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Boys have for some time been significantly behind girl’s level of achievement in schools. The average gap in gender was at a 9.6% difference in 2006, with the smallest gender gap (5% or less) found in Maths and Science (DCSF, 2006).
Schools attempted to tackle the differences between boys and girls levels of attainment. In the 1970’s and 1980’s the concerns for the welfare of learning were directed at girls; who had been falling short of boy’s attainment levels. Many factors appear to account for this lag in achievement – a major factor may have been the representation of girls in the media, in jobs at the time, and especially in textbooks used by the schools; where males were represented twice as much as females, in much more active and dominant roles (Lobban, 1974 cited in Gaine & George, 1999).
In 1988 the National Curriculum was put in place; requiring both boys and girls to take the same range of subjects until the age of 16. Barriers, both internal – concerns, attitudes and expectations of succeeding, and external – expectations of individuals, schools and structures around them – were identified as holding girl’s back in schooling (Whaley, 1989 cited in Singh, 1994).
After the initial struggle for girls in schools it now appears they are gaining the upper hand. At the ages of 7, 11 and 14; when following the National Curriculum it appears girls are outperforming boys in English (EOC, 1995 cited in Gaine and George, 1999). By 1993 they had most certainly reversed the gender gap which occurred in Math to their advantage although the gap was still much wider in English (Burgess et al, 2004). At A – level 82% of girls now stay on in comparison to 72% of boys and a gender difference in subject choice is still prevailant – girls tend to choose English and boys veer towards studying Mathematics (DCSF, 2007). FIND JOURNAL WHICH OUTLINES SPATIAL AND VERBAL DIFFS IN MALES AND FEMS.
Although girls are outperforming boys in many aspects...