Gender differences in high school students’ interests in physics

Content analysis was conducted on the statements of participants and results of the chi-square analyses based on the gender variable as well as the results of the content analyses regarding the factors that affect students’ interests towards physics are given in this section.

Table 1. Participants’ personal interest levels on physics course according to the gender

Gender		I have personal interest in Physics			Total	p
Gender		Yes	No	Partly	Total	p
	Female	33	37	8	78	.109
	Female	42.3%	58.7%	61.5%	50.6%
	Male	45	26	5	76
	Male	57.7%	41.3%	38.5%	49.4%
Total		78	63	13	154
Total		100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

According to Table 1, although the results are not significant, male students have a higher personal interest towards physics than female students X2 (df:2 N:154)=4.434, P>.05.
Results of the analysis concerning participant awareness about the developments in the field of physics according to the gender are given in Table 2.

Table 2. Participant student views concerning awareness about the developments in the field of physics according to the gender

Gender		I am aware			Total	p
Gender		Yes	No	Partly	Total	p
	Female	4	50	24	78	.005
	Female	30.8%	63.3%	38.7%	50.6%
	Male	9	29	38	76
	Male	69.2%	36.7%	61.3%	49.4%
Total		13	79	62	154
Total		100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

According to Table 2, male participants are significantly more aware of the developments in physics than the female participants X2(df:2 N:154) =10.642, P<.05.
Analysis results concerning the role of physics in the students’ career planning with regards to the gender variable are given in Table 3.

Table 3. Distribution of the Role of Physics in Career Planning According to the Gender

Gender		I may prefer it		Total	P
Gender		Yes	No	Total	P
	female	7	62	69	.000
	female	20.6%	55.4%	47.3%
	Male	27	50	77
	Male	79.4%	44.6%	52.7%
Total		34	112	146
Total		100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

According to Table 3, with regards to the views of female and male participants about physics concerning their choices of a profession, there is a significant difference in favor of male students X2(df:1 N:154)= 12.650, P<.05.
Analysis results about the level of participants’ enjoying problem solving in physics are given in Table 4.

Table 4. Analysis results concerning participants enjoying solving problems in physics with regards to the gender

Gender		I like solving problems in Physics			Total	p
Gender		Yes	No	Partly	Total	p
	Female	26	27	17	70	.278
	Female	42.6%	46.6%	60.7%	47.6%
	Male	35	31	11	77
	Male	57.4%	53.4%	39.3%	52.4%
Total		61	58	28	147
Total		100.0%	100.0%	100.0%	100.0%

According to Table 4, male and female students didn’t offer different responses significantly about enjoying solving problems in physics X2(df: 2 N:154)=2.562, P>.05.
Content analyses results concerning participants’ interests towards physics are given in Table 5 and Table 6.

Table 5. Content analysis results concerning the awareness theme for female students

Category 1: Technologically	f	Category 2: According to daily life	F	Category 3: Explaining events and facts	f
Technologic devices are being developed.	20	Quality of life increases, it makes life easier, contribute to modernization.	20	It responds to questions, helps us to understand life.	15

Table 6. Content analysis results concerning the awareness theme for male students

Category 1: Technologically

Category 2: According to daily life

Category 3: Explaining events and facts

Medicine is enhancing, electronic devices are improving, it used in wars, makes people lazy, household devices are easy to use, computer software are improving.

Makes life easy, quality of life increases.

Explaining natural disasters, helping understand external events.

According to Table 5 and Table 6, it is evident that male students stated that they are technologically more aware of the developments in physics than the female students.
Analysis results concerning female students’ personal interest levels towards Physics course, interest towards problem solving in Physics and preferring physics in future career planning are given in Table 7.

Table 7. Analysis results concerning female students’ interest level towards Physics course, preferring physics in career planning and interest towards problem solving in Physics

Reasons for positive interest	f	Reasons for negative interest	f	Reasons for preferring	f	Reasons for not preferring	f	Reasons for enjoying solving questions	f	Reasons for not enjoying solving questions	f
Teachers teach the course interestingly	3	Our teacher is not qualified	16	I like it	4	I don’t like it, it is not interesting	31	I like Mathematics, It is fun	23	I can’t solve them	27
Physics explains nature	12	It is complicated, it is difficult	28	I’d like to share my knowledge with other people.	6	I’m unsuccessful, physics is more difficult	15	My self-confidence increases	12	There are boring, difficult and long questions, it isn’t interesting	10
It is fun, I like researching	14	It is boring and unnecessary	4
		I don’t like it	11							.

Analysis results concerning male students’ personal interest levels towards Physics course, interest towards problem solving in Physics and preferring physics in future career planning are given in Table 8.

Table 8. Analysis results concerning male students’ interest level towards Physics course, preferring physics in career planning and interest towards problem solving in Physics

Reasons for positive interest	F	Reasons for negative interest	f	Reasons for preferring	f	Reasons for not preferring	f	Reasons for enjoying solving questions	f	Reasons for not enjoying solving questions	F
It’s as same as daily life, It explores the mystery of the universe.	23	Boring, unnecessary	15	Lively and fun	5	I’m interested in other fields	16	I like numbers	18	I don’t know how to solve them	13
	23	Complicated, too many formulas	12	I’m interested in engineering	11	I’m not successful in it	8	it’s fun	16	questions are too long, too many formulas	10
it’s fun	5	I don’t like it	12	I’m interested in it.	9	I don’t like it.	10	Enhances my self-confidence	7	I’m not interested	10
it’s numeric	10			I like researching	6
questions in the university entrance exam	5

According to Table 7 and Table 8, both female and male students stated that they have positive personal interests in physics because it’s a part of daily life and it explained nature. While female students stated that they are interested in the course due to their teacher, male students stated that they are interested in physics because it is a numeric course and that it is a subject at the university entrance exam. Both groups expressed that are not interested in physics because they found it boring, unnecessary and complicated. Female students expressed their teacher as the cause for their disinterest towards physics, male students underlined that they were not curious about the course. While some of the male participants stated that they found fields of physics lively and fun, that they were interested in engineering and that they would prefer it because they like doing research, some of the female students underlined the positive feeling of conveying information to other people. In addition, with regards to not preferring the fields of physics, some of the female participants expressed that they don’t like physics and the course is too difficult and some of the male participants stated that they are interested in other fields. According to the views concerning solving problems in physics, male and female participants expressed similar views.