Background
Understanding student motivational factors such as test anxiety and science confidence is important for increasing retention in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), especially for underrepresented students, such as women. We investigated motivational metrics in over 400 introductory biology students in Norway, a country lauded for its gender equality. Specifically, we measured test anxiety and science confidence and combined students’ survey responses with their performance in the class.

Results
We found that female students expressed more test anxiety than did their male counterparts, and the anxiety they experienced negatively predicted their performance in class. By contrast, the anxiety male students experienced did not predict their performance. Conversely, men had higher confidence than women, and confidence interacted with gender, so that the difference between its impact on men’s and women’s performance was marginally significant.

Conclusions
Our findings have implications for STEM instructors, in Norway and beyond: specifically, to counter gender-based performance gaps in STEM courses, minimize the effects of test anxiety.



中文翻译：

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挪威生物学专业学生表现中的性别差距：考试焦虑和科学信心的作用

背景知识
了解学生的动机因素（例如考试焦虑和科学信心）对于增加对科学，技术，工程和数学（STEM）的保留率非常重要，尤其是对于女性等代表性不足的学生而言。我们在挪威的400多名入门生物学学生中研究了动机指标，该国因其性别平等而受到​​称赞。具体来说，我们测量了考试焦虑和科学信心，并将学生的问卷调查回答与他们在课堂上的表现相结合。

结果
我们发现女学生比男学生表现出更多的考试焦虑，而他们所经历的焦虑对他们在课堂上的表现产生负面影响。相比之下，经历过的焦虑症男生并不能预测他们的表现。相反，男人比女人具有更高的信心，并且信心与性别相互作用，因此，性别对男人和女人的表现的影响之间的差异很小。

结论
我们的发现对挪威乃至其他国家的STEM指导员都具有意义：特别是为了弥补STEM课程中基于性别的表现差异，最大程度地降低考试焦虑的影响。