LoveLife | April 21, 2009 | 10 comments

Girls Make Boys Worse at English

source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/apr/21/girls-boys-english-grades

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"Boys do worse in English when there are girls in their class, researchers will say today, contradicting the widely held belief that girls are always a good influence on boys in school.

Boys do best with "as few girls as possible" in English lessons at primary and secondary school, Steven Proud, a research student at Bristol University, will tell the Royal Economic Society's conference.

But when it comes to maths and science, both boys and girls at primary school achieve up to a tenth of a grade more when there is a high proportion of girls in the class, Proud found.

Proud said boys may do worse in English when there is a high proportion of girls in their class because they realise that the girls are better than them. It could also be that teachers use teaching styles more appropriate to girls when there are more girls than boys in the class. Both genders perform better in maths and science at primary school when there are more girls in the class because boys tend to disrupt the class more, he said.

"Boys might be discouraged by how well girls are doing in English," he said, "but that still does not explain why they would do better in maths and science with a higher proportion of girls in their class.

Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham, said, "This is one study, among many, which detects very small differences between boys and girls. But you can't say that it means boys or girls should be separated. It has very little practical importance for schools.""
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10 comments // Girls Make Boys Worse at English

  • Nettle
    • 0
      Nettle  

    • How is this news? It's well-established that stereotype threat causes significant test differences in gender studies.

      'Stereotype threat' is where a study group is reminded of a stereotype right before a test and results in different test results than the group that didn't get the reminder.

      For example: One group of white people are reminded that Asians are better than whites at math before the start of a basic math test. That group will get lower scores than the group that was just told to take the test.

      The boys in English classes with girls are constantly reminded of the stereotype of girls being better and perform a little worse because of that thought.

      It's weird and pathetic at the same time.

    • 3 years ago
  • malathion
  • Agent_Alpha
  • anglcazn
  • Agent_Alpha
  • anglcazn
  • vistapoint
  • anglcazn
    • 0
      anglcazn  

    • "Boys might be discouraged by how well girls are doing in English," he said, "but that still does not explain why they would do better in maths and science with a higher proportion of girls in their class."

      This is actually very plausible. There has been countless of studies indicating how people, especially authority figures such as teachers and parents, encourage their children to be a certain way that is part of the gender assumption. For instance, two children, a boy and a girl, are helping their mom cook dinner. Without knowing, the mom will exhibit more favor with the actions of the daughter instead of the son because it seems "more lady-like" for her daughter to cook with her.

      Same applies to the son. If the father was playing catch with his daughter and son. He may unconsciously give more appraisal to his son than to his daughter because his son is becoming a "man". Gender stereotypes, gender roles, and gender assumptions are the biggest contributions in shaping their children to fit a certain role based on their gender.

      The best example is that they make barbies for girls and legos for boys.

    • 3 years ago
  • bo6us
  • FallenMorgan
    • 0
      FallenMorgan  

    • I doubt it has anything to do with genetics, but rather upbringing, when it comes to girls being better at something or the other way around.

    • 3 years ago
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