Scientia Education Academy Lecture Series
What can we do about girls and women being under-represented in STEM subjects at all levels from high school to postgraduate studies?
The repercussions for society are both social and economic; girls are not accessing career options that may empower them and industry is not accessing a large talent pool. Factors such as socio-cultural effects, teaching and assessment practices have been identified as important. For us, as teachers, it is difficult to address the first of these factors. But we can change the way we teach and assess to make the system more equitable.
In this talk, A/Prof. Wilson shares the findings from analysing and identifying patterns in test data from both secondary and tertiary students in India and Australia. She reveals characteristics of test questions which lead to consistent significant gender gaps and problematic marking procedures, and introduces teaching strategies designed to minimise these gaps.
Learn more about Associate Professor Kate Wilson
Kate is an Associate Professor and Scientia Education Fellow at UNSW Canberra (@ADFA) in the School of Engineering and IT, and the Learning and Teaching Group (LTG).
She teaches Engineering Mechanics, The Graduate Teaching Training Program (Beginning To Teach) and Foundations of University Learning and Teaching. Kate has a PhD in physics from Monash University and a Grad.Dip.Ed. (Secondary Teaching) from the University of Canberra. She has been first year coordinator in physics at the ANU and Director of the Australian Science Olympiads Physics Program. She is a past member of the Sydney University Physics Education Research Group and has held an Innovative Teaching and Educational Technology Fellowship at UNSW (Kensington). Read more.