Stereotypes and role models

Stereotypes must take some of the blame. For many boys, it is 'cool' to fail at school, particularly in academic subjects. If you are studious and male, you are labelled a 'geek' or a 'bof', although often it is OK to shine in sport and subjects such as art.

Disturbingly, boys are getting into trouble more, too. Boys kept in detention outnumber girls by 4 to 1 and 83% of all exclusions are boys. Girls just don't seem to have the same attitude. Alan Smithers, Professor of Education at Liverpool University says:

'There's a lot of evidence that girls work harder at school and have better language skills'.

Some argue that an important factor in boys' underachievement is the high number of female primary school teachers. In 2000, 83% of nursery and primary teachers were women and so, right from the start, boys have few male role models.

The impact of teaching styles

It has also been suggested that teaching styles favour girls from primary level up. Certainly, boys and girls respond to the curriculum differently.

Research commissioned by Ofsted show that girls are better at sustained tasks that are open-ended, linked to realistic situations and require pupils to think for themselves. Boys are better at traditional learning styles: memorising facts and rules that have to be acquired quickly.

Yet the modern curriculum lays less stress on these skills.

The impact of physical differences

Partly, of course, the reason for the gap is physical. Even in the womb, the communicative part of a girl's brain develops faster than a boy's. Then, girls reach puberty before boys and so they are often more mature in their both their approach to learning and their ability to learn.

There is little that schools can do to change the processes of nature, but there are ways to foster the achievement of boys without hindering the success of girls.

Based on an article by Lorna Smith

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