Internal factors and gender differences in achievement

• internal factors inclue

  • equal opportunities policies
  • positive role models in schools
  • GCSES and coursework
  • teacher attention and classroom interaction
  • challenging stereotypes in the curriculum
  • selection and league tables
• equal opportunities policies

  • feminist ideas had a major impact on the education system
  • policymakers are now much more aware of gender issues and teachers are more sensitive to the need to avoid stereotyping
  • the belief that boys and girls are entitled to the same opportunities is now part of mainstream thinking and it influences educational policies
  • e.g. GIST (girls into science and technology) and WISE (women in science and technology) programmes to encourage girls into science and technology
  • the National Curriculum, introduced in 1988, means that girls and boys now largely study the same subjects
• Boaler (1998)

  • key reason for changes in girls' achievement is the impact of these equal opportunity educational policies
  • many of the barriers being removed means school is more meritocratic so that girls who work harder than boys are able to achieve more
• positive role models in schools

  • More female teachers and head teachers than in the past
  • act as role models for girls showing them women can achieve positions of importance and giving them non-traditional goals to aim for
• GCSES and coursework - Gorard 2005

  • the changes in how pupils are assessed has favoured girls and disadvantaged boys
  • he found that the gender gap in achievement was relatively small/consistent from 1975 until 1989 where there was a major increase
  • this was the year where GCSEs were implemented which included coursework in nearly all subjects
  • concluded that the gender gap in achievement not due to boys generally failing but due to the change in assessment
• GCSES and coursework - Mitsos and Browne 1998

  • they support Gorards view
  • they conclude that girls are more successful in coursework because they are more conscientious and better organised than boys
  • they found that girls
  • spend more time on their work
  • take more care with the way it is presented
  • are better at meeting deadlines
  • bring the right equipment and material to lessons
  • mature earlier
  • girls are more likely to be neat, tidy and patient
  • can concentrate for longer
  • argue that these factors have helped girls to benefit from coursework in GCSES
  • within GCSES there is also oral exams which is said to benefit girls as they have better developed language skills
• Elwood 2005 - GCSES and coursework criticism

  • argues that although coursework has some influence on success it is unlikely to be the cause of the gender gap because exams are much more influential than coursework on final grades
• Teacher attention

  • the way teachers interact with boys and girls differs
  • Earlier studies found that teachers spent more time interacting with boys than with girls
• French 1993 - teacher attention

  • classroom study found boys got more attention because they attracted more reprimands
• Francis 2001

  • found despite boys getting more attention, they were disciplined more harshly and teachers picked on those who tend to have lower expectations of boys
• Swann 1998

  • found gender differences in communication styles
  • boys dominate discussions, and girls prefer pair/group work
  • this is because girls are better at listening and cooperating
  • this may explain why teachers respond more positively to girls whom they see as cooperative than to boys who they see as disruptive
  • may lead to the self-fulfilling prophecy in which successful interactions with teachers promotes girls esteem and raises their achievement levels
• challenging stereotypes in the curriculum

  • some sociologists argue that the removal of gender stereotypes from textbooks reading schemes and other learning material in recent years has removed a barrier to girls achievement
  • research in he 1970s and 80s found that reading schemes portrayed women mainly as the housewives and mothers, that physics books showed then as frightened by science and that maths books depicted boys as more incentive
• Weiner 1995 - challenging sterotypes in the curriculum

  • argues that since the 1980s teachers have challenged such stereotypes
  • also in general sexist images have been removed from learning resources and replaced with more positive images of females
  • This may have an impact on girls' perceptions of what women can do and thus may raise their aspirations which therefore may lead to girls trying harder in school and achieving higher
• selection and league tables

  • marketisation policies have created more competition in which school see girls as desirable recruits because they achieve better exam results
• Jackson 1998 - selection and league tables

  • the introduction of league tables has improved opportunities for girls
  • high achieving girls are more attractive to schools whereas low achieving boys are not
  • tends to create self-fulfilling prophecy because girls are more likely to be recruited by good schools meaning they are more likely to do well
• Slee 1998 - selection and league tables

  • argues that boys are less attractive to schools because they are more likely to suffer from behavioural difficulties are a 4x more likely to be excluded
  • as a result boys are seen as 'liability students' who will give the school a bad image and produce poor results
• liberal feminist view of girls achievement

  • celebrate the progress made so far in improving achievement
  • they believe that further progress will be made by the continuing development of equal opportunities policies, encouraging positive role models and overcoming sexist attitudes and stereotypes
  • similar to the functionalist view
• radical feminist view of girls achievement

  • take a more critical view
  • while the recognise that girls are achieving more they emphasise that the system remains patriarchal and conveys a clear message that it is still a man word
  • e.g. sexual harassment of girls continues at school
  • education still limits girls subject choices and careers paths
  • still more likely to have male head teachers than female