Since the early 1990’s, girls have begun to outperform boys at most levels of the education system. According to Pirie in Item A, the modular courses and continuous assessment found in education today has been seen to favour the systematic approach of girls, compared to the old O level exam which typically favoured boys. These changes within the education system are seen as the main result of gender differences in education, nevertheless, external factors such as the impact of feminism and changes in the job market may also have influenced the increase in girl’s attainment. Firstly, it may be argued that the way pupils are assessed has favoured girls and disadvantaged boys. Gorard found that the gender gap in achievement was stable from 1975 up until 1988 when it increased rapidly.
Discuss explanations of psychological androgyny and gender dysphoria Most boys develop a male gender identity and most girls develop a feminine gender identity. However this is not the case for all children. Androgyny refers to the coexistence of feminine and masculine characteristics in an individual. Bem argued against the traditional view that masculinity and femininity are two opposite ends of a single scale. She believed instead that an individual can show a mixture of feminine and masculine traits and that a balance of these characteristics is desirable and healthy within a personality.
In addition to this, the introduction of the National Curriculum in 1988 removed one source of gender inequality by making boys and girls study mostly the same subjects. The impact of equal opportunities can be seen as a key reason for the changes in girls’ achievement because schools have been made more meritocratic and so girls – who generally tend to work harder than boys, achieve more. It can also be argued that the way in which pupils are now assessed favours girls more than it does boys. Stephan Gorard found that the gender gap in achievement was fairly consistent, up until 1988/9 when GCSE examinations were introduced. With the introduction of GCSE’s came coursework with the majority of subjects studied in schools.
The more they practice and the more teachers and parents instill this in their minds, the better they will become. Perfect practice, makes perfect. Most people would probably have trouble with trying to remember how they learned to read. I would have to say that I am a person who loves to read and I think that is it really an amazing thing. Also, I am someone who is involved in education and research and I think that it is amazing how learning to read is said to be a talent that it potentially impossible.
Part A: identify and explain two ways in which gender may affect a pupils experience of education (17 marks) Gender plays a big role in experience of education within the school system. One way that it does this is through is that girls valued romance more than education and so this had an impact on these girls as they were performing poorly in school, this was an interview done in the 1970s by the sociologist Sharpe (1976), he later did another interview with another group of girls in the 1990s and he had found out that they were more career orientated and this was said to be because of the different opportunities that these young girls were given due to new school systems, back in the 1970s males were given a larger amount of opportunities
21). Holland (2000) states that in 2000, California programs that utilized segregation methods that taught exclusively in English achieved more success than any other program that incorporated and allowed the use of both languages. However, Akkari (1998) claims that some effects of this type of program are that students often lose a sense of belonging to the class body, as they are labeled and set aside often counteracts the goal of mainstreaming. Students can also lose sight of their real goals as they feel inadequate to pursue
Using material from Item A and elsewhere, assess the view that gender differences in education are largely the result of changes in the education system. A notable feature of the education system in the UK is differences in achievement between boys and girls. Official statistics provide evidence of gender differences at all stages of education. On entering school, girls were able to concentrate for longer than boys; by the end of KS3, girls perform better than boys, especially in English; at GCSE, the gender gap is very prominent with girls achieving 65% 5+ A*-C compared to 55% of boys. Sociologists have put forward many explanations for these differences, many of which are a result of changes in the education system.
The classroom research Holmes mentions in the article is not comprehensive. “Talking in class is often perceived as ‘showing off,’ especially if it is girl-talk. Until recently, girls have preferred to keep a low profile rather than attract negative attention” (303). As a matter of fact, boys do not always dominate the class while girls may therefore be proactive during some issues they interested in. For instance, in math class, girls do not seem to talk less than boys.
At an early age boys tend to be more aggressive than girls, due to the ability to socialize being easier for girls than for boys thereby, creating gender difference in antisocial behavior. Also at an earlier age girls are more apt to show empathy and guilt than males. This difference may also include parenting and the way the parents respond to a difficult child, the mother being more empathetic to the child than the
Despite the fact that girls do better than boys at school, boys have higher expectations and higher self esteem than girls, a gap that continues with each year of schooling. Does this finding conform with your own experience? How would you explain this? 4. Make up two lists—what women can do to prevent rape and what men can do.