The boy-girl gap in our schools: myth or reality?

Why are boys not doing better than girls at school? Is there a problem? Education reporter REBECCA WALSH ventures into a minefield of opinions.

He is the one sitting at the back of the class, not paying attention. After all, it is English and he has "better" things to think about.

Chances are he is one of many New Zealand boys whose literacy levels are well below those of their female counterparts.

By the time they enter school, girls are already outperforming boys in oral literacy, according to the data. In addition, boys represent about two-thirds of the 6-year-olds who receive reading recovery assistance.

Last year, the Education Review Office found that boys had lower rates of participation and success in School Certificate and Bursary; fewer stayed at school and more were likely to leave without qualifications.

Only a quarter of boys picked up A and B passes in School Certificate, compared with a third of girls. Those results reflect similar underachievement of boys at all levels.

The Ministry of Education's latest annual report on the compulsory schools sector shows that in the second half of last year 1603 boys were suspended, compared with 492 girls.

Maori boys made up 715 of the 1603 suspensions.

But a just-released review of 450 studies into gender and education contradicts the prevailing view that boys lag behind girls in academic achievement.

The review, commissioned by the ministry and carried out by two Wellington-based researchers, found more similarities than differences, and that what was good for girls was good for boys.

So, are boys underachieving at school, and if so, why? The answers, it seems, are as complex as boys themselves.

Over the next couple of days, principals, researchers and teachers, among others, will discuss a range of subjects surrounding boys in education at a conference in Auckland.

The guest speaker at the From Awareness to Action conference, Professor Bob Connell, a professor of education at Sydney University, says it is simply wrong to say boys are perennial underachievers.

There are too many differences among boys to make such a generalisation.

Professor Connell says that while there are important concerns about boys' education, there is a lot of misinterpretation portraying them as "victims of an erroneous education."

"To some extent it has to do with the backlash mentality among some men that any gains for women must be at the expense of boys and men."

The ministry-commissioned review of 450 New Zealand and international studies looking at gender issues in education found, unsurprisingly, that ethnicity and the socioeconomic status of a school have more influence on student achievement than gender.

Researcher Dr Adrienne Alton-Lee said pupils from low-decile schools, and Pacific Island and Maori students, were more likely to perform poorly. Maori and Pacific Island boys' achievement, in particular, was lower than overall means.

While boys' literacy levels were cause for concern, New Zealand boys still performed, on average, above the international mean.

"The popular mythth...this people have been seeing those literacy gaps and assuming that they are happening across the curriculum and that somehow all of a sudden boys are failing as a group

"But at school-leaving age boys are doing better at mathematics and science."

However, Martin Henry, a teacher at Western Springs College and a speaker at the conference organised by the Manukau Institute of Technology, believes Dr Alton-Lee has taken a "post-feminist slant" on the issue and is concerned that the issue of boys' underachievement is being "swept under the carpet."

"It is not helpful to say there is no problem. To say Maori and Pacific Islanders are the only group with needs is blatantly not true. Boys are underachieving in English."

The disproportionate number of boys represented in suspension statistics also prompts talk about boys' relationship to school and the issue of masculinity.

Dr Alton-Lee said the research indicated that boys tended to see some areas of the curriculum as "girl subjects" and a "wuss" thing to do.

"Once a subject looks like a girl thing, that's a huge turnoff to many boys. I think that's an issue not just for schools but the wider society."

That attitude is reflected in girls' and boys' subject choices, says Professor Connell.

Citing the Australian example, he says boys predominantly go on to take courses in technology, economics and business, while girls become involved in teacher training, psychology and humanities.

Mr Henry believes boys are confined by the ways they have been "masculinised."

"It seems in our society the only way we can celebrate boys is through sportth ...thwe should be looking at other images that are not so mainstream."

Professor Connell says the adult male models portrayed in mass culture - through computer games and Hollywood action heroes - can be restricting and damaging.

"It's likely in the long term to affect the thinking of some groups of boys about what are worthwhile activities. This is probably going to have an impact on their choices of learning and commitment to learning."

He says teachers in disadvantaged schools often face ongoing problems with "certain kids coming into sustained conflict with the school." In most cases it tends to be boys from poorer schools.

But John Taylor-Smith, principal of Bell Block School in New Plymouth and a speaker at the conference, believes the problem is the curriculum "with its myriad of strands, levels and objectives."

He argues that boys' and girls' brains function differently and that they have different learning styles, which are not being recognised.

"Boys need a clear sense of purpose, to concentrate and to be able to 'see through' a single, dedicated task, to be free from distraction and be active in the learning process."

But Professor Connell says that argument seriously underestimates boys' abilities. There is a significant amount of overlap in the psychological characteristics and learning patterns of girls and boys.

"I would very strongly argue there's not a boys' pedagogy and a girls' pedagogy, or that there should be a girls' curriculum and a boys' curriculumth...ththat would be disastrous because it could only be based on stereotyping."

Mr Henry believes teachers need to experiment with different ways of teaching boys - for example, engaging them in more active role-playing.

"When they are sitting behind a desk, they often don't come to terms with an idea. Often through role-play they are able to develop responses that have more depth."

Professor Connell says one of the positive spinoffs of the debate is the discussion it has created about the role of men in education.

"Men by and large are absent from the care of young children - that's a bad thing for boys and girls."

In New Zealand about 70 per cent of teachers are female and 30 per cent male.

He believes some of the "mythical thinking" about boys' achievement would change if it were more "normal and natural" for there to be more male teachers.