|
Article Excerpt
During the past three decades the focus of educational research on gender differences has shifted from the underachievement of girls to the underachievement of boys (Barnett & Rivers, 2006). Girls now outperform boys on almost every educational outcome (Marks, 2008; Mead, 2006; Stowe, Arnold, & Ortiz, 2000). Especially in language areas the gender differences are large and pervasive, and these gender differences are considered to be a major factor in the origin of gender differences in national exams, the widening of the gender gap in college attendance, and degree attainment rates (Burgess, McConnell, Propper, & Wilson, 2004; Sum, Kirsch, & Taggert, 2002).
One of the crucial determinants of boys' underachievement is their lower levels of school engagement (Arnot, David, & Weiner, 1999; Clark & Trafford, 1995; Davies & Brember, 2001; Engels, Aelterman, Van Petegem, & Schepens, 2004; Lamb, 1997; Walsh, Hickey, & Duffy, 1999). According to Finn (1993), low levels of achievement and, eventually, school dropout may be the end point of a developmental process of disengagement and withdrawal from school that may have begun in the early years of schooling (see also Fredricks, Blumenfeld, & Paris, 2004; Jacobs, Lanza, Osgood, Eccles, & Wigfield, 2002). To test this hypothesis, we need to investigate the developmental trajectories of school (dis)engagement and those of achievement. However, most studies to date that have investigated these issues have relied on cross-sectional methods, which cannot provide insight into the way educational outcomes, such as school engagement and achievement, change over time.
The present study aims to fill this gap in the literature by tracking the same group of students over time and by investigating the association between changes in school engagement and changes in language achievement. Previous research has focused either on the longitudinal development of language or on the development of school engagement, but very few studies have investigated the link between these two developmental processes. In addition, we focus on gender differences. We want to address the question of whether boys become more disengaged with schooling than girls over time and whether this negative development is accompanied by a decline in boys' learning rates in language. In order to answer these questions, we will provide longitudinal data on the development of language achievement and of school engagement measures (i.e., attitude toward homework, effort for language, relationship with teacher, interest in learning tasks) for boys and girls across secondary school in Flanders (the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium). In Flanders, secondary school consists of six years (equivalent to U.S. Grades 7-12), and students start secondary school at age 12.
Gender Differences in the Development of Language and of School Engagement
Studies investigating gender differences in language achievement at different ages drive home to the point that girls achieve better than boys in language. However, only small to nonexistent gender differences exist during elementary school, whereas the gender differences are larger at the end of secondary school (Cole, 1997; Coley, 2003; Hill & Russell, 1999). Al though these results suggest that girls have higher learning rates in language, only longitudinal research, which tracks the language achievement of the same group of students over time, can test such a claim. However, longitudinal evidence of gender differences in learning rates in language is still scarce. One of the few exceptions is Kiplinger's (2004) study, which investigated students' growth in reading and writing achievement from Grade 3 to Grade 10 and found that only at the high school level did girls progress at a significantly faster rate in reading.
Although the research results on the development of gender differences in language achievement are consistent, the research results on gender differences in the development of school engagement are not. Van Schooten, de Glopper, and Stoel (2004) investigated the development of attitudes toward literature across Grades 7-11 in the Netherlands using structural equation models (SEMs). They measured behavioral intentions such as "I want to read many literature works in the future" and enjoyment of reading and found a stronger decline for boys than for girls. In contrast, Watt (2004a) used complex growth curve models to investigate the development of self-reported effort for language and interest in language of Australian students and found no support for greater declines among boys than among girls between Grades 7 and 11. On the contrary, Jacobs et al. (2002) used quadratic growth curve models to investigate the development of language task values such as interest, importance, and usefulness in American students across elementary school and found more complex gender differences. They found a steeper decline in language task values for girls up to the end of elementary school but an increase of girls' task values during high school, whereas boys' task values leveled off.
To conclude, the inconsistencies in the research results on gender differences in the development of school engagement may be due to the variability in methodology (e.g., SEM, growth curve analysis, linear versus quadratic growth curves, etc.) and sample characteristics across existing studies, such as differences in cohorts of students or in the measurement of school engagement. The present study will investigate gender differences in the development of language achievement and four school engagement measures by tracking the same group of students over time and by using the same methodology. Doing so will make the findings of achievement and the four measures of school engagement comparable and interpretable.
In addition, the present study will focus on the associations between the development of language achievement and the development of school engagement for boys and girls using longitudinal data. Most research linking gender differences in school engagement to gender differences in language achievement is cross-sectional. Prior cross-sectional research has shown that school engagement and behavior such as time spent on homework, attention in the classroom, and interest in learning tasks of girls are higher than those of boys. When these gender differences in school engagement are taken into account, the gender differences in achievement become smaller (Anderman & Maehr, 1994; Downey & Yuan, 2005; Freudenthaler, Spinath, & Neubauer, 2008; Van de gaer, Pustjens, Van Damme, & De Munter, 2007; Stowe et al., 2000; Whitelaw, Milosevic, & Daniels, 2000). In addition, school engagement plays a more important role for boys than for girls. For example, Freudenthaler et al. (2008) found that school-related intrinsic motivation predicted boys' achievement but not that of girls. Likewise, Van de gaer et al. (2007) showed that boys' motivation toward learning tasks and concentration in the class were stronger predictors of boys' achievement. Girls' achievement depended less on school engagement such as interest in learning tasks. Freudenthaler et al. (2008) suggested that girls' lower dependence on school achievement conveyed a substantial advantage for girls, as students need to engage in learning tasks that they do not always like.
Stoel, Peetsma, and Roeleveld (2003) conducted one of the few studies that used longitudinal data to investigate the association between the development of language achievement and the development of school engagement. They found a positive relation between the development of school investment and self-confidence and the development of language achievement in elementary school in the Netherlands. This result indicates that students who showed less of a decline in school investment and self-confidence showed higher learning rates in language. However, the study focused on elementary school, a time period in which gender differences are small to nonexistent. The present study examined the association between change in four indicators of school engagement and change in language achievement for boys and girls during secondary school.
Research Hypotheses
In the present study, we used a longitudinal approach to investigate the development of school engagement and language achievement in secondary school (i.e., Grades 7-12) and the association between these two developments. To this end, we will address four research questions.
First, we will examine the development of language and of school engagement separately without looking at gender differences. We will investigate four indicators of school engagement: effort for language, the attitude toward homework, the interest in learning tasks, and the relationship with teachers. Based on previous research (Eccles & Midgley, 1989; Hill & Russell, 1999; Olson, 2002; Watt, 2004a, 2004b; Wigfield & Eccles, 2000; Wigfield et al., 1997), we expect a decline in students' school engagement and an increase in language achievement across secondary school (Hypothesis 1). To investigate the changes in language achievement and in school engagement, we will investigate the nature of the development by modeling data using growth curve analyses. Previous research indicated that linear growth curves are often not complex enough to grasp the gender differences in the development of school engagement (Fredricks & Eccles, 2002; Jacobs et al., 2002; Kolaweski-Jones & Duncan, 1999). Therefore, we will apply a linear growth curve in a first model. We then test a second model that uses a more complex growth curve, namely a curvilinear or quadratic growth curve assuming that the data fit a curvilinear model. Curvilinear models allow for the identification of more complex developmental patterns (as opposed to a linear developmental pattern) such as a deceleration or acceleration in the rate of decline over time. By comparing these two models (linear versus quadratic), we can test which model shows a better fit to the data.
Second, we will investigate gender differences in the development of language achievement and in the development of school engagement. We expect that boys' decline in school engagement will be steeper than that of girls and that girls will make more progress than boys in language achievement (Hypothesis 2).
Third, we will investigate the relationship between the development of school engagement and the development of language achievement across secondary school without looking at gender differences. Using multivariate latent growth curve analysis (Sayer & Willett, 1998), we will model the growth curves of school engagement and language achievement simultaneously. We...
|
