Gender-Matching School Effects on Girlss Cognitive and Non-Cognitive Performance Empirical Evidence From South Korea

Abstract

This paper investigates whether gender-matching school environments can improve girls’ interest and motivation in science. Using the PISA data from South Korea, the empirical results of this paper show that gender-matching school environments have the most positive effect on the attitudinal development of girls who are at the highest quartile of science studies. By attending an all-girls school and being taught by a female science teacher, high-performing girls become as motivated and interested in pursuing science studies and careers as boys. Additionally, female teachers generally have a positive effect on developing girls’ competitive attitudes regardless of their cognitive performance. However, the effect of single-sex schooling is heterogeneous across different student groups. While maintaining its positive effect on high and low-performing girls, attending an all-girls school can be detrimental to the non-cognitive development of median girls. These findings corroborate that gender-matching school environments can be a useful policy instrument that promotes female talent in STEM fields, but the positive effect is not universal and thus cannot be generalized for everyone.