An article on HowToLearn.com asked the question of whether or not the educational gender gap was biologically or sociologically based. This article addresses many of the ways in which girls and boys have been found to differ when it comes to learning and performance, such as in learning to read, fine motor skills, attentiveness and ability to sit still.
The author offers four bullet points for our examination:
- Boys are three times more likely to have learning disabilities, including attention disorders (ADD or ADHD) and exhibit signs of difficulty at an earlier age.
- Speech and language delays, which affect almost 10 percent of children between four and six, is three to four times more common in boys than in girls.
- Girls are more likely to struggle with spatial learning, a key component in math, science and technology.
- Girls are more likely to have generalized anxiety disorder, which seems to develop at about 12 years old. In fact, two out of every three children with GAD are girls. One specific area cited is school, where girls demonstrate greater social and educational anxiety, which effects attitude about and performance in school.
The article also asks us to think about the ways in which tests may be more suited for boys to excel in the field of mathematics:
While narrowing, boys still maintain an advantage in the area, and consistently score about ten percent higher than girls, on the math portion of the SAT (college admission test).
Experts attribute this to the timed multiple-choice questions, which play to boys’ strengths; they also score slightly better on the math and science sections of national assessment tests.
This article addresses the fact that the gender gap narrows toward adolescence but it doesn’t follow these studies past adolescence to address the true factors behind why the education gap has caused so many more girls to graduate and peruse higher degrees.
What do you think? Does the data in the linked article help you understand the achievement gap, or does it simply raise more questions?
What can school systems do to help boys learn in a way that is more natural and effective?
Photo of teacher helping a little pupil courtesy of Shutterstock
The girls are caught up in math and are taking more higher math in school than boys. There is virtually no difference in boys and girls science and math scores. The more free expression allowed by society for girls can create a large difference in perceived anxieties that may easily be misinterpreted as something biological. The differences we hear in boys are also socially created and need to be fixed for to boys to catch up. Society must change its view of Male Children for True Equality The Growing Male Crisis is affecting many Males from higher social brackets to… Read more »
I think Eric M. makes some very good points here. There are different kinds of gender gaps in education, some that the system seems to care about, others that it doesn’t. The size of the gap may not even determine where the attention goes. I think a very valid, objective question is to ask what the goal is here. If the goal really is to get boys and girls to graduate with more or less equal abilities, then both boys and girls could use some help making the outcomes more equal. One key factor is social behavior, which is obviously… Read more »
Seen this before in history, groups using pseudo science to “prove” that one group is genetically inferior in order to justify discrimination.
Godwin’s law much? 🙁
I didn’t mention german 🙁
*Germany
Unless human biology has changed during the last 30 years it’s obviously due to social bias.
Trying to back up sexism with science…stunning chutzpah.
I would submit the goverment plays a heafty part in the discrepancy. After all, when Obama thinks 60% attendance/diploma rates for girls in higher learning still ISN”T GOOD ENOUGH and continues to promote the idea women are discriminated against and boys are just lazy peterpan syndrome, video game addict losers, you tend not to encourage a balance.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/factsheet_girls_in_stem_4_24_2012.pdf
This article addresses the fact that the gender gap narrows toward adolescence but it doesn’t follow these studies past adolescence to address the true factors behind why the education gap has caused so many more girls to graduate and peruse higher degrees. I know you’re probably asking for more long term studies past adolescence but I think there might be something to the line of though that since boys lag behind in the early years of education they would be a little more disillusioned in the later years. Even right here: Boys, may struggle in lower grades because immaturity, both… Read more »
To an extent, yes. But you need to consider how much more importance has been put onto language skills over the last few decades. It isn’t just about boys doing poorly in some subjects (because they do well in others, generally speaking), it is that those subjects have had an increasing focus throughout the education system.
Exactly. Put simply, the gap is due to unrelenting misandry.
Wait, focusing on language skills is misandric?
No the misandry would be in the shift to language that is happening without a shift to help boys out in those areas, despite knowing the deficiencies are there.
No, being content to have and increase the gap is.
The government and school systems can help, first of all, by caring that there is a gender gap.
My language and reading skills were exceptionally developed in grade school as where my math skills. The stuff that I read was on Greek and Roman mythology and I loved to read scifi and war stuff. The stuff I had to read in English class was dry. I was considered the second best boy in math and the 7th or 8th best student. The top five students were girls and they comprised the math team. They were provided special instruction after school. When we took the Iowa exams, I had the top score, scoring double digits over the top scoring… Read more »
To an extent, yes. But you need to consider how much more importance has been put onto language skills over the last few decades. It isn’t just about boys doing poorly in some subjects (because they do well in others, generally speaking), it is that those subjects have had an increasing focus throughout the education system. Oh no I do consider it. And I also consider that even with the increased importance that has been put into language skill over the last few decades people still seem to want to just shrug when it shows that boys are lagging in… Read more »
“People that seemed to be all for helping girls in the STEM areas”
You say that like it’s past tense… http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/microsites/ostp/factsheet_girls_in_stem_4_24_2012.pdf
I’ve always thought classes should be split by ability, not age. That way those who learn faster and can handle more work can go ahead whilst others get the focus they need. Some classes I did the work so fast I’d be bored shitless, learning wasn’t fun anymore as I was waiting on others. I feel the time could have been better spent if I could advance onto other stuff, it would have stopped quite a lot of my disruptiveness (boredom + adhd = chatty chatty chatty).
I agree wholeheartedly. Then it comes down to what the teacher/administrator considers ability. Had a school counselor who when applying to college told me i didn’t work hard enough to warrant applying to the regional high tier engineering colleges and that i should go to community college due to a mediocre GPA. What had put me in this position was a series of math teachers who valued immense amounts of busy work where visible specific process was greater than final answers, which felt to me like moving a pile of sand with tweezers instead of the shovel you have in… Read more »
A meritocracy? are you MAAAAaaAAAdDDdddD???????? That would be discriminatory.
But seriously, Yes, I agree.