Internal factors

• What changes have there been regarding feminism and the education system?

  feminist ideas are now widespread in the education system, particularly the basic belief in gender equality and that boys and girls are equally capable and should have the same opportunities
• What are the GIST and WISE programmes?

  they encourage girls into science and technology (the STEM subjects)
• What is the National Curriculum?

  introduced in 1988, it means that girls and boys now largely study the same subjects, e.g. making science compulsory for all genders
• What does meritocracy mean?

  that education is now mostly based on equal opportunity
• What affect does an increase in female role models have on girls' achievement?

  these positive, pro-education role models encourage girls to see school as part of the female 'gender domain', meaning that they perceive educational success as a desirable feminine characteristic
• Mitsos and Browne (1998)

  they found that girls do better than boys in coursework because they are more conscientious and organised. generally girls mature earlier and concentrate better
• Gorard (2005)

  found that the gender gap in achievement increased sharply when GCSE was introduced in 1988, because coursework was a major part of it
• How have reading schemes, textbooks and other learning materials affected girls' achievement?

  females have been under-represented in these materials and were portrayed as subordinate to males, in
• What changes have been made to textbooks since the 1980s?

  sexist images have been removed and replaced with more positive images of females. this may raise girls' aspirations by showing them that they are not limited in what they can achieve
• Spender (1983)

  found that teachers often spend more time interacting with boys than they do girls, however more recent studies challenge this
• French and French (1993)

  found that teachers paid boys and girls equal amounts of attention for academic reasons, however boys did attract more attention due to their misbehaviour
• Francis (2001)

  found that although boys received more attention, they were disciplined more harshly and felt that teachers picked on them and had lower expectations of them
• Swann (1998)

  found that boys dominate class discussions whereas girls prefer group work and are better at listening and cooperating, which means that teachers respond more positively to girls
• What has marketisation policies led to?

  they have led to the publication of league tables, creating competition between schools giving them an incentive to recruit more students
• Why are girls more attractive to schools?

  boys are lower achieving and more badly behaved, meaning that schools view them as 'liability students' who will give them a bad image and produce poor results