A New Theoretical and Methodological Look at Gender Differences in Mathematics Tests: Reasoning, Psychosocial Attitudes, and Multilevel Models

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15359/ree.25-1.8

Keywords:

Ambivalent sexism, gender differences, gender stereotypes, Math performance, multilevel models, reasoning abilities

Abstract

Acknowledging that gender, as a construct, is an expression of a power structure, observed differences favoring males were explained for two standardized tests of mathematical context: the Mathematics section of the University of Costa Rica’s Admission Test and the Mathematics test from the Secondary School’s Exit Exam. The sample was 487 students in the last year of high school in ten public schools from the Greater Metropolitan Area of Costa Rica; 269 were women. Multilevel regression models were estimated using the scores in these tests as dependent variables. The reduced model only included sex as a predictor, whereas the complete model included, additionally, an indicator of reasoning abilities and the following scales: hostile sexism, benevolent sexism, attitude toward gender equity in mathematics, and self-efficacy in mathematics. Results point out that gender differences are reduced by controlling for reasoning abilities. Benevolent sexism predicted performance in the tests to a lesser degree. There was also evidence of the moderating effect of the school for the relationship between sex and the score in the admission test, and, especially, for the means in the secondary school exit test. Mathematics self-efficacy also had considerable predictive power in the latter. These findings provide evidence of the need for teachers to actively promote self-efficacy in their students, especially women. The considerable differences in the average scores of the Secondary School’s Exit Exam, even though they are all public and from the Greater Metropolitan Area of Costa Rica, suggests the presence of inequities that should be studied more in-depth, including schools beyond this area, which could reveal even more disadvantages.

Author Biographies

Eiliana Montero-Rojas, Universidad de Costa Rica

Doctora en Medición y Evaluación Educativa de la Universidad Estatal de Florida, Estados Unidos,  y bachiller en Estadística de la Universidad de Costa Rica (UCR). Se desempeña como investigadora en el Instituto de Investigaciones Psicológicas y como docente en la Escuela de Estadística de esa misma casa de estudios.

Tania Elena Moreira-Mora, Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica

Tania Elena Moreira-Mora, profesora asociada del Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica (ITCR), con un Doctorado en Educación de la Universidad Estatal a Distancia (UNED), una Maestría en Evaluación Educativa de la Universidad de Costa Rica y una Licenciatura en Literatura y Lingüística con énfasis en Español de la Universidad Nacional.

José Andrey Zamora-Araya, Universidad Nacional

Maestría Académica en Estadística de la Universidad de Costa Rica, Maestría en Economía del Desarrollo de la Universidad Nacional, Licenciatura en Enseñanza de la Matemática de la Universidad Nacional. Profesor en la Escuela de Estadística de la UCR, profesor e investigador en la Escuela de Matemáticas de la UNA.

Vanessa Smith-Castro, Universidad de Costa Rica

Doctora en Psicología Social en la Universidad Philipps de Marburg, Alemania. Profesora catedrática de la Escuela de Psicología de la Universidad de Costa Rica y directora del Instituto de Investigaciones Psicológicas de esa misma casa de estudios. Sus intereses incluyen las cogniciones sociales, las relaciones intergrupales, y los métodos cuantitativos de investigación.

References

Cadinu, M., Maass, A., Rosabianca, A. y Kiesner, J. (2005). Why do women underperform under stereotype threat? Evidence for the role of negative thinking. Psychological science, 16(7), 572-578. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0956-7976.2005.01577.x

Cárdenas, M., Lay, S.-L., González, C., Calderón, C. y Alegría, I. (2010). Inventario de sexismo ambivalente: Adaptación, validación y relación con variables. Psicosociales. Revista Salud & Sociedad, 1(2), 125-135. https://doi.org/10.22199/S07187475.2010.0002.00006

Cassady, J. C. y Johnson, R. E. (2002). Cognitive test anxiety and academic performance. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 27(2), 270-295. https://doi.org/10.1006/ceps.2001.1094

Cattell, R. B. (1963). Theory of fluid and crystallized intelligence: A critical experiment. Journal of Educational Psychology, 54(1), 1-22. https://doi.org/10.1037/h0046743

Doepken, D., Lawsky, E. y Padwa, L. (2003). Modified fennema-sherman attitude scales. teacherleaders.files.wordpress.com/2013/07/modified-fennema-math-attitude.doc

Ellis J., Fosdick B. K. y Rasmussen C. (2016). Women 1.5 times more likely to leave STEM pipeline after calculus compared to men: Lack of mathematical confidence a potential culprit. PLoS ONE, 11(7), e0157447. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0157447

Esquivel-Alfaro, J. M., Montero-Rojas, E., Sosa-Jara, D., Hernández-Rodríguez, A. C., Corella-Espinoza, M. I. y Fallas-Monge, J. (2006). Evaluación externa de las pruebas nacionales de bachillerato de la educación media [Informe final]. Universidad de Costa Rica.

Gamboa-Araya, R. (2012). ¿Equidad de género en la enseñanza de las matemáticas? Revista Electrónica Educare, 16(1), 63-78. https://doi.org/10.15359/ree.16-1.6

Glick. P. y Fiske. S. T. (1996). The ambivalent sexism inventory: Differentiating hostile and benevolent sexism. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70(3), 491-512. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.70.3.491

Glick, P. y Fiske, S. T. (2011). Ambivalent sexism revisited. Psychology of Women Quarterly, 35(3), 530 535. https://doi.org/10.1177/0361684311414832

Goldstein, H. (1987). Multilevel models in educational and social research. Griffin.

Heckman, J. J. (1979). Sample selection bias as a specification error. Econometrica, 47(1), 153-161. https://doi.org/10.2307/1912352

Hedges, L. V. y Nowell, A. (1995). Sex differences in mental test scores, variability, and numbers of high-scoring individuals. Science, 269(5220), 41-45. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.7604277

Hernández Uralde, J., Márquez Jiménez, A. y Palomar Lever, J. (2006). Factores asociados con el desempeño académico en el EXANI-I. Zona Metropolitana de la Ciudad de México 1996-2000. Revista Mexicana de Investigación Educativa, 11(29), 547-581. http://www.scielo.org.mx/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1405-66662006000200547&lng=es&nrm=iso

Hox, J. J. (2010). Multilevel analysis: Techniques and applications (2.a ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203852279

Hyde, J. S. y Mertz, J. E. (2009). Gender, culture, and mathematics performance. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 106(22), 8801-8807. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0901265106

Jacobs, J. E. y Eccles, J. S. (1992). The impact of mothers’ gender-role stereotypic beliefs on mothers’ and children’s ability perceptions. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 63(6), 932-944. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.63.6.932

Mena Castillo, P. J. (2015). Desarrollo en la prueba nacional de bachillerato de matemática: Una necesidad. Cuadernos de Investigación y Formación en Educación Matemática, 10(13), 53-66. https://revistas.ucr.ac.cr/index.php/cifem/article/view/19144/19200

Montero-Rojas, E., Castelain, T., Moreira, T. E., Alfaro-Rojas, L., Cerdas-Núñez, D., García-Segura, A., Roldán-Villalobos, M. G. (2013). Evidencias iniciales de validez de criterio de los resultados de una prueba de razonamiento con figuras para la selección de estudiantes indígenas para la Universidad de Costa Rica y el Instituto Tecnológico de Costa Rica. Revista Educación, 37(2), 103-117. https://doi.org/10.15517/revedu.v37i2.12928

Montero, E. y Villalobos, J. (2004). Estudio comparativo del promedio de admisión a la Universidad de Costa Rica y sus componentes: Aplicación del año 2001. Programa Permanente de la Prueba de Aptitud Académica, Instituto de Investigaciones Psicológicas, Universidad de Costa Rica.

Nguyen, H.-H. D. y Ryan, A. M. (2008). Does stereotype threat affect test performance of minorities and women? A meta-analysis of experimental evidence. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93(6), 1314-1334. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0012702

Nosek, B. A., Smyth, F. L., Sriram, N., Lindner, N. M., Devos, T., Ayala, A., Bar-Anan, Y., Bergh, R., Cai, H., Gonslkorale, K., Kesebir, S., Maliszewski, N., Neto, F., Olli, E., Park, J., Schnabel, K., Shiomura, K., Tudor Tulbure, B., Wiers, R. W., Samogyi,M., … Greenwald, A. G. (2009). National differences in gender–science stereotypes predict national sex differences in science and math achievement. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(26), 10593-10597. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0809921106

OECD. (2010). PISA 2009 results: What makes a school successful? Resources, Policies and Practices (Vol. 4). Autor. http://dx.doi.org/10.1787/9789264091559-en

OECD. (2016). PISA 2015 results excellence and equity in education (Vol. 1). Autor. https://doi.org/10.1787/9789264266490-en

Raudenbush, S. W. y Bryk, A. S. (2002). Hierarchical linear models: Applications and data analysis method (Advanced Quantitative Techniques in the Social Sciences series 1, 2.a ed.). Sage Publications.

Sackett, P. R., Hardison, C. M. y Cullen, M. J. (2004). On interpreting stereotype threat as accounting for African American-White differences on cognitive tests. American Psychologist, 59(1), 7-13. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.59.1.7

Smith-Castro, V. (comp.) (2014). Compendio de instrumentos de medición IIP-2014. Serie: Cuadernos Metodológicos. Instituto del IIP, Universidad de Costa Rica.

Steele, C. M. y Aronson, J. (1995). Stereotype threat and the intellectual test performance of African Americans. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 69(5), 797- 811. https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.69.5.797

Villarreal Galera, M. P. (2011). Construcción de un modelo psicométrico cognitivo para una prueba de inteligencia fluida [Trabajo final de investigación]. Universidad de Costa Rica.

Voyer, D. y Voyer, S. D. (2014). Gender differences in scholastic achievement: A meta-analysis. Psychological bulletin, 140(4), 1174-1204. https://doi.org/10.1037/a0036620

Zell, E., Strickhouser, J. E., Lane, T. N. y Teeter, S. R. (2016). Mars, Venus, or Earth? Sexism and the exaggeration of psychological gender differences. Sex Roles, 75, 287-300. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11199-016-0622-1

Published

2021-01-01

How to Cite

A New Theoretical and Methodological Look at Gender Differences in Mathematics Tests: Reasoning, Psychosocial Attitudes, and Multilevel Models (E. Montero-Rojas, T. E. Moreira-Mora, J. A. Zamora-Araya, & V. Smith-Castro , Trans.). (2021). Revista Electrónica Educare, 25(1), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.15359/ree.25-1.8

Issue

Section

Journal Articles (Peer Reviewed Section)

How to Cite

A New Theoretical and Methodological Look at Gender Differences in Mathematics Tests: Reasoning, Psychosocial Attitudes, and Multilevel Models (E. Montero-Rojas, T. E. Moreira-Mora, J. A. Zamora-Araya, & V. Smith-Castro , Trans.). (2021). Revista Electrónica Educare, 25(1), 1-21. https://doi.org/10.15359/ree.25-1.8

Comentarios (ver términos de uso)