Suggest Three Ways In Which Teaching Might Be Altered To Favour Boys

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

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).

Interestingly enough, there are many traditional and social reasons responsible for girls decision of not getting involved in math and science. However, the main reason why females are behind in the field of science and technology is “Inflicted female disability” i.e. turning themselves away from studies. In adolescence, girls begin to fear that they will be unattractive to boys if they are typed as “brains” (Susan 114). So, they try to keep themselves away from advanced biology, physics, calculus and other studious subjects. Although we are in the 21st century and are the supporter of gender equality however the underlying discrimination

It is no secret that, in general, boys and girls differ in their learning styles. Capitalizing on these differences could advance classroom performance. With on-going concerns about student success in school, any changes in the classroom that could increase student achievement should be considered. Recognizing the learning differences between boys and girls, one of the changes that could be instituted is single-gender classrooms.

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.

Schlosser. She carried out the study while on a post-doctoral fellowship at Princeton University, and will study the effects of gender in higher education lecture halls next. This is one of few studies of its kind to use scientific data to address the question of gender effects in school. Boys with more female peers in their classes show higher enrollment rates in both advanced math and science classes, but overall benefits were found in all grades for both sexes. Prof. Schlosser found that primary-school classrooms with a female majority showed increased academic success for both boys and girls, along with a notable improvement in subjects like science and math. In the middle schools, girls were found to have better academic achievement in English, languages and math. And in high school, the classrooms which had the best academic achievements overall were consistently those that had a higher proportion of girls enrolled. A higher percentage of girls lowers the amount of classroom disruption and fosters a better relationship between pupils and their teacher, a study of the data suggests. Teachers are less tired in classrooms with more girls, and pupils overall seem to be more satisfied when a high female-to-male ratio persists. Prof. Schlosser was inspired to the study by a “renewed interest on the effects of classroom gender composition on students’ learning, since a new amendment to America’s Title IX

There is a lot of compelling evidence to support the view that changes in the education system has resulted in differences in educational achievement between males and females. There is no denying that the statistics show girls are outperforming boys at every level in education, but the question is whether this is largely related to changes in the assessment process and the way each of the genders is educated or whether there are other factors causing the differences.

Devlin’s solution for this is to segregate the classrooms into single-sex classrooms so boys and girls can learn better. He also thinks it will remove the difference and the conflicts.

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.

However social class is not the only factor influencing educational achievement; Girls achieve higher grades than boys in Standard Assessment Tests (SATs) and GCSE’s (Mitsos and Browne, 1998), in 2010 to 2011 54.3 per cent of black pupils achieved five or more A* to C grades at GCSE compared to 58 per cent of white pupils and 61.8 per cent of Asian pupils (Attew, 2012). Therefore educational achievement is also affected by gender and ethnicity.

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).

Gender equity in terms of education is about the socialization of men and women and the results of this process on the life outcomes of the two genders (Husen & Postlethwaite, 1994). In the United States, the education system is required to treat males and females equally. There has been much research done to compare the genders in all areas. In the past, research has found that women fall far behind men in many areas such as math, and science, but men lag behind women in certain areas as well. Over the years, many provisions have been made with the goal of equalizing the treatment of girls and boys in public education. These improvements are proven successful as women, as well as men, are advancing in areas where they tend to lag