Internal factors and education

Selection and league tables

• Marketisation has created a competitive climate

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

Selection and league tables - Jackson (1998)

League table’s positive effects on girls

• League tables have improved opportunities for 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

Selection and league tables - Slee (1998)

League table’s negative effects on boys

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

  • Boys are 4x more likely to be excluded

• 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

Stereotypes and the curriculum - Weiner (1995)

Positive impact of removal of stereotypes on girls

• Girls’ achievement has improved due to:

  • Post-1980’s teachers also challenging stereotypes

  • Sexist images being removed from learning materials

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

Teacher attention and communication styles - French and French (1993)

• Boys receive more teacher attention due to receiving more reprimands

Teacher attention and communication styles - Francis (2001)

Negative consequences for boys

• Although boys receive more attention they also:

  • Are disciplined more harshly

  • Feel picked on by teachers

  • Have lower expectations of them by teachers

Teacher attention and communication styles - Swann (1998)

Boys vs girls

• Communication styles could explain why teachers respond more positively to girls than boys

• 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

• 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

GCSE coursework and oral exams - Gorard (2005)

Gender gap in relation to coursework

• 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

GCSE coursework and oral exams - Mitsos and Browne (1998)

Girls benefiting from coursework

• 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

Oral exams

• 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

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

Sole cause

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

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

Equal opportunities policies

• One of the impacts of feminist ideas

• Teachers now more sensitive to the need to end stereotyping

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

  • Influences educational policies

Equal opportunities policies - Boaler (1998) - tangible effects on girls’ achievement

• Equal opportunities policies key reason for changes in girls’ achievement due to:

  • Removal of barriers

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