Hg. Taylor et Lc. Mounfield, EXPLORATION OF THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PRIOR COMPUTING EXPERIENCE AND GENDER ON SUCCESS IN COLLEGE COMPUTER-SCIENCE, Journal of educational computing research, 11(4), 1994, pp. 291-306
Current research shows that many American students are now entering co
llege with substantial prior computing experience. Researchers studied
a large group of non-computer science majors to determine the effects
of this prior experience on success in college computer science cours
es. Specific relationships between prior experience factors and gender
were studied. While only certain prior experiences correlated with su
ccess for males, virtually all prior experiences were beneficial for f
emales. In the group studied, females compared favorably with males in
all areas, including success rates and final grade percentages. The r
esults show a significant correlation between early prior computing ex
periences and success by females in a college computer course and thus
could indicate that pre-college computing can have an important role
in achieving gender equity in college computer science courses.