THE EFFECT OF COMPUTER USE ON GENDER DIFFERENCES IN ATTITUDES TO COMPUTERS

The attitudinal consequences of a focused Logo programming experience which took place over the course of one term with 114 primary school children attending four Edinburgh schools is discussed. with particular reference to gender differences. Half of the pupils used list processing and the remainder used graphic processing. In addition, half of the pupils worked in the same sex dyads and the other half in mixed dyads. Substantial differences between boys and girls were shown in their pre-experience attitudes towards computer technology. In general, the boys appeared more confident of their personal ability in the field of computing. They also showed more interest in computing and were more likely to believe that computing required high ability. General attitudes to computer use were similarly positive for both sexes. After the computer experience gender differences in attitudes to computing diminished. The exception to this general tendency was that girls' anxiety levels relative to boys increased. These results did not appear to be related to either the type of activity the pupils were exposed to or the composition of working dyads. Observation of the pupils at the console did indicate that in mixed dyads boys dominated. Interpretations of the gender differences are presented and important questions for future research and practice are raised. © 1990.