Page 214 - Invited Paper Session (IPS) - Volume 2

IPS215 Elizabeth S. et al.
Keywords
Mathematics education; Gender; STEM; Careers; Equity

1. Introduction
It has been reported in Australia that there is a shortage of employees in
science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) related careers [1].
There is also a strong under-representation of females in these areas, similar
to the trends found among females compared with males studying
mathematics in later years of secondary school and in STEM tertiary level
studies.
The 2015 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) study
results released by the Australian Council for Educational Research show that
Australian year nine student mathematics literacy results declined by 30 points
since 2003, equivalent to one year of schooling, with 10 points of the decline
occurring in the last three years [2]. It has been claimed that Australian
students’ ability to apply their mathematical and scientific knowledge to real
life situations is falling both absolutely and relatively compared to other
countries [3]. Differences in mathematics literacy performance between
genders have also been observed in Australian national studies, including the
2012 PISA study, with males found to outperform females [4]. Some other
studies, however, have shown school grades of more than 1.6 million students
from around the world, with the majority from North America, in STEM
subjects to be similar between male and female students, with the top 10% of
a STEM classroom containing equal numbers of females and males [5]. The
small gender gap noted in some studies in ability does not seem to explain
the large gender gap in terms of undergraduate students choosing to study
mathematical STEM subjects and working in STEM careers [6].
A proposed contributing factor to this trend, however, is gender differences in
self perceptions with females underrating their abilities on tasks and careers
considered male dominated [7]. It has been shown, for example, that among
students performing at the 90th percentile in mathematics ability in late
secondary school, boys still rate themselves higher than do their female peers
with the claim that girls who are more confident in their mathematics skills are
more likely to pursue mathematics based degrees [7]. It was found in one
study that year 12 females with the highest levels of confidence in their
mathematics ability were more than three times more likely to major in math
intensive STEM areas than females with the lowest levels of confidence [7].
Another contributing factor postulated to contribute to this difference is
that girls are more anxious about mathematics [8]. Students who have high
levels of mathematics anxiety tend to underperform in mathematics tasks
compared to students with lower levels of mathematics anxiety [9]. It has also
been claimed that those who experience mathematics anxiety tend to avoid

201 | I S I W S C 2 0 1 9