TY - JOUR
T1 - To those who have, more will be given? Effects of an instructional time reform on gender disparities in STEM subjects, stress, and health
AU - Hübner, Nicolas
AU - Wagner, Wolfgang
AU - Meyer, Jennifer
AU - Watt, Helen M.G.
N1 - Funding Information:
We acknowledge support by the Open Access Publishing Fund of University of T?bingen.
Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2022 Hübner, Wagner, Meyer and Watt.
PY - 2022/2/21
Y1 - 2022/2/21
N2 - Educational reformers all around the globe are continuously searching for ways to make schools more effective and efficient. In Germany, this movement has led to reforms that reduced overall school time of high track secondary schools from 9 to 8 years, which was compensated for by increasing average instruction time per week in lower secondary school (Grades 5–10). Based on prior research, we assumed that this reform might increase gender disparities in STEM-related outcomes, stress, and health because it required students to learn similar content in less amount of time. Therefore, we investigated how the school time reform affected gender disparities at the end of upper secondary school between 2011 and 2013. Specifically, we considered representative data of the last two cohorts who completed lower secondary school before the reform (N = 2,405) and the first two cohorts after the reform (N = 2,413) from the National Educational Panel Study. Potential differences in gender disparities were investigated for upper secondary school outcomes of subject-specific standardized test performance, self-concept, and interest in mathematics, biology and physics, as well as outcomes of school-related stress and health. Overall, we found substantial disparities between girls and boys, which seemed to change little after the reform. Exceptions were the statistically significant gender × reform interactions for one stress dimension (Overload) and two health dimensions (Overburdening and Achievement-related fear) which increased for both boys and girls, but more strongly for girls.
AB - Educational reformers all around the globe are continuously searching for ways to make schools more effective and efficient. In Germany, this movement has led to reforms that reduced overall school time of high track secondary schools from 9 to 8 years, which was compensated for by increasing average instruction time per week in lower secondary school (Grades 5–10). Based on prior research, we assumed that this reform might increase gender disparities in STEM-related outcomes, stress, and health because it required students to learn similar content in less amount of time. Therefore, we investigated how the school time reform affected gender disparities at the end of upper secondary school between 2011 and 2013. Specifically, we considered representative data of the last two cohorts who completed lower secondary school before the reform (N = 2,405) and the first two cohorts after the reform (N = 2,413) from the National Educational Panel Study. Potential differences in gender disparities were investigated for upper secondary school outcomes of subject-specific standardized test performance, self-concept, and interest in mathematics, biology and physics, as well as outcomes of school-related stress and health. Overall, we found substantial disparities between girls and boys, which seemed to change little after the reform. Exceptions were the statistically significant gender × reform interactions for one stress dimension (Overload) and two health dimensions (Overburdening and Achievement-related fear) which increased for both boys and girls, but more strongly for girls.
KW - achievement
KW - gender disparities
KW - health
KW - instructional time
KW - motivation
KW - school reform
KW - STEM
KW - stress
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85125878454&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.816358
DO - 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.816358
M3 - Article
C2 - 35265013
AN - SCOPUS:85125878454
SN - 1664-1078
VL - 13
JO - Frontiers in Psychology
JF - Frontiers in Psychology
M1 - 816358
ER -