Back To School: Gender Stereotypes

Boys 'held back' by school stereotypes
Teachers may be fuelling the gender gap in education by stereotyping boys as badly behaved, research suggests.

By Graeme Paton, Education Editor
Published: 12:01AM BST 01 Sep 2010

The use of phrases such as “silly boys” and “schoolboy pranks” can reinforce the view that boys are more likely to misbehave than girls, it was claimed.

The study said children’s beliefs could become a "self-fulfilling prophecy" and influence their achievement in the classroom.

The disclosure follows the publication of figures last week showing that boys are falling behind girls at the age of seven.

Data from the Department for Education showed that 24 per cent of boys in England failed to reach the standard expected for their age group in writing compared with just 13 per cent of girls.

In recent years, the gap has widened throughout primary and secondary education, with girls far more likely to gain good GCSE and A-level results in their teens.

But a report by Kent University suggests that results may be linked to girls’ and boys’ own perceptions of their abilities at a very young age.

The study – released at the British Educational Research Association annual conference at Warwick University on Wednesday – presented pupils aged four to 10 with a series of statements such as "this child is really clever" and "this child always finishes their work" and asked them to link the words to pictures of boys or girls.

It emerged that pupils from all ages were more likely to identify girls as being better behaved and harder working. Even boys were more likely to pick out girls as high achievers, researchers said.

Children were also split into two groups, with the first group told that boys did not perform as well as girls. Both groups completed maths, reading and writing tests.

The study found that girls’ results were broadly similar in both groups but boys in the first performed worse than those in the second.

Bonny Hartley, a researcher from the university’s school of psychology, who led the study, said that adults could contribute to this “self-fulfilling prophecy” by dividing classes into boys v girls or using stereotypical language.

"It is widely acceptable to pitch the boys against the girls or 'harmlessly' divide the class in this way for practical ease,” she said

"In addition, phrases such as 'silly boys', 'schoolboy pranks' and 'why can't you sit nicely like the girls?' are all likely to contribute to the expectation that boys behave worse and under-perform compared to girls.

“These phrases tend to slip off the tongue, yet they may be doing more harm than realised in reinforcing children's perceptions that it is acceptable to judge and evaluate people on the basis of their gender.”