Top performing boys outperform girls, world wide, Pisa researcher finds. Twice as many boys than girls are in the top 1% of maths students across the globe. What about promoting top talent instead of trying to close the gender gap?

shadowbanned6 · 2014-04-19T09:23:31+00:00

The report also reveals worrying gender differences in students’ attitudes towards mathematics: even when girls perform as well as boys in mathematics, they report less perseverance, less motivation to learn mathematics, less belief in their own mathematics skills, and higher levels of anxiety about mathematics. While the average girl underperforms in mathematics compared with the average boy, the gender gap in favour of boys is even wider among the highest-achieving students. These findings have serious implications not only for higher education, where young women are already under-represented in the science, technology, engineering and mathematics fields of study, but also later on, when these young women enter the labour market. This confirms the findings of the OECD Gender Strategy, which identifies some of the factors that create – and widen – the gender gap in education, labour and entrepreneurship. Supporting girls’ positive attitudes towards and investment in learning mathematics will go a long way towards narrowing this gap.

From the Pisa 2012 foreword

Not much concern about girls being superior in verbal skills, of course.

Nor interest in promoting cutting edge engineering and science by promoting the top boys and the rarer top girls to perform even better, as they would promote football players or female gymnasts.

wellitsbouttime · 2014-04-19T14:44:44+00:00

I think this goes beyond just gender gap stuff. there always seemed to be that 'everyone is a beautiful and unique snowflake' bullshit, when I was in primary/secondary school.

Have everyone reach for the stars (and teach to the lower 50 percentile)

SpawnQuixote · 2014-04-19T15:20:58+00:00

This isn't really pussy pass material but I'll let it stand.

penisprivileged · 2014-04-19T09:23:53+00:00

Source data: http://doi.org/10.1787/888932935572

Specifically: Figure 1.2.25, Figure 1.2.26

FuriousMouse · 2014-04-19T20:07:33+00:00

I'm pretty sure the amount of information processing centers in the brain has something to do with it.

2014-04-20T03:46:27+00:00

Equality is insanity

2014-04-19T22:21:02+00:00

Nobody tell Nancy Hopkins!

Comments