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.

Background: Research shows that active pedagogies could play an important role in achieving more equitable outcomes for diverse groups of students in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM). Although flipped classes are a popular active methodology, there is a lack of high-quality studies assessing their impact in ecologically valid settings and exploring how outcomes are related to gender and to prior education. Purpose: This paper presents two modified replications of an experimental study investigating the impact of the flipped class approach on students' achievement in a large, first-year class in an engineering bachelor's degree. Methodology: We added a new strand, progressively flipped over 3 years, to eight parallel strands of a high-stakes mandatory linear algebra course for engineers. The study followed a replicated-between-subjects design, with students in the flipped strand learning the same material as those in the other strands and taking the same final exam. Results: Our results demonstrate that the flipped format did not have any significant impact on students' achievement compared to traditional lecturing. However, both replications in the flipped condition show a reduced attainment gap for women and students with less prior knowledge in mathematics. Conclusion: While the flipped class seems to have weaker effects on learning than other active methodologies, the evidence in this study indicates that it may have an impact on reducing the attainment gap between different groups of students. It may therefore be particularly interesting to consider in efforts to achieve more equitable outcomes for women and where students have heterogeneous educational backgrounds.