Equity and examination time pressure in first year mathematics for engineers

The ‘gender mathematics gap’ which persists in many countries means that women students may, on average, have less high school preparation in mathematics than men students entering engineering education. This in turn could impact their performance in first-year exams and thus reduce women’s participation in engineering programs. One factor that has been a focus of some interest in addressing equity issues in education is time-limited exams, which have been found to give rise to unfairness with respect to underrepresented students in a number of domains. In mathematics, time pressure has been found to be linked to increased student stress and to the use of less effective problem-solving strategies in assessment conditions. We sought to explore, therefore, the impact of reducing time pressure in a first-year engineering Linear Algebra course. We had 275 participants, of which 192 (69.8%) were men and 83 (30.2%) were women. Using a pseudo-experimental design in real-word conditions which controlled for teacher effects and assessment effects, we found that, when there was reduced time pressure, students with less prior mathematics performed better than when in a more time-pressured exam. Our results show that these students can learn the required Linear Algebra and can demonstrate their learning under appropriate conditions. This leads us to conclude that reducing time pressure in first year mathematics exams may contribute to improving the retention of women students in engineering education, particularly in cultural contexts in which a gender mathematics gap is prevalent.