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A revolution is under way in the teaching of computer science in schools in England - but it risks leaving girls and pupils from poorer backgrounds and ethnic minorities behind. That's the conclusion of academics who've studied data about the move from ICT as a national curriculum subject to computer science.
Four years ago, amid general disquiet that ICT was teaching children little more than how Microsoft Office worked, the government took the subject off the national curriculum. The idea was that instead schools should move to offering more rigorous courses in computer science - children would learn to code rather than how to do PowerPoint.
But academics at Roehampton University, who compile an annual study of computing education, have some worrying news. First, just 28% of schools entered pupils for the GCSE in computing in 2015. At A-level, only 24% entered pupils for the qualification.
Then there's the evidence that girls just aren't being persuaded to take an interest - 16% of GCSE computing entrants in 2015 were female and the figure for the A-level was just 8.5% . The qualification is relatively new and more schools - and more girls, took it in 2016 - but female participation was still only 20% for the GCSE and 10% for the A-level.
Why is it girls are not attracted to computer science? Is it some deeply embedded gender bias, or something else?
(Score: 4, Interesting) by mojo chan on Friday December 23 2016, @09:31AM
Back in the 80s around 38% of CS graduates in the US were female. Now it's down to well under 20%. Women were always better represented in computing up until the 90s.
It's not a lack of understanding, it's just a cultural thing. At a very simplistic level girls are told that they like dolls, ponies and the colour pink, boys are told they like machines and warfare at a very young age. Children learn gender roles as they grow up, and there is plenty of evidence to suggest that if you change what they are being taught it has a measurable effect.
Consider that 150 years ago pink was a boy's colour. Similar to red, a strong and masculine colour. Blue was for girls, soft and pale and gentle. At some point it flipped around, because it is an entirely cultural construct.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)