Focus on students who used MLS

When considering the spread of students who used MLS, one of our initial points of interest was to consider their prior mathematical achievements, as we would expect that those with lower grades would be in greater need of support. In Section 3.1.4 we saw that gender and LC mathematics levels were independent for the full cohort of students in this study. However, when we focused only on those who used MLS there is a significant association between the two (p=0.02). The most pronounced difference occurs between males and females who have HL LC mathematics, with 17.25% of male respondents using MLS, compared with 47.09% of females. If we look more specifically at the grades obtained by students within each level, there is a stronger association (chi square=39.652, 7df, p<0.001). The spread of grades is shown in Figure 10, where it can be seen that females for all levels and grades, except OB, avail of MLS at a higher percentage rate than males.

When we considered (Question 1) the disciplinary background of the students, we saw in Section 3.1.4, that there was a significant association between gender and discipline area. Further analysis for MLS users revealed that there was also a significant association between gender and discipline studied (chi square=52.022, 4df, p<0.001). A breakdown is given in Figure 11.

Figure 11: Percentage of students from each discipline who used MLS, given as a proportion of students of each gender in the discipline within our study

Females from Science, Arts and Education in our study were more likely to attend MLS than males, while the proportions were almost equal in Engineering and Business. An answer to our first research question is provided by the fact that there are significantly different levels of engagement between male and female students with MLS for three of the disciplines. Both females in similar disciplines to males and females with equal or higher levels of prior mathematical attainment to males demonstrate higher levels of availing of MLS. This also led us to investigate confidence and self perception issues for females in relation to mathematics, in line with the research previously mentioned (Nurmi et al., 2003; Jones and Smart, 1995; Fennema, 1980). For this reason, we next consider the reasons given by students of both genders for using MLS and examine whether any differences could be perceived in their responses.

4.3.2.1 Reasons for using MLS

In Section 3.2.1 we discussed the reasons given by MLS users on why they first decided to avail of MLS. The responses were coded into six main categories: Assignments/Examinations; Extra help; Improve understanding; Mathematics difficult; Background/Ability; Struggling. 543 of the respondents also indicated their gender, 300 were female and 243 male, and a breakdown of the categories by gender is given in Figure 12. There was a significant association between gender and the categories (chi square=21.64, 6df, p<0.001).

Figure 12: Proportion of reasons given for first deciding to use MLS broken down by gender

The most striking difference can be seen where almost 45% of female respondents identified assignments or upcoming examinations as being the main reason they decided to use MLS; this compares with only 26% of males citing this reason. These students typically made comments such as “I couldn’t do the maths

assignment” or “I had a class test coming up”.

Male students were more likely than females to mention a generic need for extra help, with 17% of males specifying this as opposed to 11% of females. Some of these students were non specific about the help they required “Because I needed some help” while others gave more particular information such as “To

get help at the start of the year” or “Because I needed help with maths and it was there and free”.

The difference between the genders was less striking in the remaining categories: 14% of males and 11% of females (a total of 12% of respondents) mentioned improving their understanding of mathematics as their primary motivation, commenting “I felt I needed better understanding of certain topics” and “because I wanted to further my understanding of the maths done in lectures”. In terms of the difficulty of mathematics, male and female students responded in similar proportions, with 10% and 9% of respondents respectively alluding to this in comments such as “I was finding maths very difficult” and “College maths became very difficult”. However, contrary to what might have been expected from the prior research, females were even less likely than males to mention their prior background in mathematics or their perceived ability as a primary incentive for MLS. Only 7% of females, and 10% of males (8% of respondents overall), focused upon prior background “Background in maths was weak” or perceived ability “Because I’m not great at maths”. Some of these students were Mature Students, returning to education after a significant break “Found it hard to get back into it after 17 years of not

using my brain” while others had recently completed their secondary school education, but displayed low

confidence in their mathematical ability “I was not confident on solving maths problems”. Finally, 8% of males and 5% of females (7% of respondents overall) felt that they were struggling so much with mathematics that this motivated them to use MLS. Most of these students gave little detail in their responses beyond observing that: “I was finding that I was struggling with the material”.

0.00 10.00 20.00 30.00 40.00 50.00 Struggling Background/Ability Mathematics Difficult Improve Understanding Extra Help Assignments/Exams % Response Categories Male Female

4.3.2.2 Potential impact of MLS

In addition to the open ended question on why students used MLS in the first place, there were a number of questions in the survey about the potential impact of MLS, from the students’ point of view. Question 15 asked students to rate how they perceived MLS had helped them to cope with the mathematical demands of their course and is discussed in Section 3.2.5. Figure 13 gives the relative percentages of male (245) and female (284) respondents for this question.

Figure 13: Student perceptions by gender on how they felt the MSC has helped them cope with the mathematical demands of their course

There was a significant link between gender in terms of the responses given (chi square=12.014, 4df, p=0.017). Females were more likely than males to find that MLS had been a “huge help” or “no help at all” in coping with the mathematical demands of their course, while males were more likely to choose one of the three middle options (“not much help”, “average” or “quite helpful”).

Responses to 3 other questions in the survey (Questions 11, 13, 14) about the potential impact of MLS were independent of gender, showing no significant differences between male and female respondents. These included whether students had considered dropping out of their degree programme due to mathematical difficulties (chi square=0.954, 1df, p=0.329); whether MLS had improved their confidence in mathematics (chi square=2.165, 4df, p=0.705); and whether it had impacted upon their performance in examinations (chi square=5.03, 5df, p=0.412).

Therefore when considering the 4 survey questions in this area, it seems that there is no real evidence of a differing impact upon male and female students who use MLS, with students of both genders appearing to benefit equally once they engage with the services provided. This is an important finding in that it can provide some reassurance to those in charge of such services that there does not appear to be an inherent bias towards one gender within MLS; however, the question remains as to why male students are not engaging at similar levels to females, and so we now turn our attention to the responses of students who do not avail of MLS.

0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40

No help at all Not much help Average Quite helpful Has been a huge

help % w it h in g en d er Male Female