Internal factors and education

Selection and league tables impact on girls

• Marketisation has created a competitive climate

  • Schools see girls are more desirable as they achieve better exam results

Jackson (1998) — 1 positive impact of league tables on girls

• High-achieving girls attractive to schools (low-achieving boys not)

  • Leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy

    • Girls more likely to be recruited by good schools and therefore more likely to do well

Slee (1998) — 2 impacts of league tables on boys

1. Boys less attractive to schools due to increased likelihood of having behavioural difficulties

• Boys are 4x more likely to be excluded

2. Seen as ‘liability students’

• Obstacles to schools improving league table positions/scores

  • Give schools a ‘rough tough’ image that deters high-achieving girls from applying

Stereotypes and the curriculum

• Removal of gender stereotypes from textbooks/reading schemes/learning materials has removed a barrier to girls’ achievement

• Before:

  • Women portrayed as housewives and mothers

  • Physics books showed women as frightened by science

  • Maths books presented boys as more inventive

Weiner (1995) — 2 reasons girls’ achievement has improved

1. Post-1980’s teachers also challenging stereotypes

2. Sexist images being removed from learning materials

• This increases girls’ achievement by presenting positive images of what women can do

French and French (1993)

• Boys receive more teacher attention due to receiving more reprimands

Teacher attention and communication styles - Francis (2001) — 3 negative teacher attention felt by boys

• Although boys receive more attention they also:

  • Are disciplined more harshly

  • Feel picked on by teachers

  • Have lower expectations of them by teachers

Swann (1998) — 2 communication styles of boys and girls and group work

• Boys:

  • dominate whole-class discussions

  • often disruptive

• Girls:

  • do better at pair and group work

  • better at listening and cooperating

• Group work:

  • Girls: turn-taking

  • Boys: hostile interruptions

Swann (1998) — impact of different communication styles on achievement

• Teachers respond more positively to girls

• Leads to a self-fulfilling prophecy

  • Successful interactions with teachers → higher self-esteem → better achievement

GCSE coursework and oral exams

• Favours girls and disadvantages boys

• Girls more likely to be neat/tidy/patient, which gives them an advantage in the education system

Gorard (2005) — impact of coursework on gender differences

• Gender gap in achievement consistent from 1975-89 before a sharp increase

  • Correlates with introduction of GCSEs and coursework

• Concludes that the gender gap is the product of change in assessment methods as opposed to the general failure of boys

Mitsos and Browne (1998) — impact of coursework on gender differences

• Girls more successful in coursework as they … than boys:

  • Are more conscientious

  • Are better organised

  • Spend more time on work

  • Take more care in presentation of work

  • Better at meeting deadlines

  • Are more likely to bring the right equipment to lessons

• Therefore the change has benefited girls more than boys

Mitsos and Browne (1998) — impact of oral exams on gender differences

• Also benefit girls more as they have better developed language skills

• Their gender role socialisation is more focused on talking than boys, which is more manual

Ofqual (2019) - coursework

• Male students outperform female students in wholly examined GCSEs or GCSEs in which there is more control over coursework

• Female students outperform male students in internally set and examined coursework

CRITICISM of GCSE coursework and oral exams - Elwood (2005)

• Coursework unlikely to be the sole cause of the gender gap as exams have more of an influence on final grades than coursework

Impact of positive role models in schools

• Increase in proportion of female teachers and heads

  • Leads to greater female representation in leadership roles

    • Shows girls that women can achieve positions of importance

      • Serves as a powerful motivation for young girls as in order to teach you have to be highly educated and successful

        • Instills confidence in their academic and personal aspirations by giving them non-traditional roles to aim for

3 further impacts of equal opportunities policies

1. Teachers now more sensitive to the need to end stereotyping

2. Belief that boys and girls entitled to same opportunities now part of mainstream thinking

3. Influences educational policies

Boaler (1998) - 2 reasons equal opportunity policies have had tangible effects on girls’ achievement

1. Removal of barriers

2. Meritocracy of schooling (girls achieve more as they often work harder than boys)