become involved in discussions of course content.

3. Questions • Students may be required to post messages to an on-line discussion group. But how much interaction takes place in these settings? • Does the gender composition of the on-line discussion group affect student behavior within the group? If so, how?

4. Gender-based rhetorical styles • The democratization claim • Social decontextualization • Neutralization of social status cues: appearance, social status, accent, etc. • The counter-claim • Male control / female marginalization transferred unchanged from face-to-face to on-line context • Computers bring “familiar baggage to the new frontier” (Herring 1994)

5. Early studies • Raised doubts about democratization claim • Found male style: independent assertions, self-promotion, authoritative orientation • Versus female style: attenuated assertions, apologies, personal orientation • Early work based on uncontrolled field observations of small numbers of subjects

6. Experimental studies: 2 main findings • 1. Male dominant pattern in face-to-face communication greatly reduced in computer-mediated settings. • For example, Bhappu et al. (1997) • 2. Gender composition of group has large effect on use of gender stereotypic styles. • For example, Postmes and Spears (2002)

7. Natural field research • Some evidence that gender-specific styles persist in on-line settings • Wolfe’s (1999) study of gender-balance groups • In terms of the level of participation, women achieve parity with men in on-line discussions • Wolfe (2000), Clawson & Choate (1999), Oxley et al. (2003), Pollock & Wilson (2002), Hamann et al. (2001), Wilson et al. (2002).

8. Current study • Long-term goal: Identify type of on-line communication that best enhances student-student interaction. • Analyzed student postings to 50 discussion groups in 3 different upper-level comparative politics courses. • 1,908 messages containing 14,442 statements made by 453 students (164 males, 289 females).

9. Coding and Design • Coding protocol based on Henri (1992) • Each statement coded for dependency (independent, direct, indirect), evaluative content (evaluative or cognitive), and depth (surface or in-depth). • Analyzed gender differences overall and in groups having different proportions of males and females.

10. Overall gender differences:

11. Findings • Student messages tended to be independent, not ‘interactive’ (direct or indirect responses to others). • Contrary to expectations, women were more likely than men to make independent statements. • Messages were more likely to be cognitive than evaluative. • Students eschewed social comments or ‘meta statements’ about what they learned.

12. The effect of gender composition

13. Findings • Females in all-female groups did not talk to each other very much • They wrote relatively short messages containing mostly independent statements • In groups more heavily populated with males, female behavior was different • Women wrote longer messages containing a larger proportion of dependent statements

14. How much inter-gender communication takes place? % female responses male % statements male

15. Findings • Baseline: Proportion of statements made by males. • This decreases as gender composition becomes more female. • In male-tilted and gender balanced groups, women made above-the-baseline responses to males. • In female-tilted and female-dominant groups, women made below-the-baseline responses to males.

16. Conclusions • All students displayed a preference for independent statements. • Reliance on independent statements specified by gender context. • Gender balanced groups displayed more apparent interaction than did female-skewed groups. • Inter-gender interaction also apparently more robust in gender-balanced contexts.

17. Next steps in the research • Link participation to satisfaction • Student evaluations • Link participation to outcomes • Broaden the analysis to include number of postings read by students (part of the critical thinking and peer-learning process) • Assess effect on course grades

18. Establishing a relationship

19. Disseminating the results • “Teaching and Learning Online: Assessing the Effect of Gender Context on Active Learning” with Philip H. Pollock and Kerstin Hamann, Journal of Political Science Education, 2005. • “Enhancing Active Learning: Designing Critical Thinking Exercises Using the Internet,” with Kerstin Hamann. Politics & Policy. 2003 • “Evaluating the Impact of Internet Teaching: Preliminary Evidence from American National Government Classes,” with Philip H. Pollock. PS: Political Science and Politics. 2002 • “The Best of Both Worlds?: Web-Enhanced or Traditional Instruction in American National Government,” with Hutch Pollock and Kerstin Hamann, The Political Chronicle. 2000