Gender and Student Participation

Abstract

Active class participation has been associated with student engagement and can be an important aspect of a successful learning experience in college classrooms. Several factors influence student participation including classroom dynamics (such as classroom connectedness, instructor-student rapport) and individual characteristics (such as biological sex and psychological gender).  With respect to individual characteristics, previous research has evaluated sex differences in participation and has yielded inconsistent findings. The present study investigated the relationship between psychological gender and student participation both in- and out-of-class. Classroom connectedness and professor-student rapport were assessed as possible moderating factors. Results indicated that masculinity and androgyny were associated with more in-class participation while femininity and androgyny were associated with student professor interaction outside of class. While both classroom connectedness and instructor-student rapport were correlated with student participation, there was no evidence of them moderating the relationship between gender and participation. Professor gender type was not associated with student participation. Implications for college classrooms and higher education are discussed.