Girls Rocking the Code: Gender-dependent Stereotypes, Engagement & Comprehension in Music Programming

One of the greatest challenges in early programming education is to achieve learning success while also creating initial interest. This is particularly difficult for girls, who continue to be affected by persistent societal stereotypes and negative perceptions, inhibiting their long-term interest in programming. A promising approach to address this challenge and to increase motivation for girls is to use programming as a vehicle to express creativity rather than focusing on technical aspects, for example by teaching basic programming concepts through music composition. While music programming has been confirmed to appeal to young learners in general, the question of whether the gender-specific differences on the perceptions and effects known from other programming approaches persist for music programming. To shed light on this question, we conducted an introductory programming course using the popular music programming environment Sonic Pi with a total of 134 students aged 13 to 16, collecting data on students' affections and stereotypical beliefs towards programming, their contributions during lessons, as well as basic comprehension. While we find that music programming leads to similar comprehension and contributions between genders, we observe a significant increase of interest and self-efficacy among girls, and a significant deconstruction of stereotypical attributes associated with programmers.