Education World – Nicole Gorman
“Getting more women to be interested and therefore represented in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) is a national priority; a new study has provided some insight into where efforts could be best focused. According to a recently published study from researchers Jessica Ellis, Bailey K. Fosdick and Chris Rasmussen, women are 1.5 times more likely to leave the STEM pipeline after calculus than men and a lack of confidence in their abilities to tackle advanced math could be to blame. Because Calculus is a challenging but necessary part of advancing into many STEM fields, it has been proven to dissuade many people from continuing their pursuits. While more women are likely to be dissuaded by Calculus than men, research supports that a lack of confidence is mostly to blame as opposed to a lack of ability.”(more)