Gender Differences in Geometry and Mathematics Achievement and Self-efficacy Beliefs in Geometry

Problem Statement: Individual differences in education have great importance. Such differences become particularly crucial in disciplines such as mathematics and geometry. One of the most frequently investigated individual differences is gender-related. Gender differences in mathematics may be different depending upon the particular area of mathematics. Therefore, gender differences in geometry performance and efficacy deserve attention. Purpose of Study: The present study is aimed to investigate gender differences in mathematics course achievement, geometry course achievement, and geometry self-efficacy. Methods: A total of 199 high school sophomores voluntarily participated in the study. A mathematics and geometry end-of-the-year GPA was obtained from the official student records. Students responded to a set of brief demographic questions that asked their gender in addition to the Self-efficacy Scale toward Geometry (SESTG). Data were screened for the assumptions of parametric statistics. In order to test mathematics and geometry end-of-the-year achievement differences simultaneously between men and women, a between-subjects MANOVA was used. A second MANOVA was used to test three dependent variables of self-efficacy beliefs simultaneously in a non-orthogonal design. The independent variable was gender (male and female). Findings and Results: Results showed that there was a significant multivariate effect of gender on the combined dependent variables. There was a large association both between the dependent variables and gender. The results of univariate F analyses indicated that there were significant gender differences on both mathematics achievement and geometry achievement. Women achieved significantly higher than men. A second one-way, between-subjects MANOVA was performed on the three dependent variables that were the subscales of the SESTG. The independent variable was gender. Results showed that there was not any significant multivariate effect of gender on the combined dependent variabels. Conclusions and Recommendations: Variables that may have an effect on mathematics or geometry achievement are multi-faceted. The present study focused on one of such variables, namely gender. We investigated the relationship between self-efficacy beliefs in geometry and geometry achievement and found that the two variables were significantly related. The present study also shows a significant relationship between the mathematics and geometry achievement level. Results show that there are not any significant multivariate gender differences on the sub-scales of the geometry self-efficacy beliefs.