Bassey, Patience Charles and Suleman, Hussein (2012) An assessment tool for teaching aids towards the retention of female students in computer science, CS12-09-00, Department of Computer Science, University of Cape Town.
![[img]](http://pubs.cs.uct.ac.za/style/images/fileicons/application_pdf.png) |
PDF
final_technical_paper2.pdf Download (822kB) |
Abstract
Attempts to bridge the gender-equity gap have exposed the predominant under-representation of women in Computer Science which has been ascribed to high attrition rates in the undergraduate stream for female students. Challenges that commonly confront female students in Computer Science have been grouped as follows: inadequately designed curriculum, poor teaching methods, student-teacher relationship and insufficient content of teaching materials. This grouping could be referred to as teaching aids and they form part of the equity strategies that could address under -representation of women in Computer Science. Solving the gender equity problem requires multi-dimensional approach with strategies to include periodically reviewed curriculum, proper classroom management, appropriate teaching methods, teacher training, policy reform, school construction, scholarships award among others. Therefore, to reduce female attrition, comprehensive assessment of the teaching aids becomes imperative. This work aims at developing the assessment tool that will serve as a guide or template for evaluating teaching aids for courses in computer science. A pilot study on the usefulness of the tool has been conducted on three courses randomly selected from first, second and third year in Computer Science Department, UCT. The tool has successfully tracked the progress, identified lapses; suggest proactive corrective actions that will subsequently improve the teaching aids and female students’ retention in the programme. The weight of the usefulness of this tool in retaining female students in Computer Science will be better felt in future.
| Item Type: | Technical report |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | This technical report was facilitated by All Africa House Fellowship, University of Cape Town and hosted by Prof. Hussein Suleman at the Department of Computer Science, UCT |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | teaching aids, female students' retention, assessment tool, attrition rate |
| Subjects: | Social and professional topics > Professional topics > Computing education Social and professional topics > Professional topics > Computing profession |
| Date Deposited: | 05 Dec 2012 |
| Last Modified: | 10 Oct 2019 15:33 |
| URI: | http://pubs.cs.uct.ac.za/id/eprint/844 |
Actions (login required)
 |
View Item |