Gender Effect on Academic Achievement Essay Example
Gender differences in Academic Achievement
This is an excerpt from the paper...
Research on gender differences in academic achievement offers educators information on implications and guidance on specific directions to take. In mathematics and science in particular, gender differences are well documented and reveal certain stereotypes perpetuated by society, school, and family (Manning, 1998, p. 68). This paper will look at gender differences in school achievement and how educational reforms could encourage girls in their performance in mathematics and science and thus open up more career opportunities for them.
Reviewers have consistently concluded that males perform better on mathematics tests than females do (Hyde, Fennema & Lamon, 1990). The authors performed a meta-analysis of 100 studies which represented the testing of 3,175,188 subjects (p. 139). 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, but differences favoring males emerged in high school and in college. 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. They showed that the magnitude of gender differences has declined over the years. The authors concluded that gender differences in mathematics performance are small, but nonethele
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y. They suggested that public attitudes perpetuate stereotypes that girls really can't do math and that math is unfeminine. Looking specifically at mathematics achievement, Terwilliger and Titus (1995) studied participants in the University of Minnesota Talented Youth Mathematics Program to determine gender differences of mathematically talented youth on attitudinal measures related to interest, motivation,
This is an excerpt from the paper...
Research on gender differences in academic achievement offers educators information on implications and guidance on specific directions to take. In mathematics and science in particular, gender differences are well documented and reveal certain stereotypes perpetuated by society, school, and family (Manning, 1998, p. 68). This paper will look at gender differences in school achievement and how educational reforms could encourage girls in their performance in mathematics and science and thus open up more career opportunities for them.
Reviewers have consistently concluded that males perform better on mathematics tests than females do (Hyde, Fennema & Lamon, 1990). The authors performed a meta-analysis of 100 studies which represented the testing of 3,175,188 subjects (p. 139). 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, but differences favoring males emerged in high school and in college. 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. They showed that the magnitude of gender differences has declined over the years. The authors concluded that gender differences in mathematics performance are small, but nonethele
. . .
y. They suggested that public attitudes perpetuate stereotypes that girls really can't do math and that math is unfeminine. Looking specifically at mathematics achievement, Terwilliger and Titus (1995) studied participants in the University of Minnesota Talented Youth Mathematics Program to determine gender differences of mathematically talented youth on attitudinal measures related to interest, motivation,