Roberta Training

The Roberta concept demands that the course instructors consider gender-specific differences during their course planning and delivery. These differences relate both to the participating girls and boys and to the course instructors themselves. Information and recommendations are given concerning gender-sensitive course organization. The recommendations are based on the results, experiences and observations made within the German Roberta project. They take into consideration relevant educational research and are based on an in-depth statistical analysis of several hundred courses conducted in Germany.  Important results from the Roberta project have been published by the study group "Digital media in education" at the University of Bremen.

The results and recommendations mainly concern the following issues:

• Interest, self-assurance and self-confidence
• Social competences
• Performance and recognition
• Distractions

Self-confidence is of central importance. From educational research we know that confidence in a subject contributes more to success than interest in it. Girls, however, tend to have less confidence in their technical abilities than boys. Hence this lack of confidence must be the focus of the teaching.