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females agreed or strongly agreed that “the pace of learning in many of the required
courses is too fast.”
On the scale of 1-5 (1=”not at all”; 5= “very much”) only a third (34.9%) of the UW
engineering students felt that their grades reflected their knowledge of course material at
a level of 4 or 5. In contrast, 2/3 of the Rowan engineering students agreed or strongly
agreed that the grading system reflected students’ knowledge and competency in the
subject matter. Again, comparing UW males to females, males were more positive in
their assessment of the fairness of grades (45.2% of the males answered 4 or 5, nearly
double the 26.5% of the females). In contrast, 72.5% of the Rowan females agreed or
strongly agreed with the fairness of the grading system, compared to 63.6% of the Rowan
males. These differences are reflected in the higher mean scores reported for Rowan
males and females compared to University of Washington students (Table IIH-4).
Satisfaction with Labwork
Asked how much lab work adds to their understanding of course material, less
than half of the UW students answered 4 or 5 on a scale of 1 (not at all) to 5 (very much)
– 44.2% of the males and 45.3% of the females. In contrast, more than 3/4 of the Rowan
students agreed or strongly agreed that lab work adds a lot to their understanding of
course material – 79% of the males, and 72.5% of the females. The mean scores of
Rowan females reflect greater satisfaction with this aspect of laboratory work than
University of Washington females.
About a quarter of the UW students thought lab experiments were explained well
prior to labs – similar percentages of males (23%) and females (23.5%) answered 4 or 5
on a scale of 1”not at all” to 5 “very much”. In contrast, more than 2/3 of the Rowan
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