Brazilian School Girls’ Perspectives on a Computer Science Major: Mining Association Rules

Abstract

The field of Computer Science (CS) has been of little interest for girls straight out of high school, when considering undergraduate majors in Brazil. At the University of Brasília’s CS Department, female students account for less than 10% of the student body. In an effort to understand the girls’ lack of interest in computer related courses, we applied an anonymous questionnaire regarding their perceptions of the field. From 2011 to 2014 3707 female students completed this anonymous questionnaire. We compiled Association Rules in Data Mining to analyze these responses. The knowledge gained through this study could guide future research on the matter and provide guidelines for motivating girls to pursue careers in Computer Science.