Achievement Attributions Of School Aged Australian Children : A Gender Based Study

Whilst there are factors outside school, internal factors also impact gender differences in educational achievements hugely. According to Tony Sewell, boys fall behind in education because schools have become more 'feminised', as indicated in Item A. This means that feminine traits such as methodical working and attentiveness have

Women have always been viewed as the weaker sex, and society will continue to view them that way unless they do something about it. In the essay “When Bright Girls Decide that Math is a Waste of time”, the author Susan Jacoby discusses the problems women steering clear of math and science subjects because of the traditional view of a woman. She focused on what causes high school girls to focus on arts courses instead of STEM courses and what are the effects of it on themselves. The underlying discrimination amongst boys and girls, stereotypical thinking of parents and teachers that girls are not good at math eventually decreases the self-confidence among girls to solve science and math problems.

In the past females have achieved less well than boys at higher levels in the education system, then during the 1990', the girls over took boys at all levels in the education system. The percentage of females in the UK achieving two or more A-levels or equivalent has increased from 20% in 1990 to 42% in 2006. Over the same time period, the percentage of males achieving the same level increased from 18% to 33%. On the other hand, there still continues to be a large difference in the choice of subjects by males and females. Even with the national curriculum being restrictive in the lower levels, meaning both male and females do the same subjects, when they get to a-levels and degree level, both male and females still tend to choose different

Gender differences in achievement can be explained best by changes that have occurred in factors outside of school, known as external factors. A DfES (2007) bar chart showed that throughout the years (1985 – 2007), there has been a higher percentage of females that achieved five or more A*-C grades at GCSE. The percentage has been constantly increasing at a faster rate than the male percentage. This proves that changes in wider society have affected both genders differently, but girl’s achievement has benefited from this more.

academic gender stereotypes, girls believed they are academically superior to boys F (1,203) = 41.50, p < .001. Furthermore, results show that boys favor the idea that girls are academically superior as they advance through school F (4, 203) = 12.86, p < .001. In academic gender meta-stereotypes results were analyze by using between- subjects ANOVA. Results for the second DV provided insight on girls belief of academic gender meta-stereotypes did not increase as they advance through school F (4, 203) = 0.52, p = .719 whereas boys believe that adults seeing girls as academically superior did increase as they advance through school F (4, 203) = 12.24, p < .001. Findings in the current study suggest that boys believe that girls are academically superior to them, but they also believe that adults share the same belief as they do (Hartley & Sutton, 2013).

Inequalities in Australian Schooling: Sociocultural Factors in terms of Cultural Capital, Habitus and Social Reproduction

I agree that the etiology is a combination of biological, psychological, social and cultural factors.

Over 58% of boys thought they suffered from discrimination. This included the belief that teachers were more likely to criticise boys than girls Licht & Dweck argued that as a result of this criticism, boys are more likely to blame their teachers when they fail. As girls tend to have better relationships with teachers, they are more likely to accept the blame for academic failure and are therefore willing to seek help with their academic problems. Some sociologists argue that boys relationships with teachers is being affected by the increase in the number of women teachers in schools.

ignorance of a belief to discover the “true” natural cause. This is a continuation of a theme

Two studies were completed to compare the relative effectiveness of attribution strategy with persuasion strategy in changing behavior. The first study was an attempt to teach fifth graders to not litter and clean up after other classmates. The attribution group was told they are neat and tidy, while the persuasion group was told they should be neat and tidy. The results found that attribution was more effective in modifying behavior compared to persuasion. The second study determined if attribution or persuasion is more effective for achievement in math and self-esteem. It also studied whether attribution of ability is as effective as attribution of motivation. This study attributed to second graders to do well in math proved more effective than persuasion or control groups.

believing that there is more than one cause. What has been thought as the main

A variety of theories have been offered as an explanation, ranging from the mundane to

This premise is true as it is the basic fundamental understanding of cause and effect as everything has a cause behind it,

For many years in society, the real cause of many things can be several examples

simpler way to explain human behavior- simply that we are a product of our environment