Are Females Better Students Than Males

While boys focus more on status in conversation, girls tend to concentrate on emotional connection and sympathetic sameness. Early on, boys tend to realize that there is always going to be a dominant position and a subordinate position in communication. Because of this, boys will aim to be the dominating person, or at least not the subordinate. This can be seen in competitive games where little boys try to outdo each other by saying that they have or that they are the best. When these same boys grow up, this importance of status becomes embedded into their heads so that

Evidence suggests that girls are more likely to spend their leisure time in ways which compliment their education and contribute to educational achievements. Mitsos and Browne place considerable emphasis on reading. Women are more likely to read than men, and mothers are more likely than fathers to read to their children. Therefore girls are more likely to have same-sex role models to encourage them to read. Poor language and literacy skills are likely to affect boys' performance across a wide range of subjects.

Historically boys were top of the class. Today that is no longer the case. A recent article in The Economist discusses a 2009 study by the OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development) that examined how 15-year-old boys and girls performed in reading, mathematics and science. They found that girls are performing better than their male classmates. This gender gap is worldwide. Girls score higher than boys on tests measuring reading ability in every country in the world (Loveless).

There are multiple reasons why Kelley King, Michael Gurian and Kathy Stevens are on the pro side. For one reason, they believe that the differences exist due to boys being more interactive with certain topics and methods that don’t usually interest girls or vice versa. For example, the Wamsley Elementary School in Rifle, Colorado has both boy and girl students. However, in the past, the girl students over accomplished the boy students due to the school staff being more experienced in understanding how to teach girls than understanding how to teach boys. So, the school focused on teaching the boys with their own learning styles that are also girl friendly such as online courses. The result of this was successful as boys became more accomplished than they were from before. (Pages 147 – 148).

In the present century, women are thought to be smarter than men. They are seen as better students and harder workers. According to David Brooks, author of “Mind over Muscle,” this idea of women is made because of the gap in passing classes and reading between females and males (576).

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

Arguing against Madsen Pirie on this matter are feminists that believe Madsen Pirie and other theorists that believe the gender differences are down to the factors mentioned above are just trying to find any reason to explain why boys are disadvantaged in the education system instead of just accepting that girls are doing better in education for other reasons as

However in regards to general results between both genders it was shown that no definite statistical mean yielded notable results (Alansari & Baroun, 2004). Stroop (1935) also showed that women college students also showed a difference when compared to the men and tended to have higher word reading results, but in regards to the genders showed no significant differentiation between both at the cognitive level.

Females read and write better than males, although males perform better in math and science.

An experiment at the University of California, Los Angeles proved interesting when a machine taught both boys and girls. The boys ended up scoring higher than when a woman taught them. I am wondering if girls scored higher than the boys did when male teachers teach them? I also wonder how the girls scored when taught by a machine; maybe they scored higher, too. At the secondary school level boys do perform better on technical or scientific subjects. Now this goes back to the first assumption that our brains work differently, or is it because more male teachers may teach these subjects? According to Mooney, teacher of the similar sex may have the "instinctive understanding that an adult will enjoy with a child who is going through a process which he or she went through too" (122). In other words, they can relate better with a child of the same sex. I am a female kindergarten teacher and also have a daughter who is six years old. I have no problem relating to the boys in my class. I think I can relate to any child who is five or six years old.

Biologically, there are some differences between males and females. Boys do tend to be a bit more aggressive, while girls are usually more verbal. Males also have better spatial skills, which research seems to contribute to their higher testosterone levels, as women with higher testosterone also seem to have greater spatial reasoning skills. (Kimura 50).

The NCES report (2000) on science is a little different. It reports that between 1973 and 1994 nine to thirteen year old females were more likely to score lower than males and that seventeen year old females always scored lower. In the early grades girls and boys are equally as interested in science and math as boys and their achievement is comparable, it is in middle school when girls begin to fall behind (M. Sadker, D. Sadker, and Stulberg, 1999). In every article I read there is agreement that there is a gender gap in science and I am convinced that one exists.

On the pretest a boy scored the highest with an eighty-three, and followed closely by a girl at eighty-one. However on the posttest, that same boy saw a ten point decrease to a seventy-one and the same girl only saw a one point increase to a eighty-two. She scored exactly the same on every question, only gaining a point on the last question where she had to sort by color. On the pretest, the girls generally either outscored or tied with the boys when it came to individual question average scores and were pretty much split fifty/fifty when it came to the target questions and DOK questions. However, on the posttest, the girls either had the highest individual question average or tied with the boys. The boys did not outscore the girls on average on a single question. The girls also carried the highest average score on all of the target and DOK groups. This has made me curious as to why the girls saw the biggest gains and were able to outscore the boys across the board on the posttest. Did my teaching style and the lessons I prepared cater more toward a female learning style than a male? Was the material presented in a way that was more female

Females are better at verbalizing and verbal tasks and use double the amount of words than males when talking. Females also learn how to read and write earlier than males and also have a superior sensory system. Females use their five senses much better and are able to remember sensory information easier and have better hearing ranges than males (Sasser). It may often seem that males do not pay attention in the classroom, but in reality it may not be a case of attention at all. Males actually might not hear the frequency or pitch of the teacher’s voice, so in turn a teacher needs to talk louder. Females may take this the wrong way and consider it yelling when in fact the teacher is just trying to get everybody’s attention (Moton). Males are able to spatially process information better. Having this advantage makes them better at multiple skills such as motor skills, mental manipulation of objects, mathematical and abstract reasoning, processing symbols and pictures, navigation, and computer processing (Sasser).

Unconsciously or not, they consistently reinforce and reward more 'feminine' behavior. Although it may be true that boys are more active than girls, but to say that they are treated differently is to be overly generalizing the situation. A teacher is supposed to be able to handle different types of children in the classroom, and cater to their activeness or passiveness in a class. For example, a teacher would try to involve a quiet and shy student as often as possible. The same goes for an active child; the teacher should be able to find activities for that child which would not only educate them, but also keep them busy.