Investigating cross-age gender differences in accuracy of self-evaluation about introductory astronomy topics

Students' assessment of their own ability – so called accuracy of self-evaluation - is at the basis of important cognitive processes, such as decision making, and is positively correlated with motivation towards science. In this cross-sectional study, we investigated how gender differences in accuracy of self-evaluation in multiple choice questions about introductory astronomy topics vary across school grades, from primary to secondary school. A total of N=3,287 students (mean age:14.7,SD=2.4 years, girls=50.4%) participated in the study. The research instrument used was a multiple-choice test developed from previous studies. T-tests and factorial ANOVA were used to analyse data. The results show that, on average, boys are more confident than girls on all questions and that the differences increase with school grade. Overall, our results suggest that astronomy education practice in secondary schools should go beyond teaching astronomy as a collection of facts and aim to better calibrate students' assessment of their performance.