Gender-fair Education in Practical and Project Work in Computer Science

Research Project, 2020 – 2021

Practical and project work is the core of our education in computer science and engineering. However, especially in computer science this form of learning needs to be critically examined regarding gender equality. Given insights from literature and from Chalmers’ yearly student barometer, we have the concern that women might be likely to benefit less from team and project-based learning in computer science as well as that women are likely to have limited access to online learning resources (impacting the benefit of project-based learning). In this project we investigate how the factors and mechanisms known from literature affect women studying in practical and project courses in computer science at Chalmers and GU on the example of the project-heavy software engineering education. Depending on the results of this assessment, we aim to develop interventions that will allow teachers to illustrate how software development teams can benefit from positive effects of gender diversity and help students to become aware of and overcome negative biases, and provide strategies for our female students to benefit from online resources. Our aim is to minimize stress and social isolation, as well as to improve learning prospects for female students.