Gender Differences in Interest in Physics Biology among Junior High School Students

チュウガクセイ　ニ　オケル　ブツリ　ブンヤ　セイブツ　ブンヤ　ヘノ　カンシン　ノ　ジェンダー　サ

タナベ, カズヒコ

Tanabe, Kazuhiko

オオサカ ダイガク ダイガクイン ニンゲン カガク ケンキュウカ キョウイクガクケイ

Department of Education, Graduate School of Human Sciences, Osaka University

The gender segregation of majors in higher education includes a humanities/science dimension and a care-oriented field/STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) dimension, the latter of which is also known as the care-technical divide. Survey results revealed that boys exhibited a higher interest in physics, while girls displayed a higher interest in biology even at the junior high school level. Furthermore, this tendency seems to be strongly related to the care-oriented field/STEM dimension. Based on secondary analysis of a questionnaire survey conducted in 1999, this study examined why the fields of high interest differed between boys and girls among junior high school students. Multivariate analysis revealed that boys’ interest in physics is associated with the tendency for them to play a central role in science experiments whereas for girls to play a marginal role that has continued since elementary school. Additionally, girls’ interest in biology was strongly associated with their tendency to enjoy more scientific experience related to biology, such as caring for animals and growing plants. The results underscore the need for further empirical research on the tendency of boys and girls to have an interest in different fields of science.