Gender, student confidence and communicative styles at university: the views of lecturers in history and psychology

Abstract

This study examines the perceptions of 100 university lecturers in history and psychology regarding the impact of gender on their students' achievement. Qualitative data were gathered from semi‐structured interviews and analysed according to discipline and gender of respondent. Key findings were that most respondents (with the exception of most female history lecturers) did not believe gender had an impact on essay writing style but that it did have an impact on other aspects of undergraduate achievement. Twice as many psychology lecturers as history lecturers believed that women had superior language abilities, and over twice as many women as men believed that confidence affected student performance. Gender differences in communicative style and approach to study were also noted by many respondents. Educational practices (teaching and assessment methods, as well as the gender imbalance of many university departments) were highlighted as impacting particularly on the performance of women. The authors suggest that subject and gender perspectives are interacting here in ways that may affect student experience and performance across the university curriculum.

Notes

Corresponding author: Department of Educational Studies, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 5XH, UK. Email: [email protected]

This article is based on a project titled ‘University Lecturers’ Constructions of Undergraduate Writing: a gender analysis', ESRC project number R000239187.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Jocelyn Robson *

Corresponding author: Department of Educational Studies, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey, GU2 5XH, UK. Email: [email protected]