Increasing Girls participation in Physics Education

Abstract

The aim of this research is to identify factors affecting girls' negative attitudes towards physics and suggest pedagogical approaches that can help secondary physics teachers engage girls in physics. In this study, we used a survey method and standardized questionnaire to find factors that affect girls' negative attitude towards physics study. The sample consists of 47 girls in grades K-12. We aim to find possible reasons for their disengagement with physics study.To increase girls' participation in physics-related careers, changing teachers' attitudes about girls' engagement with physics and equipping teachers with effective pedagogical strategies to address the problem should become one of the top priorities of the physics education community. This paper highlights research literature on the reasons for girls' disengagement from physics and suggests research-based pedagogies that can help teachers address this problem.