How gender may affect achievement

Raising Achievement 
and . . .

Attendance

Behaviour / Inclusion

Community and Parents

Early Years

Ethnicity

Gender

Literacy, numeracy and SEN

Out of School hours activities

Teaching and Learning Strategies

Technology

Links to Australian research have been updated May 2005 but seem to be slow to load.

Girls do better without boys

A Guardian report (Wednesday, 18th March, 2009) on research conducted for the Good Schools Guide reveals that girls are far more likely to thrive, get GCSEs and stay in education if they go to a single-sex school, according to new research, which reveals pupils who are struggling academically when they start secondary school reap the biggest rewards of girls-only schooling.

Motivation and Engagement of Boys: Evidence-based Teaching Practices

This report is the outcome of a research project carried out between December 2004 and June 2005 by the University of Western Sydney. The aim of the report was to examine the motivation and engagement of boys, in particular those from Indigenous, low socioeconomic, rural and isolated backgrounds. 

Boys’ motivation, engagement and socio-academic outcomes were recognised as being related to, if not inseparable from, boys’ socioeconomic status (SES), and/or geographical location and/or cultural factors. The report suggests that methodologically, there is no unified sense of ‘boyhood’ in relation to motivation, engagement and social and academic performance. A focus on ‘boys’ as a single, unified category would conceal more than it would reveal.

Strategies which support motivation and engagement are detailed and might work successfully in a UK context.

There is much here that would repay a careful read over a cup of tea or decaff.

Improving boys’ behaviour through physical activity

In a northern primary, this scheme introduced structured lunchtime tasks lasting 10 minutes, three times a week to help Y2 children had all experienced major difficulties or traumas in their lives. The result was the best year in the playground in the 13 years that the headteacher had worked at the school.

Review of Strategies to Address Gender Inequalities in Scottish Schools  

This Strathclyde University research looked at the relevant literature concerning and then the policies and practices regarding gender inequalities in Scottish schools. They found:-

• There are significant gender-related inequalities in Scottish schools with girls, at all levels, out-performing boys.

• There is a danger that gender becomes lost or fudged within the broader inclusion agenda. 

• It was rare to find schools with written policies on gender equality.

• The most successful initiatives observed by the research team were in pre-5 and primary schools. 

• Where development of a gender-related initiative was shared between schools, there was a greater chance of progression and continuity occurring.

• The most successful practice engaged all stakeholders, particularly parents and communities. 

• Where staff development was most effective, it was in situations where the staff had a degree of ownership and were supported by practical guidance and advice.

Raising Boys' Achievement: Key Findings  

Include:-

an integrated approach to literacy

teachers thinking specifically about pedagogy and how it can be refined

Target-setting and mentoring

Single-sex classes

creating an alternative culture within school to the dominant street culture

tailoring to the local context

Raising Boys' Achievement: Final Report  (Link updated 21/03/07)

This is the very comprehensive 2005 report from the University of Cambridge Faculty of Education which follows a four-year project looking at issues surrounding "boys' underachievement." The authors do make the valid point that, although boys' achievements are rising more slowly than girls, it should be set against a background of a generally rising trajectory of achievement for both boys and girls. And also, many boys continue to achieve extremely well at school, both academically and in community, extra-curricular and sporting fields; whilst equally, there are some girls whose needs are not recognised within schools and who under-achieve.

Essential reading.

Boys Education Research and Websites  

This page on the Australian Department of Education, Science and Training site, contains links to useful research on boys' education. The DEST site has been recently updated and reformatted so links on this site to research on the old site may be invalid.

Gender and Achievement

Devon County Council's site providing information, case studies and resource information related to raising the performance of underachieving boys and girls through gender specific strategies.

New Research Finds Boys Have More Literacy Problems than Girls  

This press release describes how a team of researchers, from the University of Warwick, Coventry and Kings College, London, found there are significant gender differences in reading.  Across all the studies, about 20 percent of the boys had reading disabilities compared with about 11 percent of the girls. The research implies that reading disabilities are genetic. Boys are more likely to have a range of developmental difficulties, and dyslexia is one of them.

Raising Boys' Achievement : Interim report  

This project is looking at  ways of raising boys' achievement across a range of primary, secondary and special schools. The research aims to identify and evaluate strategies which are helpful in motivating boys.

If this interim report has moved, try this link or look on the Gender and Achievement site. Part of the DfES Standards site.

Raising Boys' Achievement toolkit

From the DfES Standards site. Contains useful reminders of what often works with boys. (February 2003)

Literature search on improving boys’ writing 

From the UK's Ofsted, this snappily titled piece of research looks at factors tentatively identified as accounting for the poor performance of boys in writing and also factors which may promote improved writing performance.

Girls and Exclusion from School  

This January 2001 report (on the Joseph Rowntree Foundation site) notes that, "There appears to be relatively little consideration of how school and LEA pastoral support systems are meeting the specific needs of girls. A recurring theme throughout the research was the way in which girls' needs are overlooked."

Indeed, the balance of research listed on this page confirms this observation. The report recommends "both a broadening of our views of exclusion to incorporate a wider range of factors that effectively exclude a pupil from learning and full participation in school life and also a commitment to keeping girls' needs on the education policy agenda."

Boys' Achievement in Secondary Schools

This is the July 2003 Ofsted report on boys' achievement. Perhaps what this report shows clearly is that there is no one  magic bullet which will raise boys' achievement, rather there is a wide range of strategies which if implemented carefully seem to make a positive difference. In the end there is nothing new here, but rather an explicit statement of what Ofsted says, "is commonly agreed to be best practice." (p.34) And, these strategies are "not gender-specific." These findings may sit uneasily with a mind-numbing, stultifying National Curriculum and with SATs which are used to measure teachers rather than formatively assess students - as originally envisaged in the late '80s. But, nonetheless, Ofsted here have provided a useful checklist of strategies.

Compare the similarities with the Australian research mentioned below.

Raising the Standard of Boys' Achievement in Literacy  

This is an account of an action research project by Julie Simmons, a teacher-librarian in a Scottish secondary school, which explores the reading habits of a sample of boys and girls in S1 and S2, and describes how the findings led to the establishment of an out-of-school support scheme, funded by the New Opportunities Fund.

Addressing the Educational Needs of Boys – Strategies for Schools and Teachers  

This Australian research investigated how systemic factors impact on the educational performance and outcomes of boys and how these can be addressed in the school context.

Overall, the research suggested that good pedagogies work with all students and that teachers' classroom practices are the central educational variable in achieving good academic and social outcomes for all students. But also noted was the degree and influence of peer pressure on boys.

14 page Executive summary here. (pdf)

Boys, Literacy and Schooling: Expanding the Repertoires of Practice  

This Australian research (on the DEST site) was undertaken by the Curriculum Corporation, James Cook University and Griffith University and focuses on current practices in teaching educationally disadvantaged/underachieving boys and their literacy development. The project's activities involved examining and documenting strategies which have proven to be effective in improving the literacy outcomes of boys and piloting the strategies in a small number of primary schools.

 

Full report here. (874k, 170 pages in pdf format)

Executive Summary here. (80k, 14 pages in pdf format)

Hitting the right button  

From Education Guardian's E-learning. Ideas for Raising Boys' Achievement using ICT

Raising Performance  

Examples of practice which may increase students' (especially boys') achievement. From the UK's Education Guardian E-learning section.

Boys Education  

From Trinity College Library,  Perth, Australia. Useful links to research on boy's education.

Boys in Schools: What's happening?

This December 2000 conference paper looks at patterns of Australian boys' and girls' participation and achievement in school and outlines some principles to improve gender equity in the educational outcomes of schooling.  

Underachieving Young Men Preparing for Work: A Report for Practitioners  

Supported by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation this report demonstrates how tailor-made courses targeted at young men at risk of underachievement can improve both their motivation and their understanding of work and the needs of the labour market.

Full Report as a pdf file here.

Raising Boys' Achievement in Devon Schools  

(Try also here for a non-frame link to the resource or here for the DCS.)

This publication tries to:-

• Report on the work of Devon schools in raising boys’ achievement, particularly schools which took part in the projects supported by Devon between 1999 and 2002.

• Focus on useful strategies for raising the achievement of boys in Devon schools.

• Comment, where appropriate, on how work on gender links to other strategies for raising the achievement of all students in Devon schools.

• Provide detailed reports and evaluations largely written by the schools themselves on their project work on boys’ achievement.

"IT AIN’T COOL TO LIKE SCHOOL": WHY ARE BOYS UNDERACHIEVING AROUND THE WORLD? AND WHAT CAN WE DO ABOUT IT?   (link updated 17/8/04)

The title of this paper (from Dr Peter West) says it all. Very relevant. This is on the Men's Health site. If the resource has moved try searching / browsing that site. See also, "Those Damned Boys Again" : How to Get Boys Achieving .also by Dr Peter West.

"Those Damned Boys Again" : How to Get Boys Achieving   

Here, Dr. Peter West outlines some practical steps that schools might take to improve the educational outcomes of boys. They are based on a project Peter recently completed with The King’s School, in Parramatta, Sydney, New South Wales. See also, "It ain't cool to like school": Why are boys underachieving around the world and what can we do about it? 

Factors Influencing the Educational Performance of Males and Females in School and their Initial Destinations after Leaving School  

Clicking the link above will begin the download of a 753K .pdf file. If the file has been moved, search the DEST site for its new location.

By Cherry Collins, Jane Kenway, and Julie McLeod at Deakin University, University of South Australia, July 2000, this research "attempts to move the debate about gender equity beyond a simplistic discourse of winners versus losers, where the performance of all girls and all boys is contrasted", and considers instead the impact of a range of socio-demographic variables. Then, a more differentiated picture emerges which, "demands that questions be addressed about which groups of boys and girls are most disadvantaged, how and what forms this disadvantage may take, and why this disadvantage occurs."

Declining rates of achievement and retention: the perceptions of adolescent males 

Full report here. 

This June 2001 Australian report, by Professor Faith Trent and Malcolm Slade, Flinders University, summarises the views of 1800 adolescent males, one-third of whom were identified as ‘at risk of not completing year 12’, in Years 9 to 11.

The report concludes that, 

"What is important is that a system which is at least in part failing its participants, acknowledges and deals with the realities as they are experienced by those participants."

This is very worth reading, especially the section on the downward spiral of disaffection. Recommended.

Are they all the same? 

A Project to Examine Success Among Adolescent Males in Secondary and Tertiary Education. This paper was presented at the Australian Association for Research in Education Conference, Sydney, 4-7 December 2000. 

The paper provides an overview of what boys are saying about the phenomena of declining retention and achievement, and how educational outcomes for boys might be improved. If you're a teacher you could be very depressed by some of the boys' views. But VERY worth a look. (Abstract here.) If the paper has moved try looking around here: http://www.edna.edu.au/index.html 

Investigating gender differences in achievement. Phase 2: school and classroom strategies  

From NFER, this is the January 2000 summary of the second part of a two-phase project which investigated the actual process of adopting and implementing practical strategies in schools to address gender differences.

Promoting Boys' Achievement

This March 2000 report from New Zealand's  Education Review Office, provides examples of interesting and successful programmes to address perceived under achievement by boys, as well as identifying several common factors in secondary schools that demonstrated good relative achievement of boys. Interesting to read a southern hemisphere take on boy's underachievement. Look also at the earlier (Winter 1999) report on The Achievement of Boys.

Gender and Achievement

Part of the DfES's Raising Standards site. This has lots of useful ideas and strategies.