Running head: GENDER AND EXAM PERFORMANCE IN UNDERGRAD STATISTICS

Gender and Examination Performance in Undergraduate Statistics Classes: A Research Proposal

Jack Wardale
Seton Hill University

Abstract

GENDER AND EXAM PERFORMANCE IN UNDERGRAD STATISTICS

When gender and performance come up in conversation at college, men and women are
quick to defend their side, no quicker perhaps than with regards to their academic performance.
As with the arguing that usually ensues, it has been well documented in the literature the
discrepancies between college men and women when it comes to academic achievement,
depending on the indicator used. If the chosen indicator is examinations, men win; if it is the
overall grade in the class, women win, but if GPA is chosen, then there is no discriminating the
two. It has also been well documented that in mathematics based subjects, men are likely to
perform better. It was therefore hypothesized that if a student is a male, then they are more likely
to achieve a higher examination grade in a statistics class than females at the undergraduate level
of education. In order to accept or reject this hypothesis, a convenience sample of undergraduate
students in three statistics classes at Seton Hill University will be used. Raw scores obtained
from three of the examinations taken by the students, as part of the syllabus, will be used in order
to measure examination performance. The raw scores obtained will be converted into three
separate means for each gender to reflect the performance of each gender on each test.
Consequent analysis will attempt to find statistical significance in order to accept or reject the
hypothesis.

Gender and Examination Performance in Undergraduate Statistics Classes: A Research Proposal

GENDER AND EXAM PERFORMANCE IN UNDERGRAD STATISTICS

Whether it is something novel or rooted in tradition, the battle of the sexes has been a
feud that has seemed to exist for as long as mankind itself, however arguably no topic is more
contested between the two genders as to who is more intelligent. Although intelligence could be
broken down into many different types, eight if you are Howard Gardener, academic intelligence,
and consequent academic success is probably one of the most contested arguments among
students. The discrepancies argued by men and women are much reflected in the literature, with
different articles coming to different conclusions, depending on the indicator used to measure
academic success. If the chosen indicator is GPA, then neither men nor women seem to be more
academically successful than the other (Best & Stanford, 1983). If examinations only were
tested, male candidates would achieve a higher score (Schram, 1996). On the other hand, if the
whole class was taken into account, women performed better (Schram, 1996). These conclusions
however must still be taken lightly, since most of the literature supporting these claims was
conducted using mathematics-based class samples (Kiefer & Sekaquaptewa, 2007).
Although more research needs to be conducted in other subject areas to support these
findings, this particular study is going to look again at a mathematics-based statistics class in
order to agree or dispute with the existing research, especially considering a lot of it may be
outdated. This study will add to prior research since most of these prior studies only used one
examination when using examinations as the chosen indicator for academic success and making
the case that men perform better. This study therefore aims to test students of both genders on
more than one examination, and take a mean of each examination to see if the greater success of
men in examinations is validated in the consequent trend.
Literature review
When I started my research project, I had a lot of research questions pertaining to

GENDER AND EXAM PERFORMANCE IN UNDERGRAD STATISTICS

academic success and motivation. Since motivation was such a broad topic, including many
different factors such as locus of control, self-efficacy, intrinsic and extrinsic motivators, I
thought that I would find another independent variable to look at with regards to academic
success. Instead of looking at motivation and academic success, I thought I would look at gender
instead, since it is heavily contested topic at the collegiate level. To show why I believe research
should be done in this area, the newest article I could find addressing this issue was in 2007,
meaning that current research on this particular topic is outdated.
The first article was written by Best and Stanford (1983), and looked at how gender
influenced grade point average and test anxiety on 20 male and 20 female college students
enrolled in a communication class at a Midwestern state university. The independent variable
was gender. The dependent variables were test anxiety and GPA. Data was collected by a selfreport method, the students giving the researchers their GPA and taking a 16-item Sarson Test
Anxiety Scale questionnaire for test anxiety. Test anxiety was measured by counting the amount
of true responses made by the student and a five-point Likert-type scale between one and five
measured their GPA. The hypothesis of the study was that womens academic performance was
negatively influenced by test anxiety. The hypothesis was rejected, since the results found that
despite women having significantly more test anxiety than men, GPA was independent of gender.
Since only one university was used, it could be considered a convenience sample, although it
was never explicitly stated. Since there was no control group and the researchers did not
administer a pre-test, the design did not follow the design of a classic controlled experiment so
would therefore be considered a quasi-experiment.
It was good that freshman and seniors were left out since they may have attributed first
year of college and post graduation plans to test anxiety respectively. It was unfortunate however

GENDER AND EXAM PERFORMANCE IN UNDERGRAD STATISTICS

that the experiment contained such a small sample size, which was what led again to believe that
this was a convenience sample. The problem that was highlighted by Best and Stanford was that
test anxiety may be equally shared by male and female students however the fact that it was a
self-report method may mean that men did not admit to test anxiety as they may believed it
threatened their masculinity.
The next article was written by Kiefer and Sekquaptewn (2007), it looked at gender
stereotyping and gender identity on 63 female students in calculus courses and the consequent
impact on academic success and the likelihood of pursuing math related careers. The
independent variables measured in this study were implicit and explicit gender stereotyping and
gender identification. The dependent variables were therefore the consequent course performance
and the career goals of the female students. The data pertaining to explicit gender stereotyping,
gender identification and career goals were all collected by a self-report method after the first
midterm examination. Implicit gender stereotyping was collected by the Implicit Association
Test, which tests reaction times to measure cognitive association between concepts, again after
the first midterm, while the course performance variable was collected by retrieving the final
grades from the instructors grade sheet at the end of the semester.
The variables were measured in different ways. Implicit gender stereotyping was
measured using the reaction times for certain concepts, while the gender identification, explicit
stereotyping and career goals were all measured using a 1-7 scale asking various questions
pertaining to the particular variable. The questions used for the gender identification were
modified from Luhtanen and Crockers collective self-esteem subscale, but explicit gender
stereotyping and career goals were three-item and one-item questions respectively. The course
performance was measured by the final grades out of 100 attained by the students. The

GENDER AND EXAM PERFORMANCE IN UNDERGRAD STATISTICS

hypothesis was that both gender stereotyping and gender identification jointly influence womens
math related outcomes, namely performance and prospective careers in math.
The hypothesis was accepted, since those who scored high for implicit stereotyping and
gender identification were less likely to pursue math related careers and perform worse in the
class. The women who scored low in gender identification and gender stereotyping were the
females who achieved the higher grades in the class. Since only one university was used, it could
be considered a convenience sample, although it was never explicitly stated either. Since there
was no control group and the researchers did not administer a pre-test, the design did not follow
the design of a classic controlled experiment so would also therefore be considered a quasiexperiment.
It was also of note that in the introduction of this article, it was found that college-aged
males performed better on tests of advanced mathematical ability. Perhaps this research could
therefore support picking a subject at Seton Hill that has mathematical elements in order to test
gender and academic success.
The final article was conducted by Schram (1996), and was part of a meta-analysis
looking at eighteen samples from thirteen articles in order to compare academic success between
undergraduate and graduate males and females in statistics courses from psychology, education
and business departments. Data was collected using an ERIC (Educational Resources
Information Center) search. From this search, 21 initial sources were generated. From these, five
were eliminated because they did not examine statistics achievement but rather attitude towards
statistics or statistics anxiety. Two additional articles were also removed because they contained
no data on gender differences. Two articles covered the same sample so were made into one
article. The independent variable was gender and the dependent variable was academic

GENDER AND EXAM PERFORMANCE IN UNDERGRAD STATISTICS

achievement, which was measured by final exam or single exam (9 samples), a combination of
exams (2 samples) or points resulting in final grade (7 samples). Gender on the other hand was
measured by a demographic questionnaire. This article did not offer a explicit hypothesis,
however it did talk about the pertinent questions regarding gender difference and statistics
achievement, noting the discrepancies found within the literature, some studies saying that men
would perform better, some saying women would, and others that found no significance either
way. The purpose of the article was therefore to round up as many of the smaller, often
convenience samples and try and answer the question if gender was a factor in academic success,
particularly in the field of statistics.
By finding that men did better in examination based practice, but women performed
better overall in the class, these separate components agree with different parts of the literature,
and allow a platform for future research to be based on, such as my own research project. Since
there was no control group, the design did not follow the design of a classic controlled
experiment so would therefore be considered a quasi-experiment. I would also say that the
researchers used a convenience sample, because although there were many different samples
used, it was at the convenience of the researcher in the sense that the research had already been
conducted and they were only using primary research what was relevant and available to them.
With regards to the articles disputing or agreeing with the research question pertaining to
gender and academic achievement, it is slightly split, depending on the indicator used. The first
article found no difference between male and females when it came to measuring GPA, the
chosen indicator of academic success. The second article however looked at just females in math,
and found that they were subject to lower test grades in mathematics if they felt out of place due
to gender stereotypes, which may have supported why in the introduction of this article that it

GENDER AND EXAM PERFORMANCE IN UNDERGRAD STATISTICS

was mentioned that college-males perform better on average than women in math courses. The
final article saw higher academic achievement on both sides, depending on how academic
achievement was indicated. It found that if the indicator was examinations only, men would
perform better, however, if it were the course as a whole, women would perform better. In order
to validate whether men or women have higher academic achievement, an indicator needs to be
agreed in order to measure academic achievement.

Research Design
Upon assessment of the literature review, examination scores have been used as a
successful indicator of academic success when researching gender differences; I will therefore
make this my dependent variable. Moreover, since there is a lot of supporting literature that
math-based classes are associated with higher scores for men, I will choose a math-based class to
conduct my research on, such as the statistics class offered at Seton Hill, in order to support or
refute these previous findings. All three articles used a convenience sample format, and since I
have limited funds and time, I will also adopt this sample method to collect my results. To
expand on the previous ideas of just taking the final examinations score, in my study I will
instead take three examination scores to see if that makes a difference on whether men still
outperform women on examinations or whether more examinations will offer a different
conclusion. It will be a field experiment, as these students will be tested as part of their usual
syllabus, which means they will take the examinations seriously. Since this study involves no
pre-test or a control group, it will be considered a quasi-experiment.
Hypothesis
If a student is a male, then they are more likely to achieve a higher examination grade in

GENDER AND EXAM PERFORMANCE IN UNDERGRAD STATISTICS

statistics than females at the undergraduate level of education.

Variables
The independent variable of the study is gender of the individual and the status of being
an undergraduate student. The dependent variables on the other hand will be the exam grades the
students receive in their statistics class over the course of the semester.

Measurement
Students from three statistics classes will be chosen as part of a convenience sample in
the 2017 spring semester at Seton Hill University. The students will be assessed after exam one,
two, and three during the semester in order to see overall which gender perform better, on
average, on exams.
The independent variable will be measured by an initial demographic questionnaire at the
start of the year, including questions that identify the students gender and enrollment as an
undergraduate student. The dependent variable on the other hand will be measured by recording
the students three statistics raw exam scores from exams taken by the students as part of the
statistic class syllabus.

Sampling Procedure
As mentioned, the sample would be part of a convenience sample since it will be
conducted at Seton Hill University. From this initial questionnaire, I will organize the
participating students from the three classes into male and female according to their answer,
providing they are an undergraduate student, and then randomly select students for the study to

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reflect the male to female ratio nationally for undergraduate students. With more resources and
time, I would want to expand the study to more than one university and more subjects, however
this could be an avenue for future research.

Data collection
The demographics questionnaire used to measure the independent variables will be
separated on whether they are an undergraduate student or not, and therefore whether they are
eligible for the study or not. The next step will involve separating the demographic
questionnaires based on gender ahead of using a random number generator to pick the students to
be used for the purpose of the study.
The data collection will involve receiving the scores from the instructor after the first,
second and third exams. Since there is no control group, this experiment would not follow the
classic controlled design and would therefore be classed as a quasi-experiment. Being able to
take the raw scores from three exams, this will hopefully prevent anomalous data from being
used to accept or reject the hypothesis. I will make a male test mean and a female mean for each
test and then hopefully see a consistent trend in order to analyze the results. Since this
experiment is only looking at exam performance, I would not take into consideration the
students overall grade, basing the analysis solely on the raw scores of the exams.
For my hypothesis to be accepted, there needs to be statistical significance using the
averages that the male students on average performed better in the exams than female students.

Ethical issues
Before I even administered the demographics questionnaire, I would have to submit an

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outline of the informed consent letter, the Seton Hill University IRB form and a debriefing
outline to the IRB for review since it is being conducted on students. Upon approval, I would
share my letter of informed consent with the students, see appendix A, which would include the
procedure, purpose and confidentiality of the study, the fact that this is voluntary participation,
and finally the statement of consent.
To protect the students confidentiality, once the subjects were decided, the professor
would assign the male and female names a number to protect their identity. I would only
therefore receive the number of the student and their score rather than their name. If I did not do
this, it could cause emotional or psychological harm to some people, as I am a fellow
undergraduate student. If the students were not 18 at the time of the study, I would also need to
make sure that the students parents signed on their behalf to be part of the study. The students
confidentiality would therefore be protected and even their exam results raw scores since only
the means from the three tests would be used in the final paper to accept or reject the hypothesis.
I would also offer them the results of the study upon completion and I would also disclose my
contact information in case of any queries pertaining to the experiment.

References:
Best, J. B., & Stanford, C. A. (1983). Gender, Grade Point Average, And Test Anxiety.

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Psychological Reports, 52(3), 892-894. doi:10.2466/pr0.1983.52.3.892

Kiefer, A., & Sekaquaptewa, D. (2007). Implicit stereotypes, gender identification, and
math-related outcomes. PsycEXTRA Dataset, 18(1), 13-18. doi:10.1037/e514412014-380
Schram, C. M. (1996). A Meta-Analysis of Gender Differences in Applied Statistics
Achievement. Journal of Educational and Behavioral Statistics, 21(1), 55. doi:10.2307/1165255

Appendix A:
CONSENT TO PARTICIPATE IN RESEARCH
Project Title: Gender and Examination Performance in Undergraduate Statistics Classes

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Researcher(s): Jack Wardale

Faculty Sponsor: Dr. James Paharik
Introduction:
You are being asked to take part in a research study being conducted by Jack Wardale for a class
project under the supervision of Dr. James Paharik in the Department of sociology at Seton Hill
University.
Please read this form carefully and ask any questions you may have before deciding whether to
participate in the study.
Purpose:
The purpose of this study is to compare examination performance between male and female
undergraduate students in statistics classes at Seton Hill University.
Procedures:
If you agree to be in the study, you will be asked to:

Take an initial demographic survey to identify your suitability for this study.

Allow the researcher full access to your first three examination grades, although your
identity will be confidential.
Risks/Benefits:
There are no foreseeable risks involved in participating in this research beyond those
experienced in everyday life.
There are no direct benefits to you from participation, but it may help improve understanding of
the big picture between gender differences and examination grades in higher education.
Compensation: (optional section)
N/A
Confidentiality:

Your examination grades will be between you and your instructor. In order to prevent
your identity from being disclosed at any time, your instructor will assign you a number to
your grade, and that will be your identity throughout the duration of the study.
Voluntary Participation:
Participation in this study is voluntary. If you do not want to be in this study, you do not have to
participate. Even if you decide to participate, you are free not to answer any question or to
withdraw from participation at any time without penalty.
Contacts and Questions:
If you have questions about this research project or interview, feel free to contact myself at
j.wardale@setonhill.edu
If you have questions about your rights as a research participant, you may contact the Seton Hill
University Institutional Review Board at irb@setonhill.edu .
Statement of Consent:

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Your signature below indicates that you have read and understood the information provided
above, have had an opportunity to ask questions, and agree to participate in this research study.
You will be given a copy of this form to keep for your records.
____________________________________________ __________________
Participants Signature
Date
____________________________________________ __________________
Guardian Signature (if under 18)
Date
____________________________________________ ___________________
Researchers Signature

Date