Gender differences

Research in this complex field has mainly sought to identify and explain gender gaps in performance. Some strategies have been suggested – usually with a rather limited base in empirical evidence - but little large-scale research has gone into the implementation of strategies and their effects on differences in achievement of boys and girls in schools. The researchers selected 19 schools from a list of schools identified by 83 LEAs as representative of good practice. The criterion for inclusion was that the school was implementing one of three chosen strategies to address boys’ lower rate of improvement in achievement. This study draws together and analyses data collected in and by these schools. The schools themselves, and the authors, acknowledge difficulties in collecting data relating to student learning outcomes within the specified time. Consequently, the conclusions are more tentative than the authors originally envisaged. Care must therefore be taken in generalising from these case studies, but they do provide interesting and informative examples of what teachers tried to do in their schools, and the rationale behind their actions.

Concern about the slower rate of improvement of achievement of boys has grown among teachers, parents and governments over recent years. The authors identified and described three main approaches adopted by teachers to close this ‘gender gap’ viz. single-sex classes (but this is not a ‘strategy’, merely an organisational tactic; in order to be a strategy it needs to be accompanied by a rationale based on pedagogical/curricular enhancement), mentoring and additional literacy support. Teachers will find the investigation touches on a range of problems with which they will be familiar, such as maintaining equal opportunities, ensuring the strategies are implemented effectively and deciding on efficient monitoring systems. In their evaluation, the authors offer teachers pointers towards tackling the problem of gender differences in their own schools. The findings are supported by a range of data drawn from national test performances, interviews with teachers, pupils and parents, and school monitoring reports.

The study aims to investigate specific strategies chosen by schools to raise the achievement of all pupils but particularly of boys. Inevitably, the choice and implementation of these strategies involves decision taking at the whole school level rather than by individual classroom teachers. However, the authors do provide good illustrative examples of teachers putting the strategies into action in the classroom, information that will be relevant to teachers and enable them to build on their own practice. The study, by covering a range of schools with different geographical and socio-economic settings, and including both primary and secondary level, provides contexts with which most teachers can identify.

The report is written in a straightforward style within a traditional research format of rationale, implementation then evaluation stages. Most of the findings are descriptive and the writing is jargon-free.