Insights From an Ethical,Adventurous, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Journalist: An Interview With Sharon LaFraniere

From observing 26 precocious preschoolers during free play, it was determined that they engaged in high frequencies of associative and dramatic play. The girls engaged in more cooperative and less solitary play than the boys. The older children participated in more solitary, parallel, and less cooperative and less dramatic play than their younger peers. The higher IQ group (median IQ = 160+) undertook less constructive and more dramatic play than the lower IQ group (median IQ = 137).     

Junior Primary in the Van Dyke Level Plan

Abstract

Attitudes toward school subjects were explored in a group of sixth graders. First, correlations were obtained between ratings of school subjects on the Semantic Differential (SD) and scores on corresponding subtests of the SRA Achievement Series. Significant positive correlations (p < .01) were observed for boys in social studies, arithmetic, and reading and for girls in reading. Second, achievement at the end of the year was predicted from IQ, achievement and SD scores at the beginning of the year. SD ratings contributed significantly to predictions only in the case of arithmetic for boys (p < .01). Third, SD ratings of school subjects at the beginning and end of the year were compared by an anlysis of variance procedure. For both boys and girls, attitudes were significantly less favorable for most subjects at the end of the year.     

Instructors Learn to Help Students Apply Principles

Abstract

The Lorge-Thorndike Intelligence Tests, verbal and nonverbal, were administered to 115 eighth-grade boys and 150 eighth-grade girls who had taken the tests in grade three or four. Estimated true changes in IQ from grades three and four to grade eight were calculated. It was found that 1) estimated true (E.T.) nonverbal changes were more than three times as great as (E.T.) verbal changes for both boys and girls, 2) both verbal and nonverbal IQ scores tended to rise, 3) grades three, four, and eight verbal IQ scores correlated more highly with each other than did grades three, four, and eight nonverbal IQ scores, and 4) there was no significant product moment correlation between (E.T.) verbal and (E.T.) nonverbal IQ change scores.     

Gender,science choice and achievement: a Maltese perspective

Drawing on a number of studies, this paper explores gender differentials in the choice of science subjects at secondary school level, factors influencing choice, differences in achievement and recruitment to science courses at a higher level in the particular educational context of the Maltese Islands. In this context all secondary schools are single‐sex, the state system is highly centralized, selection and streaming are widely practised, a high proportion of students (25%) attend private schools, and physics is compulsory. The results show that: more girls than boys study physics and biology at the lower secondary level (ages 11‐16); more boys study chemistry; achievement at this level is on a par in biology and chemistry; girls achieve slightly lower in physics. At the upper secondary level (ages 16‐18), almost equal numbers of boys and girls study biology and chemistry but boys predominate in physics. Girls avoid the option of physics and mathematics, a popular choice with boys. Consequently, at tertiary level very few girls opt for courses in engineering and prefer to subscribe to courses relating to medicine.     

Drug Use in High School: Race and Gender Issues

Abstract

Drug use was examined in a sample of high school students from a small city of 16,000 predominantly working-class residents. There were 579 high school participants (296 girls and 283 boys) of whom 102 were Black (53 girls, 49 boys). The analyses were based on responses to a self-report questionnaire administered to students by their classroom teachers. Items for this study were selected from a larger database that was part of a community-wide project. The findings did not support the general consensus among professionals who provide services to this age group that minority youth are more at risk for drug use than their White peers are. The White students were more likely than the Black students to have had exposure to legal and illegal drugs. Whites more than Blacks, and boys more than girls, used tobacco, but White females were more likely than the others to be alcohol users. Also, Black males reported the highest self-esteem, and White females, the lowest. These self-esteem reports were supported by the results from a question about thoughts of suicide—Black males reported the lowest percentage of suicidal thoughts, and White females reported the highest.     

Anxious girls and laid-back boys: teachers’ and study counsellors’ gendered perceptions of students

ABSTRACT

Efforts to reach gender equality in education in Finland have been extensive. Both teacher education and policy documents for schools have focused on gender equality and gender-neutral treatment of students. The aim of this study is to explore if and how these efforts are manifested in upper secondary school teachers’ and study counsellors’ perceptions of students’ self-belief, academic emotions, study habits and behaviour at school. Twenty-three interviews were conducted and analysed qualitatively through inductive content analysis. The results revealed that teachers and study counsellors perceive that girls’ low self-belief and high achievement expectations affected their academic performance, while boys’ insecurity or need for support was rarely mentioned. The teachers ascribed the students several gender-stereotypical attributes: girls were perceived as diligent and hard-working while boys were perceived as being indifferent towards school and achievements. The implications of these results for students’ self-belief and for teacher education are discussed.     

Leisure Activities and Adolescent Sexual Behaviour

The shortage of previous research acknowledging the relevance and possible influences of social environments on adolescent sexual behaviour was addressed in this study. The influence of leisure time activities on sexual behaviour was investigated in a questionnaire survey of 212 UK adolescents. The majority of respondents were white, and aged between 11 and 19. Significant differences in leisure activities were found between boys and girls; girls read more books and magazines, and watched more television than boys, who spent more time participating in sport, in amusement arcades and around the streets. Analyses disclosed a decreased likelihood of participating in sexual and other risky behaviours if leisure time is spent with the family or going to church, irrespective of age. Other leisure environments, such as visiting alcohol-serving pubs, were predictive of having sex, although risk-taking behaviour in general and age were the predominant predictors of having had sex. The data therefore provide some support for the ecological model attributing sexual and other risk-taking behaviours to particular adolescent social environments in the population studied here.     

A Study of the Child's Concept of the Teacher

Abstract

This study explores the concepts that elementary school children have of their teachers and some of the conditions that influence these concepts. The technique of exploration involves the use of the drawings that children make of their classes and teachers collected under standardized conditions. The data are consistent with the hypothesis that boys are more rejecting of their teachers than are girls, and that boys show no increase in rejection of their teacher as age increases, but that girls show an increasing rejection. Finally, the degree to which girls show a negative attitude towards their teachers depends to some extent on the characteristics of the teacher.     

Newcomer Immigrant Students’ Perspectives on What Affects Their Homework Experiences

ABSTRACT

The author examined how characteristics related to individual, family, and school environments contribute to immigrant students’ homework completion. Participants were 192 newcomers in an urban high school designed to serve English language learners. Hierarchical multiple regression analyses were conducted with data compiled from a larger project on role of homework in immigrant adolescents’ academic lives. The author found that students’ homework completion is shaped by (a) gender, engagement in school, homework environment and learning styles; (b) parental homework support and family conflict; and (c) perceived school violence and school homework supports. The effect of perceived school violence on homework completion differed for boys and girls. Boys’ homework completion was more adversely affected by higher perceptions of violence at school than that of girls.     

Gender differences in spatial ability: Relationship to spatial experience among Chinese gifted students in Hong Kong

Spatial ability based on measures of mental rotation, and spatial experience based on self‐reported participation in visual‐arts as well as spatial‐orientation activities were assessed in a sample of 337 Chinese, gifted students. Consistent with past findings for the general population, there were gender differences in spatial ability favoring boys. However, other results provided little support for the idea that gender differences in spatial experience might foster gender differences in spatial ability; specifically, results showed modest gender differences in visual‐arts experience favoring girls, and variation in visual orientation experience favoring secondary‐school boys. Nonetheless, the role of spatial experience had a more marked effect on girls, suggesting that encouraging female students to gain spatial experience might help bridge the gap in spatial ability between the genders.     

Who Is a Good Student?

The junior middle school phase is one in which students first come into formal contact with science subjects and is a key period in the formation of their attitudes toward the sciences. Any setback in science studies in this period inevitably affects the students' studies in the senior middle school phase and even their future choice of specializations and the direction of their career development. Thus science education during the junior middle school phase is of the utmost importance for the students' growth. Studies by scholars abroad show that the great majority of girls have the same intelligence and ambitions as boys when they enter school, but by the time they graduate from junior and senior middle schools they have much less confidence in their abilities and their self-esteem has conspicuously declined. There is also a big difference between boys and girls in terms of their choice of advancement to higher schools, and a relatively small proportion of girls choose to take science courses in senior middle school. In terms of choice of vocations, most girls remain stuck in the narrow field of traditional occupations for females, such as nursing, health care, and secretarial work, and display a clear tendency toward job gender patternization. The rate of school dropouts and discontinued schooling is much higher among girls than boys.¹ Studies by scholars in China show that stereotyped gender impressions among teachers leads to incorrect conduct in education and teaching. For instance, teachers believe that boys are more clever. They make different dispositions for girls' and boys' learning activities, and lavish more attention on boys. Such different feedback to learning information [sic] from boys and girls widens the difference between students of different genders.²     

The Relationship of Self-Concept and Reading Achievement in First Grade Children’

Abstract

This investigation of 133 first grade Ss (25 percent Ilispano-75 percent Anglo and 50 percent male-50 percent female), found no significant correlations between objective scores of young children’s self-concept (SC) and their first or second grade reading achievement (RA). Moreover, SC correlations with other predictor variables, ethnic background (E), intelligence (IQ), and reading readiness (RR), were essentially zero. Only IQ, RR, and E were related to RA in a highly significant manner. At this age, RA, and possibly school in general, may not greatly influence the SC. Future investigation might profitably examine the change of SC as a function of age, mood, and stress.     

Gender and physics

Unlike many other countries, physics is highly popular in secondary education in Scotland, with large numbers opting for study at the Higher Grade on which entry to higher education is based. This paper reports a project that explored the attitudes and perceptions of Scottish girls and boys towards physics over the age range of 10-18 years old. Towards the end of primary school, attitudes towards science are very positive and both boys and girls are looking forward to studying more science in secondary school, although there is no evidence that the introduction of primary science has been a factor. By the end of the second year of secondary school, these positive attitudes have declined quite markedly and a significant decline of girls' attitudes towards science relative to boys' attitudes was clearly observed. The success of the Standard Grade physics course (a 2-year course taken in third and fourth year, ages 14-16 approximately) is easy to observe in terms of the restoration of positive attitudes of boys and girls again as the pupils move through third and fourth year. This process is especially clearly marked among girls. Surprisingly, over 90 per cent of the observed fourth year pupils wanted to continue studies in physics but a marked decline in attitude is observed during the Higher Grade course (a 1-year course which follows Standard Grade), this being more marked for boys. If the number of girls in physics is an issue for concern within the structure of Scottish system, then the focus of attention should be the structure and nature of the science course in the early secondary school.     

Her physics,his physics: Gender issues in Israeli advanced placement physics classes

Gender gaps in physics in favour of boys are more prominent in Israel than in other countries. The main research question is to find out what gender issues are at play in Israeli advanced placement physics classes. Matriculation exam scores from approximately 400 high schools were analysed across 12 years. In addition, semi-constructed interviews were conducted with 50 advanced placement physics students (25 girls and 25 boys). In terms of participation, it was found that the ratio of girls to boys has been unchanged from 1988 to 2000 and is roughly 1:3. In terms of performance, it was found that the final matriculation scores of boys and girls are similar. However, breaking up the final scores into its two components - teachers' given grades and matriculation test scores - showed that boy's test scores are usually higher than girls' test scores, while girls' teachers' given grades are usually higher than boys'. Results from semi-constructed interviews pointed to two factors that are especially unfavourable to many girls: excessive competitiveness and lack of teaching for understanding. Girls' yearning for deep understanding is seen as a form of questing for connected knowledge. It is suggested that instructional methods that foster students' understanding while decreasing competitiveness in physics classes might contribute to girls' participation and performance in advanced physics classes while also supporting the learning of many boys.     

The relationships between first name desirability and school readiness,IQ, and school achievement

The relationships between first name desirability and school readiness, IQ, and school achievement were explored using 1,727 elementary school children. Ratings of the desirability of first names were completed by 2,212 boys and girls in elementary and secondary schools. School readiness, IQ, and achievement variables showed small, but significant, correlations with first name desirability for girls; boys also showed a first name effect, but the magnitude was less. Most correlations remained significant even when the effects of parental education and ethnicity were partialled out. First name desirability was discussed as a specific case of stereotyping.     

高中男女生数学解题思维定势的特点与差异调查

数学解题思维定势是指解题者在解决数学问题的思维过程中表现出来的思维的定向预备状态，同中学生的数学解题思维过程中普遍存在各式各样的思维定势，这些思维定势的总体特点是：以技能性定势，知识性定势为主，以策略性定势为辅，具有显著的迁移性，女生的数学解题思维定势中知识性定势，技能性定势成分相对多于男生，而策略性定势成分则少于男生，在数学教学中，应“精加工”陈述性知识，注重变式训练，加强数学思想方法的教学。     

Pupils’ Perceptions of Teachers

Abstract

The study, with 536 second-sixth graders as subjects, attempted to investigate the relationships between teacher and “idea”-teacher discrepancies (hereafter designated as discrepancies) and six dependent variables. Results of the study were summarized as: (a) high-school achievement scorers tended to manifest low discrepancies, and vice versa; (b) boys appeared to exhibit higher discrepancies than girls did; (c) those more socially acceptable children seemed to exhibit low discrepancies, and vice versa; (d) those children who indicated higher school attitude scores had a tendency to show low discrepancies, and vice versa; (e) those children who rated themselves high on aggressiveness were inclined to show high discrepancies, and vice versa; and (f) there was no statistically significant relationship between peer-report aggressiveness and such discrepancies.     

Girls’ Avoidance of ‘Hard’ Science Subjects—protest or a rational choice?

Abstract

The reasons why girls avoid science subjects were studied by comparing three groups of girls and three groups of boys in the Norwegian secondary school who opted for physics, biology/chemistry and non‐science subjects, respectively. On the basis of documented data on their level of attainment in science subjects, and questionnaire data on confidence in science achievement, attitudes towards the sciences and job priorities, the “hard’ science girls proved to be more confident and laid more stress upon income and leadership than the other groups of girls. No differences between the groups’ attitudes towards science were found. The ‘hard’ science group of girls performed better than the boys in the science subjects and they stressed the importance of income in their future job as much as did the boys. These findings suggest that girls make rational educational choices based on their perception of their own aptitude for science and on their future occupational plans.     

A Study of Participant Educational Objectives in Selected Management Institute Programs

Abstract

A questionnaire designed to determine accessibility of a car was given to a Senior class of a suburban high school. Two grade-point averages were collected: the first before the students were legally able to drive, and the second after they had been legally able to drive for about one and one-half to two years. An IQ score was also collected. The subjects were divided into boys and girls. Car accessibility was divided into three categories: (1) no driver's license; (2) moderate accessibility; and (3) a group having maximum accessibility. It was concluded that the students' access to cars has no effect on the grade-point average over this period. This Is true even when their Hi is taken into account. It was determined that there is a differential pattern of access to cars by intellectual ability levels. Questions regarding the Interpretations of previous work seem justified.