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2012
I've a pretty large experience of boys, and you're a bad set of fellows. Now mind ... you behave yourself Charles Dickens: Great Expectations In Nottinghamshire, the achievement ofGCSE grades by girls rose by 7.6 per cent in. the period 1989 to 1995. The corresponding figure for boys was 5.8 per cent, and the superiority of girls over boys still stands at 8.4 per cent In Solihull, an analysis of the 1995 GCSE results showed that girls gained 11 per cent more A-C grades. In Staffordshire, the corresponding figure was 8.7 per cent, and in Camden 6 per cent Bradford gave figures showing the differential in performance to be 7.4 per cent in
Recent research on the differential attainment of boys and girls at school has produced ndings in signi cant contrast to the standard account on which most previous explanations of the differences between boys and girls were based. Put simply, much previous research may have been attempting to explain differences whose nature was incompletely understood. The result, if these new ndings are accepted, is that further research is now necessary to discover the potential socio-economic, classroom and individual determinants of these gender gaps. In addition, it is important before such research takes place that the nature of the actual differences between the 'performance' of boys and girls is more clearly understood. This article is intended to be a part of that advance. It details differential attainment by gender for all students in Wales over 6 years and at every level of assessment from Key Stage 1 to A level. There are few signi cant gender differences in mathematics and the sciences (i.e. the majority of the core subjects). For all other subjects, there are no signi cant gender differences at the lowest level of any assessment. Otherwise, the gap in attainment between boys and girls rises with every grade or level in an assessment, leading to the conclusion that the problem, if indeed it is a problem, is one mainly facing mid-to high-attainers. Proportionately more girls are attaining high grades and more boys are attaining middle grades than might be expected. Trends over time reveal no great change in this picture at the subject level over 6 years, but in terms of aggregate scores such as government benchmarks, the gap between boys and girls is decreasing.
2005
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The 'Raising Boys' Achievement Project'(RBA) was a four-year project (2000-2004) which focused on issues associated with the apparent differential academic achievement of boys and girls at key stage 2 and key stage 4 in schools in ...
Gender and Education, 21(1), pp111 - 118., 2009
I start with this overview in order to ask two related fundamental questions – do we really need another book on boys’ education and what is it about boys that seems to have generated this interest (or some would say business) among academics, the general public and media in general?
2002
In presenting this thesis in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a graduate degree from the University of Saskatchewan, I agree that the Libraries of this University may make it freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for copYing of this thesis in any manner, in whole or in part, for scholarly purposes may be granted by Brian Noonan, Ph.D., or in his absence, by the Head of the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education. It is understood that any copying or publication or use of this thesis or parts thereof for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. It is also understood that due recognition shall be given to me and to the University of Saskatchewan in any scholarly use which may be made of any material in my thesis.
Literacy (formerly Reading), 2000
This article uses research data to suggest a new basis for understanding gender differences in girls' and boys' achievements in reading. It argues that how well children can read is always a prime issue in school settings. But boys and girls react differently to the judgements made about their proficiency as readers, judgements which are often rendered highly visible in the classroom. This in turn has far more impact on their respective progress in reading than the inclusion of their preferred reading materials on the school reading curriculum; or the presence or absence of gender-specific role models provided by adult readers. The article argues that raising levels of attainment across the board depends on building an active reading culture in the classroom which can encompass the broadest range of resources and opportunities for their use. The structure of the literacy hour and the emphasis on work encompassing word, sentence and text levels for all pupils provides new opportunities to put this into place.
A moral panic has broken out in several countries after recent studies showed that girls were outperforming boys in education. Commissioned by the Dutch Ministry of Education, the present study examines the position of boys and girls in Dutch primary education and in the first phase of secondary education over the past ten to fifteen years. On the basis of several national and international largescale databases, the authors examined whether one can indeed speak of a gender gap, at the expense of boys. Three domains were investigated, namely cognitive competencies, non-cognitive competencies, and school career features. The results as expressed in effect sizes show that there are hardly any differences with regard to language and mathematics proficiency. However, the position of boys in terms of educational level and attitudes and behaviour is much more unfavourable than that of girls. Girls, on the other hand, score more unfavourably with regard to sector and subject choice. While the present situation in general does not differ very much from that of a decade ago, it is difficult to predict in what way the balances might shift in the years to come.
The project set out to investigate one primary school where, for four years or more, boys have outperformed girls in standardized Year 3 and 5 Basic Skills Tests in literacy and numeracy, which contradicts general findings on male and female performance in standardized literacy and numeracy testing. The school placed a heavy emphasis on literacy programs, which appear to be making a difference to the boys. Over time, there has been a slight improvement in boys' literacy performance but the greatest area of growth is generally boys' numeracy, rather than boys' literacy. Further aims of the study were to isolate school-based factors, which are potentially responsible for this phenomenon, from community-based factors and to explore the possibility that, rather than boys being advantaged, girls were actually being disadvantaged by practices at the school. The approach adopted by the research team employed intensive case-study methods and ethnographic approaches, including in...
NORA - Nordic Journal of Feminist and Gender Research, 2005
Worry about the poor school achievement of boys is one of the current travelling discourses that is repeated in one country after another. One of the assumptions that is taken for granted is that school achievement, as it is displayed in school grades, has dramatic effects on young people's paths to further education, the labour market or society at large. It has also been taken for granted that these effects are the same for young men and for young women.
Accountability in education is often effected through mandated standards for curriculum, teacher performance and student outcomes at national or state levels, and this has increasingly occurred in Australia over the past decade. In order to make decisions regarding the achievement of these standards, evidence must be collected from sample sites or segments of the relevant populations. Funding is often linked to accountability, through reward mechanisms 'after the event' or through grants made a priori and requiring comprehensive reports. The evidence base is large-scale, but can lack detail. In conjunction with these levers for schools to act on current issues, their autonomy to make local decisions that assist them to meet the standards has been promoted, as policy makers recognise that local input not only increases the motivation of teachers, but allows them to contribute their contextual expertise to solve big problems. Since these problems generally focus on students' needs, teachers have the local authority to take immediate action, while providing evidence of their experience to inform policymakers and other practitioners.
Gender and Education, 2009
Amazon lists over 100 current titles to buy (new and second hand) in relation to boys' education: from Boys Adrift: The Five Factors Driving the Growing Epidemic of Unmotivated Boys and Underachieving Young Men; Boys and Literacy; Getting it Right for Boys … and Girls; Boys and Schooling in the Early Years; Kill Them Before They Grow: The Misdiagnosis of African American Boys in America's Classrooms; Boys Themselves: A Return to Single-sex Education; The Minds of Boys: Saving Our Sons from Falling Behind in School and Life; to the self-help books by New Zealand 'boys expert' Steve Biddulph such as Raising Boys: Why Boys Are Different-And How to Help Them Become Happy and Well-balanced Men. A similar search across academic libraries in Australia lists some 500 academic titles, one written as early as 1894 titled 'Boys as They Are Made and How to Remake Them', a paper read before the Unity Club, Rochester, NY, USA. Google lists over 54,000 separate website results for 'boys' education' while Google Scholar has over 2000 academic articles listed from the seminal Gilbert and Gilbert's Masculinity Goes to School (1998) which is itself cited by 240 other scholars to work by other seminal researchers such as Connell's Teaching the Boys: New Research on Masculinity, and Gender Strategies for Schools cited by 163 others, Mills and Lingards's Issues in Boys Education: A Question of Teacher Threshold Knowledges? Kenway's Answering Back: Girls, Boys, and Feminism in Schools (cited by 142) and Alloway's Boys, Literacy and Schooling: Expanding the Repertoires of Practice (cited by 40). Do not ask how many peer-reviewed articles are available on this issue from the various on-line databases. I start with this overview in order to ask two related fundamental questions-do we really need another book on boys' education and what is it about boys that seems
Childhood Education, 2019
Finding new and innovative ways in which those training to teach design and technology can engage with specific groups of learners is always high on the agenda so when David Allen, St Wilfrid's Church of England Technology College, Blackburn contacted the team at Edge Hill University for support with a unique project we were keen to get involved. This article goes on to detail what was achieved in short space of time and the impact it had on the students.
International Journal of Learning, Teaching and Educational Research, 2016
The conversation surrounding the underperformance of boys and the issues they face have occupied the popular press and academic articles for some years (see Biddulph [1998], DiPrete and Buchmann [2013] Doyle [2010] and Epstein [1998]). Much of this conversation continues to be polarised along gender lines, driven by those within the debate who have opposing interpretations of the issue of boy’s comparative academic performance in relation to girls. I will discuss the politics of these conflicting interpretations as expressed by pro and post feminism to highlight the contrast that this conversation now finds itself in. Connell (2011) believes that the effect of fragmenting the debate into parallel gender policies is a weakening of equality rationale of the original policy. The relational character of gender is lost by following parallel policies which results in more gender segregation at a time when less is needed. I will argue that the rhetoric espoused by authors from different p...
Academic research, educational policy and media coverage has highlighted the underachievement of boys in the education system, in particular those from low socio-economic backgrounds. Working class boys are continuously linked with educational failure and criminality. These negative images tend to reinforce stereotypes which affect the expectations of teachers, parents and the boys themselves. However, very little attention is paid to those working class boys who manage to overcome social barriers to achieve academic success. This research study focuses on this cohort of working class males who are achieving, to establish the factors which contributed to their success and encouraged them to progress to Higher Education. Drawing on data from twenty four male undergraduates from two universities, this study concentrates on the key factors which impact educational success including: parental support, schooling, individuals’ attitude, and role models and mentors. Using Bourdieu’s theory of cultural capital as a framework, it is suggested that the more cultural capital the students possess, the more likely the boys are to succeed. Those students who are nurtured in the home and school environment are equipped to perform well academically. They feel comfortable in the classroom and are able to find a successful balance between maintaining their masculine status and focusing on their academic studies.
2014
This report explores the achievement of school leavers from state and state-integrated boys' schools. The analysis from 2010 to 2012 shows school leavers from state boys’ schools had higher qualifications than their male counterparts who attended state co-educational schools. The research was carried out for the Association of Boys’ Schools of New Zealand. In 2012, 28 percent of boys leaving state and state integrated schools came from 43 boys’ schools. The study gathered data from each school on the percentage of their school leavers who attained University Entrance, at least NCEA level 2 or equivalent, or left school without a qualification. Medians were then calculated for each qualification category for boys’ schools, and comparable data gathered from state and state-integrated coeducational secondary schools for male school leavers.
2006
List of Acronyms and Abbreviations Foreword PART I: CROSS-COUNTRY ANALYSIS 1. Introduction and Background The Issue Gender Equality in Education and Boys' Underachievement How the Report is Structured 2. What the Existing Literature Says Common Theories and Practical Analyses Gender Identity: Debating Masculinity The Interaction of Socio-Economic Factors and Gender Boys' Underachievement in the Wider Gender Equity Context 3. Varying Dimensions and Lessons Emerging from Selected Commonwealth Countries Social and Economic Background of the Countries The Issue: Commonalities and Divergences What Explains These Trends? The Initiatives How to Address the Issue: Lessons and Questions from the Initiatives The Need for Further Research and its Nature Conclusion PART II: THE CASE STUDIES 4. Australia: Socialisation and Socio-Economics What Does PISA Indicate? A Government Primary School in Queensland Conclusions 5. Jamaica: Alienation and High Drop-out Rates Defining the Problem Situ...
Gender equity efforts in school tend to focus on reversing or mitigating past injury resulting from unfair or harmful practices. Much of the popular discussion about gender practices and policies in education posits that boys have suffered from the overcompensation of attention on girls' achievement and well-being in the last couple of decades . In more nuanced debates, the tensions tend to be about which groups of girls and boys are most in crisis and in need of saving. For example, a recent AAUW report contends that
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