A comparative study of two nationwide examinations: Maths with calculus and maths with statistics

In recent years a group at Auckland University has made an analysis of the results in the nationwide Year 12 calculus examination and the Equity in Mathematics Education team in Wellington has done a similar investigation of the corresponding statistics paper. Both groups initially analysed the raw (unscaled) marks from the candidates for the 1987 and 1988 examinations on the basis of gender, school authority and school type. Of these three effects the first two were significant for the statistics examination and the last two for the calculus paper. The candidates were then divided into cohorts depending on whether they took both or just one of these mathematics papers. The effect of the number of mathematics papers a student took was highly significant, consequently the three-way analysis was repeated for each cohort. Gender was then no longer significant in either study but type and authority were significant for both analyses. An overview of the effect of gender in a question by question analysis of each examination has been included.     

Mathematics education in Lebanon: gender differences in attitudes and achievement

The purpose of this study was to investigate gender differences in students’ mathematics achievement and in their attitudes toward mathematics. Another purpose was to examine mathematics teachers’ beliefs and their perceptions of their male and female students’ ability. The sample consisted of 692 students (353 girls, 339 boys) between the ages of 12 and 16 years, enrolled in grades 7–9 at four private schools in Lebanon. Data were collected using the Attitudes Toward Mathematics (ATM) scale (Aiken in Journal for Research in Mathematics Education, 5, 67–71, 1974), school records, and interviews with teachers. Results showed no significant gender differences in either achievement or attitudes toward mathematics, thus dispelling the common belief that female students in traditional cultures do not perform well in mathematics and dislike the field. A main effect for grade level was found with ninth graders significantly outperforming their younger counterparts. Also, teachers viewed mathematics as a male domain and attributed boys’ success to ability and girls’ success to effort. They also interacted with boys more frequently regardless of the nature of the exchange. Implications for future research and for instructional practice are overviewed.     

School Differences in Producing Gender‐Related Subject Choices

Gender differences in mathematics are well‐documented. This article reports the results of a longitudinal study on the development of mathematics achievement and choice behaviour of both boys and girls between 12 and 15 years of age in higher general secondary education. First of all, it is shown that there are differences in the development of mathematics achievement between schools. There are, however, no gender‐related differences between schools in these development patterns. The main issue is that differences in choice behaviour between boys and girls can only partially be explained by differences in mathematics achievement. It therefore seems worthwhile to assess the role of schools in this process. Results indicate that schools neither differ in gender differences in choice behaviour, nor in their potential to transform initial achievement differences between boys and girls into an inclination to choose mathematics as a final examination subject. In other words: differential school effects in terms of gender‐specific school effects could not be demonstrated.     

Mathematics: a female,male or gender‐neutral domain? A study of attitudes among students at secondary level

The aim of the current study is to investigate whether Swedish secondary school students perceive mathematics as a female, male or gender‐neutral domain. A sample of 1300 students in two age groups, 15‐ and 17‐ years, answered a questionnaire and about 50 students participated in interviews. The main part of the inquiry form consists of Who and mathematics, an attitude scale recently developed by other researchers. The results are analysed with respect to gender, school year and study programme. Gendered attitudes were found among considerable minorities. There is a marked tendency to view mathematics as a symbolically male domain: positive aspects are associated with boys and negative aspects perceived as more female. Older students hold more strongly gendered views than younger. Boys in the science programme have the strongest beliefs of mathematics as a male domain.     

Maternal schooling and children’s relative inequalities in developmental outcomes: evidence from the 1947 school leaving age reform in Britain

This paper investigates whether mothers’ participation in post‐compulsory education impacts on children’s relative inequalities across four developmental outcomes. The empirical analysis uses information from children born in 1958 in Britain. Mothers of the 1958 British cohort were affected by the 1947 school leaving age reform, which increased the age of compulsory schooling from 14 to 15 years. We selected the first‐born cohort members whose mothers were born in 1933 and 1934 and whose mothers completed compulsory schooling only. We found that the additional year of maternal schooling was significantly associated with relative improvements in mathematics attainment for their children, but no significant differences for reading or behavioural outcomes. The impact on mathematics was mainly for boys. These results suggest wider dispersion in mathematics attainment between sons whose mothers benefited from the additional year of schooling in 1947 and those whose mothers did not.     

The Dutch gender gap in mathematics: Small for achievement, substantial for beliefs and attitudes

In general, studies on gender and mathematics show that the advantage held by boys over girls in mathematics achievement has diminished markedly over the last 40 years. Some researchers even argue that gender differences in mathematics achievement are no longer a relevant issue. However, the results of the Trends in Mathematics and Science Study of 2003 (TIMSS-2003), as well as the participation rates of girls in (advanced) mathematics courses, show that in some countries, such as the Netherlands, gender equity in mathematics is still far from a reality. Research on gender and mathematics is often limited to the relationship between gender differences in attitudes toward mathematics and gender differences in mathematics achievement. In school effectiveness research, theories and empirical evidence emphasize the importance of certain school and class characteristics (e.g., strong educational leadership, safe and orderly learning climate) for achievement and attitudes. However, there is little information available at to whether these factors have the same or a different influence on the achievement of girls and boys. This study used the Dutch data from TIMSS-2003 to explore the relationship between school- and class characteristics and the mathematics achievement and attitudes for both girls and boys in Grade 4 of the primary school. The explorations documented in this paper were guided by a conceptual model of concentric circles and involved multilevel analyses. Interaction effects with gender were assessed for each influencing factor that turned out to have a significant effect. The results of these analyses provide additional insight into the influence that non-school-related and school-related factors have on the mathematics achievement and attitudes of girls and boys.     

Accounting for the gender gaps in student performance in reading and mathematics: evidence from 31 countries

In most countries, girls perform better than boys in reading but worse in mathematics. However, there is much variation between countries. Explanations for the gender gaps include the organisation of the school system, students' expectations and macro‐societal factors. The purpose of this paper is to account for gender differences in both reading and mathematics among 15‐year‐old students using data from the OECD's 2000 Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) project. In most countries, school system factors are associated with the gender gap in reading but not in mathematics. Generally, gender differences in students' occupational expectations do not account for the gender gaps, although expectations contribute to the gender gaps in reading in New Zealand and the United States. Although several macro‐societal factors—the proportion of women in the workforce, societal inequality and public sector spending—are associated with the gender gap in reading, the correlations are only moderate, unstable and, importantly, are not associated with the gender gaps in mathematics. The much stronger association between the gender gaps in reading and mathematics across countries implies that they are both influenced by policy: the extent that countries have successfully implemented policies to promote the educational outcomes of girls and young women. In such countries the gender gap in mathematics is small or non‐existent but the gender gap in reading is relatively large. Policies shift both gender gaps in tandem.     

Gender equity in mathematical achievement: the case of China

Gender differences in achievement in mathematics, a traditionally male-stereotyped subject, have long been a concern for many educators around the world. Gender differences in mathematical achievement have decreased in recent decades, especially in Western countries, and become small or insignificant in large-scale tests, such as the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA). The situation in China has not yet been studied. The recent PISA report lists China B-S-J-G (representing Beijing–Shanghai–Jiangsu–Guangdong) as an educational system with no significant gender difference in mathematical achievement. Based on a secondary analysis of PISA 2015 mathematics data from China B-S-J-G, this study more deeply scrutinized gender differences in Chinese students’ mathematical performance, emphasizing societal factors, namely students’ socioeconomic status, school level, school type, school location, and socioeconomic status at school level. This analysis revealed important differences within the overall picture. Most importantly, significantly more boys than girls scored in the top tier of mathematics achievement. At the lower- and upper-secondary school levels, boys performed significantly better than girls, with the achievement difference increasing at the upper-secondary level. Furthermore, this study found that, on average, Chinese (B-S-J-G) girls achieved significantly lower average scores on the PISA 2015 mathematics test than boys in the same school. Overall, students’ individual characteristics and school characteristics need to be separated and both taken into account to examine the role of gender in mathematical achievement, which has not been thoroughly investigated in the past.     

Pygmalion and the gender gap: do teacher expectations contribute to differences in achievement between boys and girls at the beginning of schooling?

ABSTRACT

This study examined the role of teacher expectations in the emerging gender gaps in reading and mathematics in the first year of schooling. Therefore, we first investigated whether boys and girls differ in their vulnerability to teacher expectancy effects. Second, we analysed whether gender-specific effects of teacher expectations contribute to gender achievement gaps. Our analyses were based on 1,025 first-grade students in Germany. Among the majority of the students, boys and girls did not differ in their vulnerability to teacher expectancy effects. Further analyses examined a subgroup of students who were targets of relatively strong teacher expectation bias and who showed unexpectedly high or low achievement gains. In this specific subgroup, girls’ mathematics achievement was more adversely affected by negatively biased expectations and benefitted less from positive bias than boys’ achievement. Mediation analyses revealed that teacher expectation bias did not substantially contribute to gender gaps in reading or mathematics.     

Student gender stereotypes: contrasting the perceived maleness and femaleness of mathematics and language

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the gender stereotypes endorsed by elementary and high school students regarding mathematics and language. We developed a questionnaire allowing students to rate mathematics and language as either male or female domains and administered it to a sample of 984 elementary and high school French‐speaking Canadian students (Grades 6, 8, and 10). Results showed that, with the exception of Grade 6 boys, students did not believe that mathematics was a male domain, or even conceived of mathematics as a predominantly female domain, suggesting that the traditional stereotype favouring boys in mathematics might have changed over the past few years. Moreover, language was clearly viewed as a female domain. Overall, our findings suggest that boys seem to be in need of encouragement in school, especially regarding language, where the advantage given to girls is particularly salient.     

Preliminary Findings of the IEA Reading Literacy Study: New Zealand achievement in the national and international context

This paper focuses on the preliminary reading literacy test scores for New Zealand, of students in the grade levels where most 9‐ (Standard 3) and 14‐ (Form 4) year‐olds were to be found. In addition to some within country analyses, New Zealand results are compared with the results for the probability samples of students in 32 systems of education which participated in the IEA study of Reading Literacy. Within country comparisons by gender and ethnicity reveal large differences in favour of Pakeha students at both levels, and gender differences in favour of girls particularly at the Standard 3 level. Between country comparisons of results suggest high levels of reading competence among the New Zealand students in the target age groups.     

Gender Differences in Mathematics Participation: an Australian perspective

Gender differences in many areas of participation in school are receding, but the gap favouring males in mathematics study in senior secondary school persists. This study attempted to identify some of the dimensions underlying gender differences in mathematics participation. The data from a survey of Years 10, 11 and 12 students at four high schools were used to examine the relationships between the gender differences in attitudes towards mathematics and the participation in senior school courses. The findings suggest that the separation of senior school mathematics into academic and non-academic subjects was more efficient for boys than for girls because in the junior years of high school boys develop more positive views of mathematics and of themselves as mathematics learners leading to them more often selecting the university-preferred options. Not all girls were disadvantaged, however. Girls from middle-class backgrounds, particularly those from professional and managerial origins, tended to remain confident and retained their interest in mathematics supporting high enrolment rates in the specialist maths stream at the senior level of high school. The social background offset the effects of gender.     

Aiming higher: Learning profiles and gender equality in 10 low- and middle-income countries

Global education goals have many aims, among them universal basic schooling, universal literacy and numeracy, and gender equality. We use unique, nationally representative data on adult learning outcomes to examine the link between schooling and literacy in ten low- and middle-income countries. We simulate scenarios of increasing school grade attainment, increasing learning per year, and achieving gender equality, and examine learning outcomes in each. In six of the ten countries only about half or less of younger adults (aged 18−37) with primary completion as their highest schooling can read a few sentences without help. Simulations show that achieving universal primary completion would still leave many adults functionally illiterate: in India nearly a third of adults would still be unable to read. Our simulations further show that, while achieving equality of schooling attainment would produce improvements in women’s literacy, in many countries this would still leave a third of women unable to read. Gender equality of learning per year produces very little gain as, once in school, girls’ learning nearly matches that of boys. In nearly all countries steepening the learning profiles for all students to the best-performing of the ten countries would lead to greater gains in literacy for women than achieving gender equality in both schooling and learning. Achieving learning for all will require both eliminating gender gaps but also improving how much is learned while in school.     

FACTORS IMPLICATED IN HIGH MATHEMATICS ACHIEVEMENT

The most recent Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) (2009) mathematical literacy results provide evidence that in Western English-speaking countries, including Australia, the gender gap in achievement appears to be widening in favour of males. In the study reported in this article, the aim was to explore the effects of gender, school type (a measure of socioeconomic background), school learning setting and geographic location on mathematics performance amongst the highest achievers (top 2 %) in the grade 12 Victorian Certificate of Education (VCE) mathematics subjects based on results reported in a metropolitan newspaper. The analyses revealed that over the period 2007–2009, males, students from higher socioeconomic backgrounds and those attending metropolitan schools predominated amongst the highest achievers in all three VCE mathematics subjects. Students in single-sex settings, particularly males, were also over-represented. For each factor, the dominance was more pronounced as the level of difficulty of the mathematics subject increased.     

Modelling of factors influencing gender difference in mathematics achievement using TIMSS 2011 data for Singaporean eighth grade students

Numerous studies have attributed gender difference in mathematics achievement to various sociocultural influences. Singapore is a country of higher gender equality as represented in the Global Gender Gap Index and Singaporean girls perform as well or higher than boys in international mathematics assessments. This study develops a conceptual model to examine the relationship and effects of parental involvement in education, teacher efficacy, and students’ attitudes towards mathematics on mathematics achievement for Singaporean eighth grade students using Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011 data. The study finds that there is no significant gender difference in parental involvement in education and teacher efficacy and there is no gender difference in the attitude of like learning mathematics among Singaporean eighth grade students. The attitude of confidence in mathematics has positive and significant effect on mathematics achievement and the effect is greater for girls than boys. Parental involvement in education and teacher efficacy were found to have greater effect on girls’ confidence in mathematics than on boys’. As such, increasing involvement in mathematics education and providing positive reinforcement to raise girls’ self-confidence in mathematics by parents and teachers should be an integral part of any initiative to reduce gender gap in mathematics achievement.     

Gender differences in mathematics achievement: an investigation of gender differences by item difficulty interactions

This paper presents findings from research exploring gender by item difficulty interaction on mathematics test scores in Cyprus. Data steamed from 2 longitudinal studies with 4 different age groups of primary school students. The hypothesis that boys tended to outperform girls on the hardest items and girls tended to outperform boys on the easiest items was generally supported for each year group. The effect of social class was also examined. For each social class, there was a correlation between the item difficulty differences estimated on girls and boys separately and the difficulty of the item estimated on the whole sample. It is claimed that in understanding gender differences in mathematics, item difficulty should be treated as an independent variable. Suggestions for further studies are provided, and implications for the development of assessment policy in mathematics are drawn.     

A Helping Hand? A Study into an England-wide Peer Mentoring Program to Address Bullying Behavior

The purpose of this paper is to provide findings from a study into a school peer mentoring program which matched children aged between 9 and 12?years of age who were bullied or at-risk of being bullied with older student mentors. In total, 372 mentees as well as a comparison group of 1,249 young people from 22 English schools completed a questionnaire at the start and end of the school year (approximately nine months). An examination of the results showed that mentored students reported higher levels of bullying and life satisfaction, and statistically significant higher levels of school satisfaction than the comparison group at the end of the school year. These outcomes did not significantly vary by the mentee’s age, gender, or the number of mentoring meetings. Potential reasons for these findings are explored with a particular emphasis on the school environment and its influence on mentee–mentor and mentee–teacher relationships. The findings will have potential implications for future research and program developers.     

OP-ED National testing in mathematics: One province's predicament

Ability grouping is a common practice in many mathematics classrooms. Its negative effects on students have been documented in research spanning two decades or more, and yet it is still widely implemented—in some countries even mandated. Using data from interviews with Australian students in the compulsory years of secondary schooling (14–16 year‐olds), and using the theoretical tools offered by Bourdieu, I argue that the objective practices of school mathematics create an environment through which students internalize the practices to develop a sense of self, a habitus. This habitus potentially is more or less empowering, depending on the experiences within these streamed settings.     

Associations of student temperament and educational competence with academic achievement: The role of teacher age and teacher and student gender

We examined associations of teacher-perceived student temperament and educational competence with school achievement, and how these associations were modified by students’ gender and teachers’ gender and age. Participants were 1063 Finnish ninth-graders (534 boys) and their 29 Mother Language teachers (all female) and 43 Mathematics teachers (17 male) from a population-based sample. All temperament and educational competence traits were associated with both grades, but more clearly with Mathematics. Boys received systematically lower Mother Language grades but higher Mathematics grades than girls. Teacher gender had no effect on school grades, while teacher age had an effect only on Mother Language.     

New Zealand students' perceptions of parental involvement in learning and schooling

This study investigated the relation between multidimensional aspects of high school students' perceptions of their parental involvement and their achievement. It explored differences in socio-economic backgrounds, ethnicity, gender, and higher and lower achieving students, and a structural model was developed to further investigate these relations. A parental involvement questionnaire and measures of efficacy, liking and achievement in mathematics and reading were administered to a sample of 1,554 New Zealand high school students from 59 schools. In the view of students, there is support for parents to be talking to their children about learning and schooling and having high expectations of them and their future in learning, especially for lower achieving students. Students who claim that their parents are talking with their teachers or attending school meetings are more likely to have lower achievement. The implications from this study relate to developing student self-regulation for learning in home, providing more surface than deeper learning as homework, and assisting parents to learn the language of learning and schooling.