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Article Excerpt
Gender differences in educational achievement were examined in a cohort of 1265 individuals studied from birth to age 25. There was a small but pervasive tendency for females to score better than males on standardised tests and to achieve more school and post-school qualifications. The differences could not be explained by differences in cognitive ability as males and females had similar IQ scores. Teacher ratings of classroom behaviour revealed that males were more prone to inattentive, restless and distractible behaviours and aggressive, antisocial and oppositional behaviours than females. When the associations between gender and measures of educational achievement were adjusted for teacher ratings of classroom behaviour the gender differences were reduced substantially. These results suggest that one approach to reducing gender differences in educational achievement lies in improving classroom behaviour.
Keywords
gender differences
behaviour problems
academic achievement
education
longitudinal studies
academic awards
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Over the last decade there has been evidence of a growing gender gap in educational achievement in a number of developed countries (for example, see Fergusson & Horwood, 1997; Hillman & Rothman, 2003; Praat, 1999; Thiessen & Nickerson, 1999; Weaver-Hightower, 2003). Educational statistics have indicated that females are outperforming males at all levels of the school system, attaining more school and post-school qualifications, and attending university in higher numbers (Alton-Lee & Praat 2001; House of Representatives Standing Committee on Education and Training, 2002; Mullis et al., 2003; Office for Standards in Education, 2003). Although males have traditionally outperformed females in mathematics and science, this advantage appears to be disappearing (Benbow & Stanley, 1980; Hyde, Fennema & Lamon, 1990; Hyde & Linn, 2006; Spelke, 2005).These findings have caused widespread concern about male educational achievement and have led to considerable speculation and discussion about the origins of gender differences in education. The literature relating to gender differences in educational achievement is vast and complex, and a large number of explanations have been offered but, for the most part, these explanations tend to cluster around three themes: biological factors; gender theory; and school factors.
Biological factors
A number of explanations attribute gender differences in educational achievement to biological differences between males and females. These explanations propose that gender differences in behaviour, skills and cognitive abilities are determined by biological factors such as brain organisation, hormones and genetics, and that these biologically determined differences in behaviour and abilities are responsible for gender differences in educational achievement. For example, Kimura and Hampson (1994) reported that fluctuations in testosterone in males and oestrogen in females were correlated with performance on a range of tests of cognitive ability. A number of studies have reported gender differences in brain structure and function (for reviews, see Cahill, 2006; Halpern, 1997) and in some cases this has been interpreted as evidence that gender differences in educational achievement are biologically determined (Biddulph, 1997; Gurian, 2001; Sax, 2005).
Gender theory
According to gender theory, males and females enter the educational system with different sets of behaviours, attitudes and values. These gendered behaviours, attitudes and values are the result of childhood socialisation in line with the cultural norms of masculinity and femininity (Biddulph, 1997; Epstein et al., 1998; Weaver-Hightower, 2003). It is proposed that, in educational settings, male behaviour, values and attitudes interfere with males' educational achievement. Explanations of this type frequently make reference to a 'laddish' or 'macho' male culture that comprises a constellation of behaviour that includes disruptive behaviour, anti-school attitudes and an interest in traditionally masculine subjects and pastimes (Francis, 1999). For example, Warrington, Younger and Williams (2000) found that boys were more likely than girls to be ridiculed by their peers for working hard at school, and frequently resorted to 'laddish' behaviour such as challenging authority, drawing attention to themselves and pretending not to care about schoolwork in order to gain acceptance from their peer group. Within the gender theory perspective, there are a range of complex and competing discourses regarding the interface between gender, education and society (for reviews, see Epstein et al., 1998; Weaver-Hightower, 2003). Discourses regarding boys' educational achievement tend to focus on the ways in which masculinities are constructed, sustained and reinforced in schools and in wider society. A number of themes can be extracted from these discourses, including
* the existence of multiple masculinities that constantly struggle and compete for dominance (hegemony) (Epstein, 1998;Weaver-Hightower, 2003)
* an emphasis of the importance of both micro-level factors within the school (playground interactions, curriculum materials) and macro-level factors in the wider society (economic changes, changing gender roles) in the construction and reinforcement of masculinities (Warrington et al., 2000;Weaver-Hightower, 2003)
* a recognition that hegemonic masculinity varies between social and ethnic groups and thus social and ethnic factors should not be ignored in discussions of masculinity (Gilbert & Gilbert, 2001; Jackson, 1998; Sewell, 1998).
School factors
A perspective focused on school factors attributes male educational underachievement to schools adopting learning and assessment procedures that are better suited to females than to males. These arguments assume that males and females possess different sets of behaviours, attitudes and learning styles and thus require different school and teaching practices to succeed (for review, see Murphy & Elwood, 1998). In some cases, these explanations claim that teaching and schooling has become 'feminised' and schools are no longer adequately addressing boys' educational needs. In a summary of this perspective, Delamont (1999) outlined the commonly cited ways in which schooling is considered to be feminised, including: school and classroom regimes that favour females; a lack of male teachers to act as academic role models for boys; a lack of toughness in discipline; a rejection of competition; and a bias towards feminism in curriculum materials.
While there have been a large number of explanations of the origins of gender differences in educational achievement, few studies have examined the extent to which these differences are mediated by biological, sociocultural or school factors. A theme that permeates all explanations is that gender differences in educational achievement are largely a reflection of gender differences in classroom behaviour. This explanation is testable since it is possible to examine the extent to which gender differences in classroom behaviour explain gender differences in educational achievement. This approach was used by Fergusson and Horwood (1997) who examined the links between gender and educational achievement in a New Zealand birth cohort studied to the age of 18. That analysis showed the presence of small but pervasive differences in educational achievement including performance on standardised tests and achievement in school leaving examinations. These differences were explained in all cases by gender differences in teacher-reported classroom behaviour. Specifically, boys were described as being more prone to inattentive, distractible and restless behaviour in the classroom context and controlling for these tendencies virtually eliminated any association between gender and educational achievement.
A further theme in this literature has centred around the claim that, rather than considering overall gender differences in educational achievement, we should consider 'which boys' and 'which girls' are underachieving (Epstein et al., 1998; Kleinfeld, 1998; Praat, 1999; Tinklin et al., 2001). The implication of this claim is that social factors such as social class or ethnicity may modify the relationships between gender and educational achievement. This suggests that there is a need to test data for the presence of interactions between gender and social factors such as ethnicity and socioeconomic...
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