Gender differences in beginning programming: an empirical study on improving performance parity

Abstract

This report presents an approach to teaching and learning programming that emphasizes logic and design while minimizing the distraction from hardware‐specific issues in an effort to reduce some of the traditional impediments that have hindered female students in beginning computer‐ programming classes. This paper also introduces Visual‐One, a learning tool which utilizes flowcharts to emphasize patterns of logic and design, abstracts out the details of different hardware, and supports a broad range of programming and problem‐solving activities. Visual‐One is able to execute the graphical representation of a logical solution, providing students with the immediate feedback that is typically only available with traditional high‐level programming languages. The paper reports the results of an empirical study that demonstrates an increase in performance for both female and male students, while also reducing the differences in achievement between males and females. This paper concludes with a discussion of implications and future directions of this research effort.