Author/s:
Amponsah, Kwaku Darko*
OLA College of Education, Ghana (kwaku.amponsah@yahoo.com)
Mensah, Fiifi
University of Cape Coast, Ghana (fiifimensah@yahoo.com)
Mensah, Alfred
University of Cape Coast, Ghana (mensahno32d@yahoo.co.uk)
Abstract:
This paper is part of a larger study to investigate female students in science and technology-based university (STU) programs in their motivation, perception and constraint in learning science at senior high school and consequently science and technology-based programs at the university level. The conceptual framework is rooted in Steele’s concept of stereotype threat, which is the experience of anxiety or concern in a situation where a person has the potential to confirm a negative stereotype about their social group. The investigation was conducted among 328 final year female students pursuing engineering, medicine, pharmacy and computer science/ICT at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology (KNUST), Kumasi, Ghana. The study utilized cross-sectional descriptive survey design. 328 final year female students in the 2008/2009 academic year pursuing engineering, medicine, pharmacy and computer science/ICT formed the sample. A Self-Report Survey Questionnaire on constraints female students experience in their learning of science was designed and administered. This study indicated that female students have to grapple with some challenges such as lack of funding, and the unavailability or expensive nature of some textbooks. One-way between group analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Hotchberg GT2 Post hoc analyses indicated that there were significant differences in constraints among some of the four groups of students. It was concluded that Government and other stakeholders should provide funding, scholarships or bursaries to female students in order to enhance their full participation. These challenges may account in part to the low participation of females in science and technology-based programs.
Keywords: science and technology education; tertiary institutions; female students; constraints; science and technology-based university programs
DOI: https://doi.org/10.5861/ijrse.2014.684
*Corresponding Author