Why boys achieve less at school than girls: the difference between boys' and girls' academic culture

Recently, research into gender differences in achievement has mainly concentrated on the underperformance of boys in comparison with girls. Qualitative research in particular points to the importance of the gender-specific cultures adolescents experience. The purpose of this article is to test quantitatively the explanatory value of academic culture with respect to the stated gender differences in achievement. Use is made of data of 3760 pupils in the third and the fourth year of secondary education in a sample of 34 schools in Flanders (Belgium). A distinction is made between general schools preparing students for higher education and schools offering technical and vocational education. It is demonstrated that boys' culture is less study oriented than girls' culture and that this difference can be held responsible for the gender differences in achievement, at least in general schools. In technical/vocational schools, boys seem to oppose the study culture.     

Perceived masculinity,feminity and androgyny among primary school boys: Relationships with the adaptation level of these students and the attitudes of the teachers towards them

The literature suggests that in school setting, particularly in the primary grades, the boy well-adapted and being the object of a positive attitude from the teacher, is the one displaying expressive or femininetype behaviors. To verify the existence of this relationship, three instruments were administered to 38 teachers who evaluated 181 boys aged between six and seven years-old. The results indicate that boys perceived as being masculine are evaluated as being more aggressive than boys perceived as feminine, whereas boys perceived as being feminine obtain higher scores on the anxiety and prosocial scales. Boys classified as androgynous and feminine and evaluated as prosocial are the object of more positive attitudes from the teachers’ part whereas the opposite is true for masculine and externalizing boys. These results support, to a certain extent, the existence of a conflict between the masculine sexrole and the student role, at least such as defined by certain school settings.     

A boy who would rather write poetry than throw rocks at cats is also considered to be wanting in masculinity: poetry,masculinity, and baiting boys

This paper draws on research on masculinities to examine poetry as a socially and culturally gendered genre. Situated in the context of the current ‘crisis’ around boys’ underachievement in school, attention is drawn to the problematic understanding of poetry as an unsuitable genre for boys. Attention is further drawn to the way in which poetry, when offered up to boys, is often imbued with traditional and outdated definitions of masculinity. We illustrate the extent to which hegemonic versions of masculinity are implicated in discourses about poetry as an unsuitable genre for boys. This is accomplished by undertaking a critical analysis of various sources such as Odean's (1998) Great Book for Boys, and Scieszka's (2005) Guys Write for Guys Read, as well as Iggulden and Iggulden's (2006) The Dangerous Book for Boys. Historical perspectives which highlight the role of sexologists in forging an association between poetry and effeminacy are also used to illuminate the legacy associated with the treatment of poetry somehow discordant with dominant understandings about boys’ developing masculinity. In this way, we provide a richer understanding of poetry and its discursive relationship to masculinity.     

The bullied boy: masculinity,embodiment, and the gendered social-ecology of Vietnamese school bullying

This article considers the ways in which school bullying is both gendered and embodied. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork conducted in two lower-secondary schools in northern Vietnam, the article focuses on the experiences of one ninth-grade boy, who was regularly bullied by his classmates, and whose experiences of bullying appeared to be embodied for all to see. Inspired by Arthur Brittan’s notion of masculinism, Elizabeth Grosz’s use of the möbius strip metaphor for understanding embodiment, and Urie Bronfenbrenner’s conceptualization of the ecological environment, I argue that school bullying needs to be understood not only in terms of the interactions between individuals or groups of individuals, but also in terms of the specific gendered social-ecological environment within which those interactions occur.     

Fighting Boys and Fantasy Play: The construction of masculinity in the early years of school

Using a post-structural framework, the paper analyses the dynamics of the process by which little boys adopt a definition of masculinity as avoiding whatever is done by girls. It is argued that this is a response to the fact that the 'fighting boys' who resist the school's demands have appropriated the role of hero in the warrior narratives of little boys' fantasy games, casting the 'good boys' who conform to the requirements of the school as despised 'wimps' and 'sissies'. This leads the 'good boys' to adopt an alternative definition of masculinity as 'not female', and in many cases leads also to the scorn and rejection being redirected to girls as a group. It is suggested that teachers should intervene in this cycle by explicitly discussing the character of the hero in these warrior narratives and showing that it ought not to be equated with the classroom and playground behaviour of the 'fighting boys'.     

Important revelations about school reform: looking at and beyond Reading First

This article reports on Nevada's Reading First program and positions it as a source of reflection for future worldwide literacy reform efforts. Qualitative methodology was used for this analysis. Students' literacy achievement improved throughout the program until the last year of implementation. Students who remained at a Reading First school throughout their primary grades showed higher achievement than transient students. Revelations discovered through the analysis focus on: Positive but uneven student achievement; Variability in achievement across schools; Challenges of integrating coaches; Challenges of sustaining changes in teachers’ practices; Failure to involve educators in policy design; and Policy changes through implementation; and, finally, Unintended consequences and questions.     

浅谈高中化学研究性课题的实施办法

新编高中化学教材 (试验本 )增加了研究性课题 ,它是高中化学的重要组成部分。与其它学科内容不同的是 ,研究性学习是以学生的自主学习、直接体验和研究探索为基本方式 ,充分发挥学生的主观能动性 ,从而培养学生的创新精神和实践能力。研究性课题的实施方法很多 ,本文浅谈一些常用方法。1　调查法无论是自然科学还是社会科学 ,调查都是不可缺少的一种重要研究方法 ,有时调查会贯穿于整个研究工作的始终。高中化学教学大纲共提供了 14个研究性课题 ,其中 10个都需要利用调查法进行研究 ,调查法常有以下三种。1.1　跟踪调查即对所研究的对象进…     

Talking about cultural diversity at school: dialogical tensions and obstacles to secondarisation

European Journal of Psychology of Education - In Switzerland, as elsewhere, issues dealing with cultural diversity raise major challenges in education. At present, little is known about how...     

What we know and do not know about supervision in school psychology: A systematic mapping and review of the literature between 2000 and 2017

Supervision is a distinct competency area in professional psychology with a burgeoning research base. Yet it remains unclear to what extent the broad supervision research base generalizes specifically to supervision of psychological services in schools for both preservice trainees and credentialed school psychologists. The purposes of this study were to map and review current evidence regarding supervision in school psychology; consider the evidence in the context of the broader psychology supervision literature; and reflect on next steps for training, practice, and research of supervision in school psychology. A systematic review across school psychology journals and psychological supervision journals found only 37 peer refereed articles (21 empirical and 16 conceptual) published on the topic of supervision in school psychology since the year 2000. The topical coverage of these articles is summarized, including its contributions and limitations. Implications are drawn for future research of supervision in school psychology.     

Class size in the first years at school: a New Zealand perspective on the international literature

During the 1980s, topics evident in the class size research included class size and children’s achievement, children’s behavior and affect, outcomes for different groups of children, teacher satisfaction and stress, the organization of instruction, and cost effectiveness. A New Zealand review tracing through the approaches to class size research indicated that the research methods used to investigate class size had become increasingly complex. In the 1990s, these topics continue to be addressed, with an increasing emphasis on the features and impact over time of smaller classes, and on the economics of schooling. In New Zealand in the late 1980s, a 1 : 20 teacher to pupil ratio policy was introduced for junior classes. The current staffing ratio in junior classes is 1 : 23. This summary review of the literature on class size highlights some issues and complexities arising from the international research and research within the New Zealand context.     

Diversity between and within: approaches to teaching about distant place in the secondary school curriculum

This study outlines some challenges of teaching about distant place and demonstrates how different strategies can influence school students’ framings of diversity. The analysis is based on an interpretive case study of 13–14?year-old students learning about Japan in a UK school. Their changing representations of Japan were tracked in detail over a 10?week period of study. The findings show that students’ representations of Japan were multi-stranded, demonstrating different levels of sophistication depending on the aspect of the country under consideration. Learning activities that enabled contact with the lives of young people from the distant place or that involved multiple images were shown to challenge stereotypes and to encourage more nuanced understandings of diversity between and within.     

Strategies for improving communication between teachers and school students about learning: a university/school collaborative research project

The research reported here is the result of a collaborative project between a group of teachers in a secondary school and two university lecturers. The group has been meeting for several years and the issue of trying to improve communication arose as a result of findings from a previous study in the school. After reviewing the literature, we were able to identify actions for teachers to trial in the school and, following data collection and analysis, we were able to refine those actions for widespread adoption in the school. We were also able to identify issues that required further exploration. The research exemplifies a way in which university and school staff can engage in collaborative, high quality research. It also identifies some of the complexities involved for schools and teachers as they try to improve practice.     

Disrupting the 'boys don't read' discourse: Primary school boys who love reading fiction

This article disrupts dominant discourses around boys and reading that often homogenise young males as reluctant, disengaged and, at times, adversarial readers. Rather than essentialising boys, we argue there is a need for a more sophisticated knowledge base about the influences, constraints and diverse experiences of boys as readers in society today. Drawing on interviews (n = 30) with Year 4 (8 to 9-year-old) boys at six schools, we consider their personal recounts of their enjoyment in reading, their preferred reading choices and narratives related to their experiences as readers at school. Analysis highlights boys' emerging reading interests, sophisticated and specific reading preferences, and changes in reading identities over time. Boys' preferences for particular fiction authors, novel series and genres dispute the common assumption in educational contexts that boys prefer to engage with non-fiction books. This finding is significant, as negative gendered stereotypes can impact on boys' reading self-concepts. It is also critical given Jerrim and Moss's recent research highlighting the importance of fiction in the development of reading skills. We consider implications for pedagogical practices that broaden reading experiences for the diversity of emerging masculine reading identities in nations such as Australia, where there is an absence of reading for pleasure in education policies.     

Power and perspective: the discourse of professional development school literature

This paper reports on the results of a study in which the discourse within 75 professional development school (PDS)-related publications was examined to determine where the power, influence, and representation lies in PDS partnerships, as indicated by how those partnerships are described in writing. The results found that while university faculty overwhelmingly wrote the articles, their perspectives and experiences were under-represented in the literature and, moreover, their influence within the partnerships appeared to be negligible. School and university administrators were similarly absent in PDS writing. Significantly, university authors and researchers represented themselves in a way that was highly deferential to practitioners and denigrated the role of theory and research in PDS work. In contrast to the traditional image of university dominance of partnerships, this research suggests that the real power and influence in PDS partnerships are the classroom teachers. The paper concludes with suggestions for creating a new, shared PDS discourse that tries to blur the artificial lines between theory and practice.     

Discrepancies between school grades and test scores at individual and school level: effects of gender and family background

The purpose of the study was to use multivariate multilevel techniques to investigate whether it was possible to separate different dimensions in grades that relate to subject-matter achievement and to other factors. Data were derived from The Gothenburg Educational Longitudinal Database (GOLD), and the subjects were 99,070 ninth-grade students born in 1987. The analyses were based on subject grades and scores on national tests in Swedish, English, and mathematics. The results showed that, at both individual and school levels, the greatest part of the variance in grades was due to achievement in the different subject areas. At both levels, it was possible to identify a dimension that cut across the grades in all 3 subjects, which suggests that grading is influenced by factors other than achievement. One of the most interesting results concerns the relation between parental education and the common grade dimension at the school level.     

Where the boys aren't: non-cognitive skills, returns to school and the gender gap in higher education

Nearly 60 percent of college students today are women. Using longitudinal data on a nationally representative cohort of eighth grade students in 1988, I examine two potential explanations for the differential attendance rates of men and women—returns to schooling and non-cognitive skills. The attendance gap is roughly five percentage points for all high school graduates. Conditional on attendance, however, there are few differences in type of college, enrollment status or selectivity of institution. The majority of the attendance gap can be explained by differences in the characteristics of men and women, despite some gender differences in the determinants of college attendance. I find that higher non-cognitive skills and college premiums among women account for nearly 90 percent of the gender gap in higher education. Interestingly, non-cognitive factors continue to influence college enrollment after controlling for high school achievement.