一句话：10周设计思维编程课显示女生在自我效能、兴趣和幸福感上提升显著，技术任务虽令男生略感枯燥但整体受益。
该研究关注早期吸引学生进入软件工程的创意教学是否会因性别产生不同影响，并检验设计思维中以共情驱动的方法能否缓解软件工程兴趣的性别差距。作者在加拿大两所中学开展为期10周、融入课程的设计思维软件开发课程，55名13–15岁学生参与，比较感知知识、兴趣及社会情绪体验的性别差异。结果表明，男女生均获得软件开发知识；女生在自我效能、兴趣、可持续性议题参与及幸福感（乐观、有用感、社会连接）上显著提升。积极情绪多出现在创意协作阶段，技术任务则导致一定无聊感，男生尤其明显，但整体仍受益。研究提示，以人为本的设计思维可能有助于促进性别公平，但技术实现需更差异化。
Creative approaches to attract students to software engineering at an early age are emerging, yet their differential impact on gender remains unclear. This study investigates whether design thinking’s empathy-driven approach addresses the documented gender gap in interest in software engineering. In a 10-week curriculum-integrated design thinking software development course with 55 secondary school students aged 13-–15 from two schools in Canada, we examined gendered differences in perceived gains in knowledge and interest, as well as in social-emotional experiences. Our results show that both girls and boys gained perceived knowledge in software development. However, girls showed significant improvements in self-efficacy, interest, engagement with sustainability topics, and well-being, including optimism, sense of usefulness, and social connectedness. Positive emotions were strongest during creative, collaborative phases, while technical tasks led to some boredom, especially among boys, though they still benefited overall. This suggests that human-centred design thinking might be one effective way to address gender equity challenges, though we need more differentiated technical implementations.
@inproceedings{paperbot11975,
title = {From Personas to Programming: Gender-specific Effects of Design Thinking-Based Computing Education at Secondary Schools},
author = {Isabella Graßl and Gordon Fraser and Daniela Damian},
booktitle = {ICSE},
year = {2026},
doi = {10.1145/3786580.3786982}
}