Gender Gap In Academic Achievement Research Articles

Gender gap in school learning: Micro-level evidence from Morocco

The gender gap in education has been a significant concern for Moroccan policymakers and researchers, but the quantitative measurement of this gap has often been overlooked. This study specifically examines the gender gap in academic achievement in reading and mathematics at both the national and residential levels. The objective is to identify the factors that influence gender performance differences and their magnitude. To achieve this, micro-level data from 5427 students extracted from the PIRLS 2016 and TIMSS 2015 surveys were analyzed. The Blinder-Oaxaca (1973) decomposition technique was employed to assess the significance of the differences and to break down the performance gaps by incorporating explanatory variables related to schools, teachers, and students' characteristics. The results reveal a significant gender difference in favor of girls in reading, both nationally and in urban areas. In mathematics, the gender gap is not statistically significant and is approximately 3 points at the national level. Only 29% of the reading gap can be explained by the selected variables, while this percentage is around 20% for the math gap. Pre-school attendance, maternal education, schools, and schools' characteristics are identified as significant factors influencing the reading gap at the national and urban levels. In contrast, at the rural level, home conditions and the characteristics of the school and teacher play a more decisive role.

Boys with overweight status lagged behind girls with overweight status in reading: evidence from mendelian randomization

ObjectivesWe investigated the relationship between childhood weight status and academic achievement across sexes and different school subjects in Norway. Study Design and SettingWe used data from the Norwegian Mother, Father and Child Cohort Study (MoBa), which includes genetic data (N = 13,648, 8-year-old children). We employed within-family mendelian randomization, using a body mass index (BMI) polygenic risk score as an instrument to address unobserved heterogeneity. ResultsContrary to most previous findings, we observed that overweight status (including obesity) has more detrimental effects on reading achievement in boys than in girls; the test scores of boys with overweight were about a standard deviation lower than those of normal weight boys, and the negative effects on reading achievement became stronger in the later grade. ConclusionPrevious obesity prevention studies have mainly targeted girls, based on the assumption that the obesity penalty is greater for girls. Our findings highlight that particular attention to boys with overweight may help reduce the existing gender gap in academic achievement.

Do parental resources reduce the gender gap in math for primary school-going children? Evidence from India

ABSTRACT While a large body of evidence suggests that gender inequality in access to primary education has reduced significantly in India, there has been relatively little research on gender gap in learning outcomes, particularly math scores. Using a nationally representative household dataset, this study examines the role of parental resources in explaining gender gap in math scores for primary school-going children in India. We find that male children have significantly higher math scores than their female counterparts. However, this difference decreases with the increase in parental education and household assets. We also find that family investment in education explains a large part of gender gap in math. Overall, our findings provide a new understanding of gender gap in math scores in India. It has important policy implications for minimising gender gap in academic achievement to make school education more gender-inclusive.

Conscientiousness as a Predictor of the Gender Gap in Academic Achievement

In recent decades, female students have been more successful in higher education than their male counterparts in the United States and other industrialized countries. A promising explanation for this gender gap are differences in personality, particularly higher levels of conscientiousness among women. Using Structural Equation Modeling on data from 4719 Dutch university students, this study examined to what extent conscientiousness can account for the gender gap in achievement. We also examined whether the role of conscientiousness in accounting for the gender gap differed for students with a non-dominant ethnic background compared to students with a dominant ethnic background. In line with our expectations, we found that conscientiousness fully mediated the gender gap in achievement, even when controlling for prior achievement in high school. This was the case among both groups of students. These findings provide insight into the mechanisms underlying the gender gap in achievement in postsecondary education settings. The current study suggests that the use of conscientiousness measures in university admission procedures may disadvantage male students. Instead, the use of such measures may be a fruitful way to identify those students who may benefit from interventions to improve their conscientiousness. Future research could examine how conscientiousness can be fostered among students who are low in conscientiousness.

How parenthood contributes to gender gaps in academia.

Being a parent has long been associated with gender disparities in academia. However, details of the mechanisms by which parenthood and gender influence academic career achievement and progression are not fully understood. Here, using data from a survey of 7,764 academics in North America and publication data from the Web of Science, we analyze gender differences in parenthood and academic achievements and explore the influence of work-family conflict and partner support on these gender gaps. Our results suggest that gender gaps in academic achievement are, in fact, "parenthood gender gaps." Specifically, we found significant gender gaps in most of the measures of academic achievement (both objective and subjective) in the parent group but not in the non-parent group. Mothers are more likely than fathers to experience higher levels of work-family conflict and to receive lower levels of partner support, contributing significantly to the gender gaps in academic achievement for the parent group. We also discuss possible interventions and actions for reducing gender gaps in academia.

SINGLE-SEX EDUCATION: DOES IT MAKE A DIFFERENCE TO STUDENTS� ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT?

Gender gap in education has been Indonesian governments big concern (Bappenas, 2013). The Ministry of National Development Planning of Republic of Indonesia has reflected data showing gender gap in academic achievement among boys and girls in Indonesia. They also realize the importance of catering for gender differences during teaching and learning process. They believe that providing single-sex education is an effective way to narrow gender academic achievement gap in schools. In this paper, single-sex education, coeducational education, and academic achievement become the core concepts to analyse this issue. The result of this investigation proves that single-sex education enables teachers to address gender differences in their classroom, enhances students motivation, and increases students participation in learning process. Finally, these are beneficial to students academic achievement. The discussion of this investigation brings implications for education practitioner to promote the implementation of single-sex education as it has positive impacts on students academic achievement. In addition, the discussion is expected to have implications for policy makers to consider the needs of implementing single-sex education to narrow gender academic achievement gap.Corresponding author: SuryaFajar Cahyo NuraeniDOI: 10.24071/ijiet.2020.040212

The Relation Between Gender Egalitarian Values and Gender Differences in Academic Achievement.

Gender differences in achievement exhibit variation between domains and between countries. Much prior research has examined whether this variation could be due to variation in gender equality in opportunities, with mixed results. Here we focus instead on the role of a society’s values about gender equality, which may have a more pervasive influence. We pooled all available country measures on adolescent boys’ and girls’ academic achievement between 2000 and 2015 from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) and Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) assessments of math, science, and reading. We then analyzed the relation between gender differences and country levels of gender egalitarian values, controlling for country levels of living standards and indicators of gender equality in opportunities. Gender egalitarian values came out as the most important predictor. Specifically, more gender egalitarian values were associated with improved performance of boys relative to girls in the same countries. This pattern held in reading, where boys globally perform substantially worse than girls, as well as in math and science where gender differences in performance are small and may favor either boys or girls. Our findings suggest a previously underappreciated role of cultural values in moderating gender gaps in academic achievement.

School as a Zero-Sum Game between Boys and Girls: Gender Differences in Perceptions

Several studies have reported the existence of a gender gap in academic achievement, such as girls have better grades than boys, who are more likely to experience difficulties (Voyer & Voyer, 2014). The present study aims to investigate students’ perceptions of the actual pattern of achievement by assessing their zero-sum beliefs (ZsB)—that is, their tendency to perceive school as a zero-sum game between boys and girls. Based on previous studies showing that a threatening intergroup context influences men’s perception of gender relations, we hypothesized that boys, but not girls, are more likely to endorse gender ZsB regarding school in a threatening academic context compared to less threatening contexts. The academic context was manipulated using short texts emphasizing either boys’ or girls’ academic achievement. As expected, the threatening intergroup comparison context led boys (but not girls) to endorse greater ZsB. Implications for achievement-related outcomes and gender relations are discussed.

Does Quebec’s subsidized child care policy give boys and girls an equal start?

AbstractAlthough an increasing body of research promotes the development of universal early education and care programs, little is known about the extent to which these programs affect gender gaps in academic achievement and other developmental outcomes. Analyzing the introduction of universal highly‐subsidized child care in Quebec, we first demonstrate that there are no statistically significant gender differences in the average effect of access to universal child care on child outcomes. However, we find substantial heterogeneity in policy impacts on the variance of developmental and behavioural scores across genders. Additionally, our analysis reveals significant evidence of differential parenting practices by gender in response to the introduction of the policy. The analysis is suggestive that the availability of subsidized child care changed home environments disproportionately and may be responsible for the growing gender gaps in behavioural outcomes observed after child care is subsidized.RésuméEst‐ce que la politique de garderies subventionnées du Québec donne aux garçons et aux filles un avantage de départ égal? Même si un corpus de recherches croissant promeut le développement de programmes universels de garderies et d’éducation préscolaire, on connaît peu de choses sur la nature de l’impact de ces programmes sur les écarts dans la réussite académique et dans les résultats comportementaux entre genres. Analysant l’introduction du programme universel fortement subventionné de garderies au Québec, on montre qu’il n’y a pas de différences statistiquement significatives entre genres dans l’effet moyen de l’accès au programme universel d’éducation préscolaire sur les résultats pour l’enfant. Cependant, on découvre une hétérogénéité substantielle entre genres dans les impacts de la politique sur la variance des scores pour ce qui est du développement et du comportement. De plus, l’analyse révèle des résultats significatifs en termes de pratiques parentales différenciées entre genres en réponse à l’introduction de la politique. L’analyse suggère que la disponibilité de l’éducation préscolaire subventionnée modifie de façon disproportionnée l’environnement à la maison, et peut être responsable pour l’écart croissant entre genres dans les résultats comportementaux observés après l’introduction de l’éducation préscolaire subventionnée.

Hegemonic Gender Norms and the Gender Gap in Achievement: The Case of Asian Americans

Many argue that hegemonic gender norms depress boys' performance and account for the gender gap in achievement. I describe differences in the emergence of the gender gap in academic achievement between white and Asian American youth and explore how the immigrant experience and cultural differences in gender expectations might account for observed differences. For white students, boys are already underperforming girls in kindergarten, with the male disadvantage growing into high school. For Asian Americans, boys perform as well as girls throughout elementary school but begin underperforming relative to girls at the transition to adolescence. Additionally, I show that the Asian American gender gap is larger in schools with stronger male-centric sports cultures and where boys' underachievement is normalized. I speculate that model-minority stereotypes, the immigrant experience, and standards of masculinity that promote pro-school behaviors in boys act as protective factors in early childhood but wane at the transition to adolescence during a period when the dominant peer culture plays a larger role in shaping gender identities. The study offers evidence that the gender gap in achievement is not an inevitable fact of biology but is shaped by social environment.

Race and Gender Differences in Teacher Perceptions of Student Homework Performance: a Preliminary Examination

Although most students regularly complete homework, the extent to which race and gender influence teacher perceptions of homework performance has been largely unstudied. However, individual characteristics, such as race and gender, have been shown to meaningfully influence many aspects of students’ educational experiences and outcomes, and it is plausible that race and gender differences may exist in teacher perceptions of homework performance. This study used analysis of variance (ANOVA) to examine student gender and race differences in teacher ratings of three dimensions of homework performance (student competence, parent support, and homework completion). Findings indicated that teachers rated girls and White students as having greater homework competence (ability to complete homework assignments) than boys and racial minority (Black and Latino) students. No significant race or gender differences in teacher ratings of parent support for homework or in rates of homework completion were found. The examination of race and gender differences in homework performance has the potential to contribute to our understanding of race and gender gaps in academic achievement. As such, replication and further study of these differences are warranted.

Gender Gap in Academic Achievement in Brunei Tertiary Education: Qualitative Perspective

This study explores the potential factors causing a gender gap in academic achievement in the higher learning institutions of Brunei using in-depth interviews. Given that the gender gap is a worldwide phenomenon and problem in many educational settings, this study investigates the reasons for its persistence and how it can be resolved in the Brunei context. The findings of the study indicate that: 1) there are gender similarities in practices of good academic performance at school; 2) teaching methods and school facilities and environment may affect students’ academic performance; 3) problems or challenges faced in academic performance or achievement at school; and 4) early entry to workplace. A mixed-methods research is recommended to gain additional insights into the problem and its solutions.

Do Boys and Girls Use Computers Differently, and Does It Contribute to Why Boys Do Worse in School than Girls?

Boys are doing worse in school than are girls, which has been dubbed Boy Crisis. An analysis of the latest data on educational outcomes among boys and girls reveals extensive disparities in grades, reading and writing test scores, and other measurable educational outcomes, and these disparities exist across family resources and race. Focusing on disadvantaged schoolchildren, I then examine whether time investments made by boys and girls related to computer use contribute to the gender gap in academic achievement. Data from several sources indicate that boys are less likely to use computers for schoolwork and are more likely to use computers for playing games, but are less likely to use computers for social networking and email than are girls. Using data from a large field experiment randomly providing free personal computers to schoolchildren for home use, I also test whether these differential patterns of computer use displace homework time and ultimately translate into worse educational outcomes among boys. No evidence is found indicating that personal computers crowd out homework time and effort for disadvantaged boys relative to girls. Home computers also do not have negative effects on educational outcomes such as grades, test scores, courses completed, and tardies for disadvantaged boys relative to girls.

Do Boys and Girls Use Computers Differently, and Does It Contribute to Why Boys do Worse in School Than Girls?

Abstract Boys are doing worse in school than are girls, which has been dubbed “the Boy Crisis.” An analysis of the latest data on educational outcomes among boys and girls reveals extensive disparities in grades, reading and writing test scores, and other measurable educational outcomes, and these disparities exist across family resources and race. Focusing on disadvantaged schoolchildren, I then examine whether time investments made by boys and girls related to computer use contribute to the gender gap in academic achievement. Data from several sources indicate that boys are less likely to use computers for schoolwork and are more likely to use computers for playing games, but are less likely to use computers for social networking and email than are girls. Using data from a large field experiment randomly providing free personal computers to schoolchildren for home use, I also test whether these differential patterns of computer use displace homework time and ultimately translate into worse educational outcomes among boys. No evidence is found indicating that personal computers crowd out homework time and effort for disadvantaged boys relative to girls. Home computers also do not have negative effects on educational outcomes such as grades, test scores, courses completed, and tardies for disadvantaged boys relative to girls.

Do Boys and Girls Use Computers Differently, and Does it Contribute to Why Boys Do Worse in School than Girls?

Boys are doing worse in school than are girls, which has been dubbed Boy Crisis. An analysis of the latest data on educational outcomes among boys and girls reveals extensive disparities in grades, reading and writing test scores, and other measurable educational outcomes, and these disparities exist across family resources and race. Focusing on disadvantaged schoolchildren, I then examine whether time investments made by boys and girls related to computer use contribute to the gender gap in academic achievement. Data from several sources indicate that boys are less likely to use computers for schoolwork and are more likely to use computers for playing games, but are less likely to use computers for social networking and email than are girls. Using data from a large field experiment randomly providing free personal computers to schoolchildren for home use, I also test whether these differential patterns of computer use displace homework time and ultimately translate into worse educational outcomes among boys. No evidence is found indicating that personal computers crowd out homework time and effort for disadvantaged boys relative to girls. Home computers also do not have negative effects on educational outcomes such as grades, test scores, courses completed, and tardies for disadvantaged boys relative to girls.

Social and behavioral skills and the gender gap in early educational achievement

Though many studies have suggested that social and behavioral skills play a central role in gender stratification processes, we know little about the extent to which these skills affect gender gaps in academic achievement. Analyzing data from the Early Child Longitudinal Study–Kindergarten Cohort, we demonstrate that social and behavioral skills have substantively important effects on academic outcomes from kindergarten through fifth grade. Gender differences in the acquisition of these skills, moreover, explain a considerable fraction of the gender gap in academic outcomes during early elementary school. Boys get roughly the same academic return to social and behavioral skills as their female peers, but girls begin school with more advanced social and behavioral skills and their skill advantage grows over time. While part of the effect may reflect an evaluation process that rewards students who better conform to school norms, our results imply that the acquisition of social and behavioral skills enhances learning as well. Our results call for a reconsideration of the family and school-level processes that produce gender gaps in social and behavioral skills and the advantages they confer for academic and later success.

Within‐School Gender Gaps in Reading, Mathematics, and Science Literacy

Gender gaps in academic achievement have long captured the attention of educational researchers. Although studies from laboratory experiments have reported relatively consistent gender differences in cognitive skills over the decades, investigations done in schools have uncovered dramatic changes. In the United States, educational studies from the 1930s and 1940s found no gender differences in reading (see Hogrebe et al. 1985). Later, in the 1960s, Arthur Gates (1961) showed that reading abilities of girls exceeded those of boys during elementary school. In the following decade, educational studies confirmed gender differences in favor of females in reading achievement across elementary grade levels (e.g., Stanchfield 1973; Sheridan 1976). During the same period and into the 1980s, educational studies found at most small gender differences in favor of females at the secondary level (Hogrebe et al. 1985). In mathematics, investigations before the 1980s suggested that there were few gender differences during the elementary grades, but that in middle school and especially in high school, boys outperformed girls. Similarly in science, prior to the 1980s boys were found to outperform girls, and this intensified as children progressed through the grades (Ziegler and Heller 1997). Since the 1980s, gender differences in academic achievement have decreased or been reversed in the United States. Similar changes have also occurred in other parts of the developed world. For example, in Great Britain, prior to the 1980s, education authorities expressed concern about the lower academic achievement of females, particularly in mathematics and science (see Robinson and Gillibrand 2004). However, since the 1990s, according to the Office for Standards in Education and Equal Opportunities Commission (1996), females have consistently outperformed males. The British media

Examining Male Underachievement in Public Education

Educational statistics and worldwide media have reported a gender gap in academic achievement, with boys falling behind girls with regard to grades, high school graduation, and college enrollment and retention. This mixed methods study involved interviews with educators and the examination of quantitative data to investigate this issue in a school district. Local results mirrored national statistics regarding gender differences in achievement and school success factors. Themes are explored and recommendations are made to enhance school success skills for male students.