Bright and Beautiful: High achieving girls,ambivalent femininities,and the feminization of success in the primary school

This paper refocuses attention on and problematizes girls’ experiences of school achievement and the construction of schoolgirl femininities. In particular, it centres on the relatively neglected experiences and identity work of high achieving primary school girls. Drawing upon ethnographic data (observations, interviews, and pupil diaries) from a broader study of girls’ and boys’ perceptions and experiences of schoolwork and achievement from two contrasting primary schools in a city in South Wales (UK), the paper will explore the gendered subjectivities of high achieving girls from diverse social and cultural backgrounds. Three narrative case studies are re-presented and analysed to explore the feminization of success and thus the tensions and contradictions as girls negotiate the pushes and pulls to be both “bright” (i.e. succeeding academically) and “beautiful” (succeeding in “doing girl”). Of key interest are the possibilities, costs, and consequences of girls producing ambivalent femininities and the rearticulation and transgression of normative ways of “doing clever” and “doing girl” in 21st century primary schools.     

Teachers' attributions and beliefs about girls,boys, and mathematics

Thirty-eight first grade teachers were asked to identify their two most and least successful girls and boys in mathematics, to attribute causation of these students' successes and failures, and to describe their characteristics. Teachers' choices of most and least successful students were compared to mathematics test scores of their students. Teachers were most inaccurate when selecting most successful boys. Teachers tended to attribute causation of boys' successes and failures to ability and girls' successes and failures to effort. Teachers thought their best boy students when compared to their best girl students, were more competitive, more logical, more adventurous, volunteered answers more often to mathematics problems, enjoyed math more, and were more independent in mathematics.     

Women and girls in mathematics—Equity in mathematics education

Conclusions What then can be said that is known about sex-related differences in mathematics and factors related to such differences? Certainly, when both females and males study the same amount of mathematics, differences in learning mathematics are minimal and perhaps decreasing. Many fewer females elect to study mathematics and therein lies the problem. Variables which appear to contribute to this non-election are females' lesser confidence in their ability to learn mathematics and their belief that mathematics is not useful to them. In addition, differential teacher treatment of males and females is important. All variables appear to be directly related to the stereotyping of mathematics as a male domain.There is nothing inherent (Sherman [30]) which keeps females from learning mathematics at the same level as do males. Intervention programs can and must be designed and implemented within schools which will increase females' participation in mathematics. Such programs should include male students, female students and their teachers. Only when such intervention programs become effective can true equity in mathematics education be accomplished.     

文科女生数学学习障碍探究

现在的文科班,不管是重点中学还是普通中学,女生的数量都占班级总人数的绝大部分。笔者在执教过程中发现,文科女生由于某些原因,在数学学习中存在着这样或那样的障碍,以至于数学成绩提高较慢,进而对学习数学有一种恐惧心理。有的女生甚至是因为数学不好才去学文科的。文章从文科女生学习数学障碍的分类及成因入手,提出一些合理的建议及看法,帮助文科女生克服各种障碍,走出心理阴影,不因数学而哭泣,真正学好数学。     

Behavioral and fantasy measures of fear of success in children

Fear of success was assessed for 61 fifth-, seventh-, and ninth-grade children using Horner's and Baruch's "fantasy" measures and a behavioral measure developed by the authors. Males and females did not differ significantly on fear of success as measured by the fantasy technique. Developmentally, male fear of success remained unchanged in the three grades tested, while female fear of success decreased from grade 5 to grade 7. The behavioral measure of fear of success tapped a drop in achievement striving in grade 7 for the female subjects. Results are discussed in light of a "situational" versus personality theory of the development of fear of success.     

Problem solving strategies of girls and boys in single-sex mathematics classrooms

This study examines patterns in middle-grade boys’ and girls’ written problem solving strategies for a mathematical task involving proportional reasoning. The students participating in this study attend a coeducational charter middle school with single-sex classrooms. One hundred nineteen sixth-grade students’ responses are analyzed by gender according to the solution strategy they used to arrive at their final response to the task. The categories of solution strategies include non-response, purely additive, purely procedural, transition, novice, and mature. The proportions of girls and boys classified as mature in their strategies were essentially equal. However, more than half of girls’ responses were considered purely procedural or purely additive—a proportion double that of boys thus classified.     

Smart girls traversing assemblages of gender and class in Australian secondary mathematics classrooms

I examine experiences of former Australian schoolgirls in relation to mathematics during secondary school. This research scrutinises misunderstandings about success and impact on subject choice that can result in post-schooling trajectories that limit what girls can do in their lives beyond school. I examine ways affective relationality, as a sense of embodied belonging, may influence participation in subjects. I frame the discussion using the Baradian concept of intra-action, a co-production that engages an ethic of non-coincidence. For these participants, a reductive high-stakes testing environment and aspirations to become a master subject evoke a powerful not good enough assemblage. The responsibility to achieve enough success incites a soliciting of a particular self in affective regulation. The dread of not excelling in mathematics was often too much to endure thus participants chose to discontinue studying mathematics. They understood this as a sensible solution to prevent vulnerability, as not good enough.     

Constructivism,mathematics and mathematics education

Learning theories such as behaviourism, Piagetian theories and cognitive psychology, have been dominant influences in education this century. This article discusses and supports the recent claim that Constructivism is an alternative paradigm, that has rich and significant consequences for mathematics education. In the United States there is a growing body of published research that claims to demonstrate the distinct nature of the implications of this view. There are, however, many critics who maintain that this is not the case, and that the research is within the current paradigm of cognitive psychology. The nature and tone of the dispute certainly at times appears to describe a paradigm shift in the Kuhnian model. In an attempt to analyse the meaning of Constructivism as a learning theory, and its implications for mathematics education, the use of the term by the intuitionist philosophers of mathematics is compared and contrasted. In particular, it is proposed that Constructivism in learning theory does not bring with it the same ontological commitment as the Intuitionists' use of the term, and that it is in fact a relativist thesis. Some of the potential consequences for the teaching of mathematics of a relativist view of mathematical knowledge are discussed here.     

Family background factors and mathematics success: A comparison of Chinese and US students

This study uses The Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) data to compare students from Hong Kong with students from the US on the mathematics achievement and on a series of family background factors such as mothers’ expectations, parental education, presence of study aids, living with different family members, and extracurricular time spent in various activities. Results indicate the following. (1) Hong Kong students outperformed their US counterparts in mathematics scores. Hong Kong has advantages in half and US about one-fifth of the family background factors. (2) Seventy-five percent of the factors are significantly associated with mathematics achievement for both countries. (3) Some of the factors influence Hong Kong and US students differently. Recommendations are made on family school partnership strategies such as engaging parents in decision-making roles in educational programs at school for Hong Kong and limiting recreational TV viewing and emphasizing value of schooling at home for the US.     

研究性数学、教育数学与数学教育

数学可分为研究性数学和教育性数学。研究性数学主要注重科学逻辑的序,而教育性数学则注重科学逻辑的序与认知心理的序之间的完美结合,后者即“教育数学”。教育数学是在研究性数学基础上的再创造、再提高,教育数学对数学教育改革具有深远的意义。     

Causal attributions for success and failure in mathematics: A cross cultural perspective

In this study the attributional patterns for success and failure in mathematics of students in Papua New Guinea are compared with those of students in Australia. The sample comprised 491 grade 10 students: 169 girls and 322 boys. While relatively few differences were found in the attributional patterns of boys and girls and of high and low achieving students, there appeared to be substantial differences between students in the two countries in their attributions for success and failure in mathematics. Possible reasons for this are explored in the paper.     

Academic self‐attributions for success and failure in mathematics and school refusal

The aim of this research is twofold: to analyze the mean differences scores in mathematic self‐attributions based on school refusal and to verify its predictive capability on high scores in school refusal. The Sydney Attribution Scale and the School Refusal Assessment Scale‐Revised were administered to 1078 Spanish students (50.8% boys) aged between 8 and 11 years (M = 9.63; SD = 1.12). School refusers based on negative affect or anxiety attributed their failures more to the lack of capacity and effort, whereas students searching for tangible reinforcements outside of the school were more likely to attribute their successes to capacity. In turn, academic attributions acted as both positive and negative predictors of high‐school refusal. Results are discussed considering more adaptive attributional styles.     

Girls,girls, girls: Gender composition and female school choice

Gender segregation in employment may be explained by women's reluctance to choose technical occupations. However, the foundations for career choices are laid much earlier. Educational experts claim that female students are doing better in math and science and are more likely to choose these subjects if they are in single-sex classes. One possible explanation is that coeducational settings reinforce gender stereotypes. In this paper, we identify the causal impact of the gender composition in coeducational classes on the choice of school type for female students. Using natural variation in the gender composition of adjacent cohorts within schools, we show that girls are less likely to choose a traditionally female dominated school type and more likely to choose a male dominated school type at the age of 14 if they were exposed to a higher share of girls in previous grades.     

From failure to success: Changing the experience of adult learners of mathematics

For the last few years, the author has been part of a team developing a mathematics course for students most of whom are women, many of whom are black and all of whom are attempting to gain entry to a teacher-training course by successfully completing a one year re-entry course. It is a requirement that teacher-training students should have attained a suitable standard in mathematics. Further Education colleges where re-entry courses are sited have a sad history of student failure in mathematics. The theoretical environment in which the development of this course took place is described in order to place the course in context. In particular, attention is drawn to the re-definition of mathematics which encourages student enquiry and experimentation in order to establish a basis for understanding the subject, and to the teaching/learning model which creates an environment of respect and confidence. The roles of students and staff in a learning environment of this kind are discussed. Particular attention is paid to the attitudes and feelings of the students and the effects on their expectations.     

Learning environment,self-efficacy for teaching mathematics,and beliefs about mathematics

Learning environment research has a long history of significant relationships between the learning environment and student outcomes. This study investigated relationships between the learning environments of mathematics courses in a teacher education program and two outcomes, mathematics teaching self-efficacy and beliefs about mathematics. These two outcomes have been repeatedly shown to influence the future teaching practices of preservice teachers but, to date, their relationships with learning environment have been investigated neither with preservice teachers nor at all in the United Arab Emirates or wider Gulf region. The learning environment was found to be significantly related to preservice teachers’ mathematics teaching self-efficacy and beliefs about mathematics. Learning environments perceived more favourably by preservice teachers were associated with higher self-efficacy for teaching mathematics, but also with more-traditional beliefs, making these findings important for higher education institutes and teacher educators.

     

The Story of Phoenix Quest: How girls respond to a prototype language and mathematics computer game

This article describes a case study of six girls' experiences with the Phoenix Quest computer game. In addition to the case study, a supplementary large-scale study of the reactions of both boys and girls to the same computer game was conducted for comparative analysis. Phoenix Quest (PQ) was designed not only to encourage children to explore language and mathematics, but also to offer game features that would especially appeal to girls. Participants in the case study were given opportunities to become acquainted with PQ for several months before being observed and interviewed. Four issues that emerged as being important to the participants were (a) presentation of the story in a non-linear format, (b) appreciation for the problem-solving elements of PQ, (c) identification with the main character (female), and (d) lack of awareness of the mathematics embedded within the game. The findings provided evidence that PQ appealed to girls because the protagonist was of their age and gender, and because the puzzles and searches were engaging throughout the game. Some aspects of the game, however, were less successful; for instance, the non-linear story format was disconcerting to all but one of the participants, and only one student identified the mathematics in the game structure. The large-scale study involved 41 boys and 57 girls, aged 8-12, from four junior school classes (Grades 4, 5 and 6). The aggregate data collected showed that more girls than boys used the postcard-writing feature of PQ and appreciated following the adventures of a female protagonist. More boys than girls were reported to offer advice to other students, discuss the game during their free time, and observe others playing the game. Some boys even formed groups to exchange information and game-playing strategies. Also, more boys than girls recognised the mathematics embedded within the game. Although these studies did not focus on teacher-student interaction, the finding that more than 25% of participating students were not able to identify the mathematics embedded in PQ, supports supplementary instruction on the part of a teacher as a requirement for making the mathematics more salient. Further research to address this issue is strongly recommended. Both the case study and the large-scale study revealed that among computer games, PQ's uncommon approach of celebrating and challenging a female protagonist is important to girls. This does not suggest that the presentation of a female protagonist will discourage boys from playing and enjoying the game. On the contrary, our findings showed that boys were also engaged by PQ, a game that encourages cooperative play and group problem-solving. In the realm of computer games, gender identification plays a key role, in first capturing the attention of girls, and then sustaining their interest, enjoyment and participation.     

Boys,girls, and microcomputing

In an attempt better to understand why, on the whole, girls are not very interested in computers, we have tried to investigate social representations of technical interest attributed to one or the other gender in primary and junior-high school. The results of the impressions formation test and those of a survey indicate that primary-school pupils consider boys and girls to be equally involved in technical fields and a girl «computer enthusiast» is perceived as a very atractive person. At the junior-high level, students no longer perceive this equality of gender in technical interests and they judge a girl «computer enthusiast» negatively. Moreover, girls themselves consider that too keen an interest in computers is evidence of loneliness and problems with sexual identity. A boy’s involvement with computers does not change his image, whatever the gender or the age of the subjects. Thus, the influence of the normative model of feminine identity can explain in part the drop in interest for computers observed in secondary-school girls.     

Positive biases in self-assessment of mathematics competence, achievement goals, and mathematics performance

The study examined how biases in self-evaluations of math competence relate to achievement goals and progress in math achievement. It was expected that performance goals would be related to overestimation and mastery goals to accurate self-assessments. A sample of French high-school students completed a questionnaire measuring their math achievement goals and their perceived competence in math. Students’ math grades for the three trimesters of the school year were collected from school records. Bias in self-evaluations was computed by comparing students’ rating on the ‘perceived competence in math’ scale with their actual math achievement as measured by their second trimester math grades. Students were classified into one of three groups (over-raters, accurate raters, or under-raters) depending on whether their self-perceptions of competence in math were higher than, similar to, or lower than their relative math achievement in their class. As expected, overrating of one's performance was related to performance goals. Furthermore, the over-raters were the only group who progressed in their math achievement from Trimester 2 to 3. No relation was found between mastery goals and accurate self-assessment.