Gender Differences in Achievement - Internal Factors Flashcards
What are the 6 internal factors that have contributed to the gender differences in achievement?
1) . Equal opportunities policies.
2) . Positive role models in schools.
3) . GCSE and coursework.
4) . Teacher attention.
5) . Challenging stereotypes in the curriculum.
6) . Selection and league tables.
Who discusses equal opportunity policies?
Boaler (1998) =
barriers have been removed, giving girls more equality in subjects, allowing them to work harder.
What does Gorard find about the gender gap and the introduction of GCSE’s?
Gender gap increased in 1989 –> when GCSEs were introduced.
- girls were better at coursework.
Who says girls are better at coursework?
Mitsos and Browne (1998).
Why do Mitsos and Browne say girls are better at coursework?
1) . spend more time on it.
2) . take more care.
3) . better at meeting deadlines.
4) . bring the correct equipment to lessons.
Who found boys attract more teacher attention for reprimands?
Jane and French (1993).
What did Francis (2001) find about teachers’ attention to boys?
Gave boys more attention, but =
- punished more harshly.
- felt they were being picked on by the teachers.
What did Swann (1998) find about girls and paired work?
Girls preferred paired/group work as boys aren’t interrupting them.
- their speech is better as it involves turn taking.
Who found that teachers have challenged sexist stereotypes since the 1980s?
Weiner (1995) =
- also found sexist images have been removed from learning material.
What did Jackson (1998) find about league tables and the selection of pupils?
As girls tend to do better =
- they are more attractive to schools.
- so are recruited by good schools (self-fulfilling prophecy).
Why does Slee (1998) say boys are less attractive to schools?
Because they are more likely to suffer behavioural problems =
- 4x more likely to be excluded.
What group of girls are more likely to be unsuccessful?
w/c =
- develop feminine identities.
- get boyfriends to achieve symbolic capitalism.
- adopt ‘loud’ feminine identities.
What did Evans find about successful w/c girls?
They wanted to go to uni to increase their earning power =
- this was also to help their families, reflecting their identities.
