Differences In Mathematics Performance Research Articles

Physical Exertion and Immediate Mental Performance of Sixth-Grade Children

The intent of this investigation was to examine the potential influence of varying durations of physical exertion at different times of the day on immediate mathematical performance by 120 sixth-grade boys and girls. Subjects were assigned to two control and two treatment groups (Solomon Four-group Design), with treated subjects administered physical exertion (paced walking at controlled moderate intensity) for durations of 20, 30, and 40 min. at three different times of the school day [8:30 a.m., 11:50 a.m. (before lunch), 2:20 p.m.] over 3 weeks. After each exertion session, subjects were immediately administered a 90-sec. mathematical computation test. Analysis indicated no significant differences in mathematical performance at any duration in the morning, but scores were significantly higher at 11:50 a.m. and 2:20 p.m. at 30- and 40-min. durations in comparison to the 20-min. duration. There were no differences by gender of subject.

Achievement-Related Expectancies, Academic Self-Concept, and Mathematics Performance of Academically Underprepared Adolescent Students

The relationship between achievement-related expectancies, academic self-concept, and mathematics performance of 191 academically underprepared adolescent students was examined. After the effects of prior academic achievement were controlled for, a significant main effect for academic self-concept was found; as expected, students with higher academic self-concept earned significantly higher mathematics grades. In addition, after the effects of prior achievement were controlled for, female students were found to earn significantly higher mathematics grades than did male students. A significant three-way (Sex x Ethnic Group x Achievement-Related Expectancies) interaction was also noted. Unlike in several previous studies, no significant racial differences in mathematics performance were found. These students had a similar socioeconomic status (SES), and the effects of prior academic achievement were controlled for, suggesting that racial and gender differences in mathematics achievement may be partially explained by prior schooling and SES background, as posited by Reyes and Stanic (1988).

Do Gifted Females Attribute Their Math Performance Differently than other Students?

Although gender differences in mathematics performance have been investigated in numerous studies, virtually no research exists which examines gifted females' causal attributions for mathematics performance. This study examined whether gifted female students demonstrated unique causal attributions for success and failure in math performance which could be deemed as counterproductive and whether a pattern of causal attributions would differentiate gifted female students from gifted male students and from nongifted male and female students in grades 3, 6, and 9. Gifted females evidenced self-defeating causal attributions for math performance relative to gifted males in the ninth grade only for six of the eight dependent variables. For the nongifted subjects, significant sex differences were not as pronounced as those for the gifted subjects. It was concluded that there was a need for developing appropriate intervention strategies for gifted females to remediate self-defeating causal attributions for math performance in the junior high school years.

Gender Differences in Mathematics Performance

We examine the standard socialization explanation of gender differences in mathematics performance using data from children in Grades 5 through 12. We argue that gender socialization processes must be more specific if they are to explain why boys outperform girls on some tests while girls outperform boys on others

Gender Comparisons of Mathematics Attitudes and Affect: A Meta-Analysis

This article reports the complex results of meta-analyses of gender differences in attitudes and affect specific to mathematics. Overall, effect sizes were small and were similar in size to gender differences in mathematics performance. When differences exist, the pattern is for females to hold more negative attitudes. Gender differences in self-confidence and general mathematics attitudes are larger among high school and college students than among younger students. Effect sizes for mathematics anxiety differ depending upon the sample (highly selected or general). One exception to the general pattern is in stereotyping mathematics as a male domain, where males hold much more stereotyped attitudes ( d = -.90). While affect and attitudes toward mathematics are not the only influences on the development of gender differences in mathematics performance, they are important, and both male and female affect and attitudes should be considered in conjunction with other social and political influences as explanations.

Gender differences in mathematics performance: A meta-analysis.

Reviewers have consistently concluded that males perform better on mathematics tests than females do. To make a refined assessment of the magnitude of gender differences in mathematics performance, we performed a meta-analysis of 100 studies. They yielded 254 independent effect sizes, representing the testing of 3,175,188 Ss. Averaged over all effect sizes based on samples of the general population, d was -0.05, indicating that females outperformed males by only a negligible amount. For computation, d was -0.14 (the negative value indicating superior performance by females). For understanding of mathematical concepts, d was -0.03; for complex problem solving, d was 0.08. An examination of age trends indicated that girls showed a slight superiority in computation in elementary school and middle school. There were no gender differences in problem solving in elementary or middle school; differences favoring men emerged in high school (d = 0.29) and in college (d = 0.32). Gender differences were smallest and actually favored females in samples of the general population, grew larger with increasingly selective samples, and were largest for highly selected samples and samples of highly precocious persons. The magnitude of the gender difference has declined over the years; for studies published in 1973 or earlier d was 0.31, whereas it was 0.14 for studies published in 1974 or later. We conclude that gender differences in mathematics performance are small. Nonetheless, the lower performance of women in problem solving that is evident in high school requires attention.

Gender differences in mathematical performance

The present study examined gender differences in children tested at grade levels two, four and six over an eleven year period. Total Mathematics, Mathematical Computation and Mathematical Concept Normal Curve Equivalency (NCE) scores were collected from the past eleven years of administrations of Science Research Associates (SRA) Achievement Series tests. Scores on the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children (WISC or WISC-R) controlled for the influence of intellectual level. A multivariate analysis of covariance with repeated measures was used along with a test of magnitude of effect to analyze the data. No significant gender differences or gender by grade level differences were found. A significant difference was found, however, when grade levels were compared. There was a downward trend in performance on the mathematical tasks as grade level increased.

Sex differences in arithmetic computation and reasoning in prepubertal boys and girls

velop increasingly large gaps in their success rates for familiar and unfamiliar types of problems, relative to the gaps shown by less cautious problem solvers. When faced with the repeated and varied challenges of a test such as the SAT, they may avoid approaches such as working with unfamiliar modes of representation that seem risky but that offer the best chance of success. The influence of this sort of developmental process on mathematical reasoning needs to be understood before sex differences in performance are attributed by default to biological factors. When sex differences in mathematics performance are understood in terms of both problem-solving and developmental processes, it may be possible to provide the remedial instruction for girls that Benbow suggests. However, a process model of mathematical reasoning may provide evidence that girls' reasoning processes are different from, but not necessarily inferior to, those of boys. The current higher mathematics has been constructed almost entirely by men who were doing the best thinking of which their male minds were capable (Keller 1985). This mathematics is beautiful and useful, but it is not the only mathematics that could exist. Perhaps, as more women go far enough within the male system to do creative work of their own, they will produce new conceptualizations and operations that take advantage of characteristically female modes of reasoning that have yet to be identified.

Research into Practice: Gender and Race Equity in Primary and Middle School Mathematics Classrooms

A number of concerns have been expressed about the mathematics performance of all students in our schools (see, e.g., McKnight et at. [1987]), but the performance of certain groups is particularly trouble-some. For example, on standardized tests of mathematics achievement, Hispanic students and black students consistently score below their white counterparts during the primary and middle school years. In addition, although female students perform at least as well as male students during the primary school years, some evidence suggests that gender differences in favor of boys begin to appear during the middle school years, particularly on problem-solving and applications task. Are female students black, and Hispanics naturally less able in mathematics? Or do families, schools, and the create of society offer experiences that create these differences? Individual differences in mathematics performance are normal, inevitable. and obviously related to natural ability; but no reason exists to believe that female students, blacks, and Hispanics, as groups, are by nature less able in mathematics. The problem is one of equity.

Research Context of Studies for Sex Differences in Mathematics Performance

Research Context of Studies for Sex Differences in Mathematics Performance

Some Notes on Gender Differences in Mathematics

Abstract This paper is a belated follow‐up to an article by Sharma & Meighan published in 1980. They suggested that pupils who studied other numerical subjects, specifically physics and technical drawing, did better in mathematics O level than pupils who studied only arts subjects with mathematics. They further suggested that sex differences in enrollments in other cognate subjects might account for sex differences in mathematics performance. However, their results were based on small samples and did not employ any control for general ability. Using data from the GIST project 1 have explored the same issues. Studying physics did seem to improve mathematics achievement, allowing for general ability, but studying technical drawing had no effect on grades in mathematics. No overall sex difference in mathematics achievement at 16 was found, but girls studying physics with mathematics achieved better than comparable boys studying the same subjects.

Social Forces Shape Math Attitudes and Performance

Debate has continued throughout the last decade over the existence and possible causes of differences between males' and females' mathematical skills. Several observations recur as the focus of this controversy. First, adolescent boys have been found to score higher than girls on standardized mathematics achievement tests.' Second, males are more likely than females to engage in a variety of optional activities related to mathematics, from technical hobbies to careers in which math skills play an important role.2 Third, adolescent males typically perform better than their female

Male/Female Differences in Mathematical Ability: A Function of Biological Sex or Perceived Gender Role?

The effects of sex referents in test items and subjects' perceived gender roles were assessed in an attempt to explain sex differences in mathematics performance. The arithmetic subtest of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (WAIS) was administered to 50 male and 145 female college students. Test items were experimentally manipulated so that their orientation was either masculine, feminine, or neutral. Participants were randomly assigned to each group. No significant differences in performance were found. The Bern Sex-role Inventory was used to classify subjects as either masculine, androgynous, or undifferentiated. Irrespective of biological sex, masculine-oriented subjects performed significantly better on the WAIS arithmetic subtest than feminine oriented subjects. No other significant differences were noted. It was concluded that, for adults, personality variables appear to be a more salient factor than biological sex in explaining differences in basic mathematical skill performance.

Sex Differences in Mathematical Errors: An Analysis of Distracter Choices

Distracter analysis was introduced as a means of investigating sex differences in mathematical performance. The data were responses to an assessment test given each year from 1976 to 1979 to all sixth-grade children enrolled in California public schools. Loglinear models were used to evaluate the consistency of response by each sex over 4 years. A significant interaction between sex and choice of distracter occurred for a large majority of the items. Hypotheses of sex differences based on Radatz's (1979) information-processing classification of errors were evaluated.

Sex Differences in Quantitative SAT Performance: New Evidence on the Differential Coursework Hypothesis

Recent research has questioned socialization explanations for sex differences in mathematics performance. In particular, the hypothesis that differences in the details of males’ and females’ high school programs are responsible for the sizable average difference between the sexes in quantitative Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) performance has been challenged in a recent study by Benbow and Stanley (1980) . This research, however, considered sex-linked coursework differences only indirectly and was based on the experiences of an unusual sample of gifted youth. Using a more broadly representative sample, we provide a direct test of the hypothesis that the sex difference in quantitative SAT performance may be due to differences in the pattern of quantitative coursework taken by males and females in high school. We find that the male-female gap in SAT-M performance shrinks considerably when sex differences in quantitative high school coursework are controlled. These findings suggest that increasing females’ rates of enrollment in high level mathematics courses would greatly reduce the sex difference in quantitative SAT performance and that it is premature to reject socialization and experiential explanations for the male-female gap in levels of quantitative performance.

Sex differences in mathematical performance: An historical perspective

Sex differences in mathematical performance: An historical perspective

Determinants of Intellectual Growth in Women

Previous articleNext article No AccessSources of Sex DifferentiationDeterminants of Intellectual Growth in WomenDavid B. LynnDavid B. Lynn Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Volume 80, Number 2Feb., 1972Women and Education Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/443029 Views: 2Total views on this site Citations: 9Citations are reported from Crossref Journal History This article was published in The School Review (1893-1979), which is continued by the American Journal of Education (1979-present). Copyright 1972 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:FLORENCE L. DENMARK, FRANCES FRANCOIS Research Context of Studies for Sex Differences in Mathematics Performance, Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences 517, no.1 Psychology an1 Psychology an (Dec 1987): 61–68.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1749-6632.1987.tb52783.xJohn C. Weidman, David J. Krus Undergraduates' Expectations and Images of College, Psychological Reports 45, no.11 (Aug 2016): 131–138.https://doi.org/10.2466/pr0.1979.45.1.131Marlene Hamilton, Elsa Leo-Rhynie Sex-role stereotyping and education: The Jamaican perspective, Interchange 10, no.22 (Jun 1979): 46–56.https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01191439Jessie Bernard Change and Stability in Sex-Role Norms and Behavior, Journal of Social Issues 32, no.33 (Jul 1976): 207–224.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1540-4560.1976.tb02608.xHarriet E. Lerner Early Origins of Envy and Devaluation of Women, (Jan 1974): 111–124.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4684-4754-5_8Frances A. Ricks, Sandra W. Pyke Teacher perceptions and attitudes that foster or maintain sex role differences, Interchange 4, no.11 (Mar 1973): 26–33.https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02138789Mary Austin Doherty Sexual Bias in Personality Theory, The Counseling Psychologist 4, no.11 (Sep 2016): 67–75.https://doi.org/10.1177/001100007300400106Ruth B. Ekstrom BARRIERS TO WOMEN'S PARTICIPATION IN POST-SECONDARY EDUCATION1, ETS Research Bulletin Series 1972, no.22 (Aug 2014): i–84.https://doi.org/10.1002/j.2333-8504.1972.tb00821.x Select Bibliography of Current Periodical Articles, Comparative Education Review 16, no.33 (Oct 2015): 529–543.https://doi.org/10.1086/445658