'Living in Different Worlds': Gender differences in the developing sexual values and attitudes of primary school children

A small-scale study into the developing sexual values and attitudes of 35 9 and 10 year-old children found a number of important gender differences. The girls were more willing to offer detailed, serious reflections, whereas the boys' contributions were shorter and more jokey, with a greater use of sexual slang. The family was the main source of sexual information for the girls, but friends and the media for the boys. The boys were more interested in contraception, abortion and the mechanics of intercourse and childbirth, whereas the girls were more interested in relationships and more aware of the pain that could be caused by loss of children and early pregnancy. The girls had clearer and more realistic aspirations than the boys in terms of both career and family life, and understood the dangers which drugs, alcohol and violence could pose to relationships; the boys, on the other hand, sometimes appeared insecure in their self-image, and tended, albeit in a joking manner, to link violence and sex. These findings are rich in implications both for policy and practice in sex education and more generally for an understanding of the way that a differentiated sexual identity develops in boys and girls.     

The influence of group size on children's competitive behavior

The present research was designed to test the hypothesis that children would compete more in tetrads than in dyads. Twenty-two pairs of male and 14 pairs of female target children (N = 72) played a competitive game in both tetrads and dyads. Consistent with the hypothesis, male target children competed more in tetrads than in dyads. This hypothesis was not supported for females, however. Analyses of the dynamics of tetrads and dyads further demonstrated that based on a global measure of smiling, the emotional atmosphere was less positive in tetrads than in dyads. The causes and consequences of interaction in different sized social groups are discussed.     

Diverse aims,challenges and opportunities for assessing outdoor learning: a critical examination of three cases from practice

In this article, we consider the term ‘assessment’, its relationship to ‘evaluation’ and the implications for outdoor learning in the light of changing educational policy on assessment in England. A small-scale empirical study of how assessment was practised by two primary teachers on a residential trip and two further cases in practice are used to examine how emphases in assessment are shaped by contexts. Finally, we reflect on how conceptual frameworks that integrate planning, pedagogy and assessment might support assessment and evaluation practice in outdoor learning in a new era of apparent ‘freedom’ for teachers.