INCREASING THE UPTAkE OF GIRLS TAkING GCSE COMPUTING

IncreasIng The UpTake Of gIrls In gcse cOmpUTIng

Are enough girls going into Computing? And if not, what can be done about it? Rachel Arthur explores this complex issue…

By Rachel Arthur

With Computer Science now becoming the fastest growing degree subject, with 24,900 people due to start courses in September – up seven percent on previous years you might expect to see similar growth in minority groups choosing to take the subject. This year fewer girls took a GCSE in Computing than boys, in fact, only 22% of the entrants in 2022 were female.

But despite fewer girls picking the subject, they did perform well with 40.6 percent of female entrants in England gaining a grade 7 or above, compared with 32.2 percent of male entrants. While this doesn’t give us the full picture of their performance and progress compared with other subjects it does show that the girls achieved strong grades in GCSE Computing.

So what is the problem?

The data are clear – diverse teams perform best in all industries, including in tech. However, the pipeline of female computer scientists is not meeting the demand for a more diverse workforce. In 2019, only 19% of jobs in tech were filled by women according to a report by Women in Technology. This is something that needs to change, and this change must start in schools. So, why are so few girls choosing to take the GCSE and what can we as teachers do to help address the balance?

Practical tips for increasing uptake:

1. Make it relevant.

Computer Science can be seen as a very abstract concept – especially when teaching programming. The amount that pupils need to learn about the concepts of programming in order to write code can make it feel so far removed from the application.

Four principles were proposed by Guzdial and Tew (2006) to help pupils contextualise their learning:

• Learning activities were aligned with real-world scenarios

• Topics were aligned with students’ interests

• Assessments were aligned with the material which had been taught

This can be brought into your classroom by aligning your curriculum to projects that would be used in industry. Take your HTML scheme of work and turn it into a course in becoming a web designer with client briefs and projects from local businesses. These small tweaks make your curriculum more relevant.

2. Create a sense of belonging

Research suggests that the most important factor for girls taking GCSE Computing is the feeling of being related to others and that a sense of belonging was a significant predictor of their motivation.

This need for a sense of belonging is a vicious cycle as if girls do not see themselves represented then they are often not motivated to study the subject. This then means there are no role models for the next cohort.

To break this cycle, you can bring more female role models into the classroom from industry or previous cohorts to increase that sense of belonging.

There is a lot of research into the type of role model we should use in the classroom which is discussed in the Factors that impact gender balance in computing report by the Raspberry Pi foundation.

“Often a barrier for pupils picking Computing is their parents’/carers opinion on the subject, so why not pick up the phone and have a chat about the benefi ts of their child doing Computing?”

A great way to create a sense of belonging in your classroom is by running clubs and activities. Simply having a chat with the girls in your lessons, telling them that you’d love to see them at the after-school club, and making it clear it is for them and that they are welcome can have a huge impact on attendance.

Some suggestions of great clubs and activities to look at: Changing the appearance and layout of their classroom can have an impact on girls’ attraction to the subject according to a recent report from the US, Stereotypes Undermine Girls’ Interest and Sense of Belonging in Computer Science. The research looked at 270 classrooms across the US and asked girls if they felt like they belonged in the subject. The pupils were shown two different computer science classrooms.

The first classroom was decorated with stereotypically geeky features such as science fiction books and posters, whilst the other was filled with art and nature posters, general-interest magazines, and plants. While the male students were indifferent to the two classrooms, 68% of female students chose the second classroom, revealing they were three times more likely to sign up for a Computer Science class if taught in such an environment.

So, why not swap out some of your displays for images of nature and plants to see if it makes your classroom feel more inclusive to girls?

With the world becoming more digital every day it is so important we equip all our pupils with the skills they need to access the technology careers of the future, so why not try some of these tips and see if it impacts on the participation of girls in GCSE Computing at your school too?

• Cyberfirst • dressCode

• Sonic Pi

There is a fuller list of general competitions on the CAS website too.

4. Parental engagement

Many studies have identified gender differences between learners in their attitudes towards Computing. When I was in the classroom, I heard pupils say “girls don’t do computing”. But where do these attitudes come from?

Expectancy-value theory (Eccles et al., 1998) suggests that subject choice and career goals are affected by pupils’ expectations of what their parents and society think. There is also research to suggest that pupils are more likely to choose Computing if they feel supported and think they have a chance to succeed academically (Lent et al. 2008). Targeting girls with positive phone calls home, especially in the run-up to options deadlines can have an impact on parents/ carers as well as on pupils. Often a barrier for pupils picking Computing is their parents’/carers opinion on the subject, so why not pick up the phone and have a chat about the benefits of their child doing Computing?

When I was teaching this was my favourite way to end the week and remain focused on the positive things my pupils had done!

5. Careers

There can be a misconception that careers in Computing involve sitting in a dark room programming and this can be (understandably) off-putting. Combat this misconception by sharing how your lesson links to lesser-known computing-related careers that may spark the interest of your pupils.

The national careers service has a long list of careers that might be a good place to start!

6. Cross-curricular links

To help demonstrate the breadth and reach of computing it can be a nice idea to establish some cross-curricular links. There was a lot of love for the links with music through Sam Aaron’s Sonic Pi as a simple and effective way to do this.

The Raspberry Pi foundation has also held a series of education research seminars on this topic – so they are always worth catching up on.

PEDAGOGY

24. What Does Trauma-Informed Teaching Mean?

Approaches to trauma-informed teaching and how they improve our teaching

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PEDAGOGY

WHAT DOES ‘TRAUMA INFORMED’ TEACHING MEAN?

Being trauma informed is central for e ective discussion on how we can promote a school culture which supports all children to learn and develop. Sarah Johnson explains…

By Sarah Johnson

Behaviour is complex. Teachers consider a wide range of children’s needs and juggle competing demands. The skillset required to be a teacher is enormous; from knowing the curriculum, e ective pedagogy, making sure children remember what they have learned to then being able to deal with the myriad of ways that children may behave.

In more recent years, the topic of being “trauma informed” has entered into teaching discourse. I don’t remember it being there when I started teaching in a psychiatric unit twenty years ago but now, often liaising with mainstream schools and Pupil Referral Units, terms such as “adverse childhood experiences” and “trauma informed” are common parlance, just as much as “behavioural policies”, “warmstrict” and “zero tolerance”.

Being trauma informed is not the panacea that o ers perfect behaviour in every class and every school. However, it has never promised to be and nor should it be. Nor is trauma informed about the allowance of children to do as they please without consequence or sanction. Being trauma informed is another part of our e ective toolkit to support children’s emotional well-being, help them understand their emotions and to look at our own responses to further support a child in a period of distress.

The term ‘trauma informed’ is often used to denote an approach which hopes to delve deeper into why children may behave in certain ways. Why they may shout, cry, throw things, or otherwise demonstrate that they’re upset. It might also serve to remind us why some children might not talk in front of their peers, may struggle to fi nish tasks, or fi nd it di cult to come to school on time.

The role of trauma informed practice is to raise awareness amongst all sta within the school or wider organisation about the e ects of trauma and how we ensure that our approach, environment, and interactions do not serve to traumatise or re-traumatise children that may have experienced adversity. Being trauma informed is not just about being informed about trauma but is also about being curious about what may be driving behaviour or whether there are underlying issues. I have heard the term ‘trauma informed’ practice being talked about as if it is antagonistic to robust school behavioural policies, rules and subsequent consequences. However, the aims of both systems can go hand-inhand and have the same aims; an environment where all children can learn and be safe.

For me the core of some of the dichotomous conversation is to fi nd some common ground, which there are many. Firstly, in building a culture around behaviour, it is important that the rules make sense. Children that have had chaotic experiences in the past benefi t from understanding what the rules are, how they are applied and if there are exceptions why these exceptions are being applied. In fact, children without chaotic experiences in the past are likely to enjoy the same benefi ts.

Furthermore, it is important that we anticipate issues and address them if they are arise with open dialogue about what the challenges might be. For example, as we return to school, we are probably fairly used to seeing local newspaper headlines decrying uniform rules.

“Being trauma informed is not just about being informed about trauma but is also about being curious about what may be driving behaviour or whether there are underlying issues.”

However, there are myriad reasons why a child may not bring in their PE kit; from poor organisational skills, being embarrassed about not having the right equipment to being too worried about changing in front of others. Simply, following a pre-determined consequences of perhaps a detention does little to change the underlying issue.

Instead, as part of our toolkit we should fi nd out what the di culty is in abiding by this rule and then look at strategies. For example, how we can support a child’s organisation so that they are able to remember what is needed and on what day. We can talk both to parents and their child about where they can source the correct PE equipment without the fi nancial burden.

We are in a position in which we can provide support or alternatives for children that may feel physically exposed in a changing room or overwhelmed by the noise. In looking deeper, beyond what is being presented, we can address the behaviour that we actually want to change.

In some of the work that I do I talk about the need for curiosity to understand how a child might be presenting within the classroom and within the wider school community. The fi rst step is noticing – what are we really seeing when a child does something and how can we then start to build a bigger picture in identifying the reason for that behaviour and therefore our understanding before we respond? This is to see behaviour within the wider context. Humans interact in lots of di erent ways depending on their own experiences, what reaction they received in the past or simply because behaving in that way is fun or asserting their own independence and autonomy.

Is a child humming because it is fun to avoid work, or perhaps because they can’t do the work, it helps them concentrate, or maybe it is because it is a part of a wider neurological di culty such as Tourette’s syndrome? If we just jumped to the response and reaction aspect then the behaviour will change, and in some instances, it may not even be appropriate to try and change it.

Being trauma informed is a vital component in working with other people, it recognises the huge diversity of child and adult experiences. It reminds us that we need to be mindful of the environment that we create within a school community and that we aim to support access to learning in a way that not only feels safe but is safe for all those that enter the school space.