Date

8-2017

Department

School of Education

Degree

Doctor of Education (EdD)

Chair

Andrea Lee

Keywords

Engagement, Gender Gap, Motivation

Disciplines

Curriculum and Instruction | Education

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of teacher gender on student motivation and engagement. The study addressed the question: Is there a statistical difference among the motivation and engagement scores of males taught by male teachers (MM), males taught by female teachers (MF), females taught by male teachers (FM), and females taught by female teachers (FF) enrolled in online science courses? Exploring this topic allowed educators to identify strategies for quality teaching and learning, increase graduation rates, and decrease student delinquency. This quantitative study used a causal-comparative research design and the Motivation and Engagement Scale (MES) to survey 629 undergraduate students enrolled in an online science course at a for-profit university. Data was collected from male teachers, female teachers, and undergraduate students enrolled in an online science course at a leading for-profit university. The instrument used in this study was the Motivation and Engagement Scale. Due to extreme outliers, the violations of normality and variance a Kruskal-Wallis statistical test was used to determine the difference among mean scores of the four groups. Because of these violations caution should be taken when interpreting the results. The study used Kruskal-Wallis statistical tests to determine the difference among mean scores of the four groups. The study determined that male and female students exhibit higher levels of motivation and engagement when taught by male teachers. Future quantitative research needs to be conducted that includes a different population from other colleges and universities to eliminate the broad patterns found among participants.

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