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High Tech Female Touch - Een onderzoek naar studiekeuzefactoren van vrouwelijke vwo-scholieren voor een technische studie.

Hofman, Myrna (2012) High Tech Female Touch - Een onderzoek naar studiekeuzefactoren van vrouwelijke vwo-scholieren voor een technische studie.

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Abstract:In September 2013, The University of Twente will start with ATLAS, a University College with a focus on engineering. ATLAS will be a Bachelor‟s programme aiming at excellent students. One of ATLAS‟ objectives will be acquiring fifty per cent female students during the first year. However, there are still relatively few female students choosing engineering programmes. Therefore, this study aimed to answer the question: Which factors influence the choice for an engineering undergraduate programme of female pre-university (vwo) students? The researcher attempted to answer this question through a questionnaire (N=105) and two focus groups with female students (N=9). The study mainly focused on the influence of testimonials on the attitude with respect to engineering programmes on the one hand, and the intention to choose an engineering programme on women on the other hand. Prior research showed found that narrative information – which also includes testimonials – exercised a positive influence on the decision making process (Briggs & Wilson, 2007; Winterbottom, Bekker, Conner & Mooney, 2008) and attitude (Tyebjee, 2003; Rosenberg-Kima, Baylor, Plant & Doerr, 2007). Furthermore, this research focused on the influence of social support (subjective norm), grades and academic self-efficacy on the attitude and intention. The results showed that there was an interaction effect between the use of testimonials in web texts and gender, whereby women had a more positive attitude with respect to engineering programmes and the intention to choose an engineering programme when they had seen testimonials, whereas an opposite effect was found among men. Also, it showed that attitude with respect to engineering programmes had a very significant main effect on gender. Grades were found to exert no influence over the attitude and intention of female students. Academic self-efficacy and social support were found to have a very significant effect on the attitude of females and both variables showed a marginal significant effect on the intention. The focus groups showed that students were seeking concrete information regarding e.g. course information and career prospects, but also were interested in the atmosphere and city they would end up in. The students noted that it was outdated to state that engineering was just for boys, but nonetheless thought that girls would sooner choose more social studies e.g. medicine. In the end it can be concluded that testimonials could probably be a proper way to positively influence the female‟s attitude with respect to engineering programmes and the intention to choose an engineering programme, and also could perhaps contribute to the strengthening of the academic self-efficacy of female students.
Item Type:Essay (Master)
Faculty:BMS: Behavioural, Management and Social Sciences
Subject:05 communication studies
Programme:Communication Studies MSc (60713)
Link to this item:https://purl.utwente.nl/essays/62197
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