TEST
Study on Gender in Physics
LISA:
OK, Greg, so I finally managed to read the article you mentioned – the one about the study
on gender in physics.
GREG:
About the study of college students done by Akira Miyake and his team? Yeah. I was
interested that the researchers were actually a mix of psychologists and physicists. That’s
an unusual combination.
LISA:
Yeah. I got a little confused at first about which students the study was based on. They
weren’t actually majoring in physics –
they were majoring in what’s known as the STEM
disciplines. That’s science, technology, engineering and …
Q21
GREG: …
and math. Yes, but they were all doing physics courses as part of their studies.
LISA:
That’s correct. So as I understood it, Miyake and co started from the fact that women are
underrepresented in introductory physics courses at college, and also that on average, the
women who do enrol on these courses perform more poorly than the men. No one really
knows why this is the case.
GREG: Yeah.
