Participants were placed into one of four participant groups: Male Math, Male Non-Math, Female Math, and Female Non-Math according to the indications at the top of the survey. There were nine, eleven, eight and seventeen participants respectively. It is important to note that these groups do not distinguish a personal like or dislike for math as a subject, only a university major, minor or teachable in math.
Several trends were found. First, traditional assessments such as pencil and paper tests were among the top two choices in each participant group. Only the Male and Female Math groups held averages of 4 out of 5 in any category. These averages corresponded with pencil and paper tests and weekly quizzes. Both Male and Female Math participants had a strong dislike for multiple choice and true false tests, scoring averages of 1.5 to 1.8 out of 5.
Neither of the Non-Math groups had such variations. All of the averages in these two participant groups remained very close to 3 out of 5. There appeared to be a greater range among each method that worked out to an average or 3 instead of a strong like or dislike of any method with the Non-Math groups. Most of the trends found appeared to categorize the groups because of their stated study of math as opposed to their sex. Among the Math groups, the Females had a much greater like of weekly quizzes (4.1 versus 2.8) and homework quizzes (4 versus 2.3) than their male counterparts. This supports the finding that females tend to achieve greater results when tested on material similar to that done in class. (Gallagher, 1998) Among the Non-Math groups, the males had a greater like of tests that applied concepts covered in class as opposed to females (3.8 versus 3). The only other noticeable variant among the two Non-Math groups was in the area of performance on use of technology. The females rated this as a 2.7 and the males as 3.8.
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