The National Survey of Student Engagement offers a detailed look at gender differences in opinions and behaviors of U.S. college students. The organization describes student engagement as representing “two critical features of collegiate quality. The first is the amount of time and effort students put into their studies and other educationally purposeful activities. The second is how the institution deploys its resources and organizes the curriculum and other learning opportunities to get students to participate in activities that decades of research studies show are linked to student learning.”
In most indicators there was no gender gap or a very small one. Here are some of the highlights where a gender gap did exist:
- Some 24 percent of women said they “very often” prepared two or more drafts of a paper before turning it in. Only 18 percent of men did the same.
- Women were more likely than men to never talk with a professor about school work outside of class.
- Women were significantly more likely than men to plan to study abroad.
- Male college students spent more time relaxing and participating in social activities than women college students.
All of the tables on gender differences in the survey may be found here.