?On 31 January Jim Clark wrote re gender differences in mathematics scores in the UK: >I was struck by the following comments on the results:
>Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: "The problem has been that in the 1960s and 1970s boys were getting 12-13% more O-level passes than girls and no one really talked about it. When girls started to do better there were Panorama programmes and inquiries and a national debate. There's a national panic if girls and women start to be successful. Girls have been more successful at GCSE and A-levels but that hasn't closed the gender pay gap. Even if they do better they don't get paid as much." >Things must have been remarkably different in UK than North America! Certainly there has been much effort over here into reducing male advantage. I find it difficult to believe there wasn't corresponding efforts in UK.< Jim, you have to allow for a certain polemical tone in the remarks of Mary Bousted. There hasn't been a "national panic", but there has been a justified concern about the fact that an appreciable segment of boys in schools in England and Wales (I'm not sure if it apples to Scotland and Northern Ireland, which have had their own schooling systems) has virtually opted out of the educational process. In addition, quite naturally, there has been discussion of the reasons why in recent decades the overall exam grades have become appreciably higher for girls, and, specifically, for the first time overtook those of boys in mathematics. Here is an example of the discussion, from a 2004 BBC website: "Up until the late 1970s boys and girls were scoring roughly equally at the then main school-leaving examinations, the O-level and CSE. But from then on girls began to pull ahead. The change to the GCSE in the late 1980s appears to have coincided with a dramatic opening of the gender gap. Since then the gap has remained steady with a clear disparity in favour of girls. "There are many possible explanations for this. The GCSE is a different type of exam from its predecessors. With its emphasis on course-work, it tends to reward the conscientious student rather than the risk-taker." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/3494490.stm A balanced discussion (with the relevant statistics) from an experienced teacher of Sociology and Government and Politics is here: http://www.earlhamsociologypages.co.uk/genddata.htm#and "From the 1950s to the 1970s the percentages of male and female school leavers achieving 5 or more GCE "O" Level [exam taken at age 16] passes were very similar… "In fact the female candidate pass rate was higher (and in some cases significantly higher) than the male candidate pass rate in English Language, History, French, RE and Art while the male candidate pass rate was usually higher in Mathematics, Chemistry, Physics and Biology although in these subjects gender differences in candidate pass rates were relatively small." "By the early 1980s girls and boys were now equally likely to take GCE "O" Level Examinations and the percentages of both boys and girls taking these examinations increased gradually. Gender differences in percentages passing 5 or more GCE "O" Levels were small but nevertheless about 1%- 2% in girls' favour. "However this single statistic hid the facts that girls were often significantly outperforming boys in Arts and Humanities subjects and that boys were slightly outperforming girls in Mathematics and Science subjects."... On the general point raised by Jim, I would say that it is the case that the issues highlighted by the Summers affair, and the Pinker vs Spelke exchange, have not had much exposure in the press in the UK, which means that the subject has been treated somewhat superficially. Allen Esterson Former lecturer, Science Department Southwark College, London http://www.esterson.org ------------------------------------------------- James M. Clark Professor of Psychology 204-786-9757 204-774-4134 Fax j.cl...@uwinnipeg.ca >>> Allen Esterson <allenester...@compuserve.com> 31-Jan-10 1:30:53 AM >>> ?On 30 January, Jim Clark wrote: >It also matters how math is measured ... girls do better in school >generally than boys, perhaps because they are more motivated >and conscientious* In relation to which the following may be of relevance: "Boys overtake girls in maths GCSE as coursework dropped" http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/aug/27/maths-gcse-coursework-dropped JC: I was struck by the following comment on the results: Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, said: "The problem has been that in the 1960s and 1970s boys were getting 12-13% more O-level passes than girls and no one really talked about it. When girls started to do better there were Panorama programmes and inquiries and a national debate. There's a national panic if girls and women start to be successful. Girls have been more successful at GCSE and A-levels but that hasn't closed the gender pay gap. Even if they do better they don't get paid as much." Things must have been remarkably different in UK than North America! Certainly there has been much effort over here into reducing male advantage. I find it difficult to believe there wasn't corresponding efforts in UK. More generally on the issue of gender differences in math and sci, I had forgotten earlier about the debate between Pinker and Spelke, which has much relevant material and is available on-line at: http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/debate05/debate05_index.html When teaching this and like topics, I tend to illustrate the research on the two sides of the debate and (if appropriate for the audience) discuss some of the politics of such controversial research (e.g., objections to Benbow being on a national panel to study the issue, assertions that we should not even be studying gender differences / comparisons). Take care Jim --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: arch...@jab.org. To unsubscribe click here: http://fsulist.frostburg.edu/u?id=13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df5d5&n=T&l=tips&o=150 or send a blank email to leave-150-13090.68da6e6e5325aa33287ff385b70df...@fsulist.frostburg.edu
