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Girls, boys, and brains (delicious brains!)

Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
The other post got me interested.....

Why in recent years have girls been performing better than boys in certain GCSE subjects, and even more recently, in AS levels etc? (please correct me if I'm wrong about this I'm only going by what I can remember from last year)

Is it simply a matter of intellegence?

Do girls aspire to do better than boys? Or can they simply remember more? Or, as someone once suggested, are girls simply more suited to exam structure like modular exams? (lets not forget the whole grade inflation with every year that goes by because of course, this years GCSE, AS, A level etc results will be the 'best ever') or is it really grade inflation? Or do people actually work harder with every year that goes by?

And...... Before, boys would perform better in subjects and not really much was spoken about it, but since girls have been outperforming boys, it then became some sort of problem and a lot was going on to try and get the boys to 'catch up' again. (Heard a sociology teacher talk about this) I'm interested to know peoples thoughts on the matter ;)

Comments

  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    despite what people say, they conviently miss out on the small fact that boys and men in general get consistently better results in the practical subjects. Technology, IT and Science are all still dominated by the men, whilst women do better at other subjects like languages and maths.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    Originally posted by Whowhere
    maths.

    Which naturally explains the huge number of female mathematicians?

    Having not looked at any recent facts, I'm hardly qualified to make an informed post on the issue. But I can hypothesise that perhaps the media fuss is caused because it is a toppling of the old order, for lack of a better term. The idea that maybe equality is actually a feasible concept probably appeals to the multitude of feminist and PC journalists out there.

    And the tabloids will look for anything that is easy to sensationalise.
  • Former MemberFormer Member Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
    The fact that there was never a fuss when boys outperfromed girls indicates a certain inherent sexism... ie it's perfectly natural for boys to outperform girls but the other way round its worrying.
    Bioys spend more of their time trying to impress their mtes than girls do. in general, and especially at the upper end of the ability spectrum, girls are more naturally diligetn throughout a course, whereas boys do better in one-off exams. the move to more coursework base assessment, tyhen, presumably has something to do with it.
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