GENDER DIFFERENCES AND RESULTS OF THE GEOSCIENCE CONCEPT INVENTORY ON FIELD BASED PROGRAMS

After analyzing the results from the Geoscience Concept Inventory (Libarkin and Anderson, 2004) given over a three year period to students participating in the University of Georgia Interdisciplinary Field Program and GeoJourney at Bowling Green State University (both introductory-level, field-based geology programs), there was an apparent trend in decreasing mean post-test relative to the pretest resulting in decreasing effect sizes and percent gains in the groups with the highest percentage of females. Both courses require students to study introductory geoscience concepts in entirely field-based settings, where visualization skills are critical. Research has found that women tend to be unable to visualize to the extent that men can for cultural reasons and that visualization skills are important to success in science and mathematics. Students that participated in GeoJourney where asked what they found to be the most difficult part of the field course, in order to identify the learning objectives that women in the program struggled with and to determine if a connection exists between the alternate conceptions as measured by the GCI and learning objectives requiring visual skills. Scaled pre and post test scores from the GCI were evaluated from 2003 to 2006. The GCI pre and posttest scores of students participating in GeoJourney 2006, comprised of the highest percentage of female participants at 70% , were recalculated according to each gender. The results of the analysis showed that the males showed a greater trend in having lower post test scores from the pre to the post-test. The women on the other hand, showed a general trend of increasing scores. Comparison of GPA and ACT scores to that of the gender of participants and the results of the posttest on the GCI were also evaluated. These results suggest that field-based learning environments may be particularly helpful in increasing the visualization skills of female students needed to succeed in geosciences.