[Paper Review] Group roles in unstructured labs show inequitable gender divide

Katherine N. Quinn, Michelle M. Kelley+4 more|arXiv (Cornell University)|May 15, 2020

Science Education and Pedagogy3 references4 citations

TL;DR

This study uses behavioral quantification in physics labs to reveal that in unstructured inquiry-based labs, men and women systematically assume different group roles without explicit assignment, with men more likely to engage in 'Other' tasks and handle equipment, while women use laptops more than group averages. In contrast, no such gendered role division emerges in highly structured traditional labs, highlighting the need for intentional design to prevent inequitable dynamics in student group work.

ABSTRACT

Instructional labs are being transformed to better reflect authentic scientific practice, often by removing aspects of pedagogical structure to support student agency and decision-making. We explored how these changes impact men's and women's participation in group work associated with labs through clustering methods on the quantified behavior of students. We compared the group roles students take on in two different types of instructional settings; (1) highly structured traditional labs, and (2) less structured inquiry-based labs. Students working in groups in the inquiry-based (less structured) labs assumed different roles within their groups, however men and women systematically took on different roles and men behaved differently when in single- versus mixed-gender groups. We found no such systematic differences in role division among male and female students in the traditional (highly-structured) labs. Students in the inquiry-based labs were not overtly assigned these roles, indicating that the inequitable division of roles was not a result of explicit assignment. Our results highlight the importance of structuring equitable group dynamics in educational settings, as a gendered division of roles can emerge without active intervention. As the culture in physics evolves to remove systematic gender biases in the field, instructors in educational settings must not only remove explicitly biased aspects of curricula but also take active steps to ensure that potentially discriminatory aspects are not inadvertently reinforced.

Motivation & Objective

• To investigate how gender influences role distribution in student group work during physics labs.
• To compare role dynamics in unstructured inquiry-based labs versus highly structured traditional labs.
• To determine whether gendered role divisions emerge without explicit role assignment in collaborative learning environments.
• To assess whether group composition (single- or mixed-gender) affects the degree of task division or gendered behavior patterns.
• To inform educational design by identifying how lab structure influences equitable participation and identity development in physics.

Proposed method

• Behavioral coding of student actions in lab groups using 12 distinct behavior codes, including Desktop, Equipment, Laptop, and Other.
• Calculation of group-level expected behavior using the mean deviation: ⟨N_code⟩_G = (1/M_G) × Σ N_code^S over all students S in group G.
• Computation of individual deviation from group average: ΔN_code^S = N_code^S − ⟨N_code⟩_G.
• Use of intragroup variance (VAR(ΔN)) to quantify task division within groups, with higher variance indicating greater role differentiation.
• Application of non-parametric Mann-Whitney U tests to compare distributions of deviations between men and women.
• Levene’s test used to assess equality of variances across group compositions, testing whether task division varies by gender composition.

Experimental results

Research questions

• RQ1 Do men and women assume different roles in unstructured inquiry-based physics labs compared to structured traditional labs?
• RQ2 Is the gendered division of labor in labs a result of explicit role assignment or does it emerge organically in collaborative settings?
• RQ3 How does group composition (single- vs. mixed-gender) influence the degree of task division and gendered behavior patterns?
• RQ4 Are there significant differences in how men and women engage with specific lab tools or responsibilities, such as laptops or equipment?
• RQ5 Does the level of pedagogical structure in labs affect the emergence of inequitable role distributions?

Key findings

• In inquiry-based labs, men significantly deviated from their group average by engaging in 'Other' activities more than their peers (p = 0.009), indicating a systematic role in non-core tasks.
• Women in mixed-gender groups used laptops or personal devices more than their group members (p = 0.001), suggesting a distinct role in digital data handling.
• Men in mixed-gender groups showed a borderline significant tendency to handle lab equipment more than their group average (p = 0.012), indicating a potential gendered assignment to hands-on roles.
• Intragroup variance for behavior codes was significantly higher in inquiry-based labs than in traditional labs (p < 10^-5 for all codes except Paper), confirming greater task division in unstructured settings.
• No significant difference in intragroup variance was found across group compositions (p > 0.01 for all codes), indicating that task division was not influenced by whether groups were single- or mixed-gender.
• No systematic gender-based role division was observed in highly structured traditional labs, suggesting that pedagogical structure suppresses the emergence of inequitable role dynamics.