Gender Differences in Norwegian Engineering Students’ Understanding of Newtonian Mechanics

Abstract An investigation of the gender gap in engineering students’ understanding of Newtonian physics has been done. The results indicate a noticeable gender gap, in addition to an effect due to differences in preparation, i.e. physics courses in secondary school. The gender gap after university instruction decreases in the case of a higher degree of preparation, while the gender gap is unchanged or widens for students with a lower degree of preparation after university instruction.