You will hear a lecture. After listening to the lecture, in 10 seconds, please speak into the microphone and retell what you have just heard from the lecture in your own words. You will have 40 seconds to give your response.
You can see that the two charts, each give quite a different picture of the performance of boys and girls in the two key subjects of Math and English. It shows that in English, girls consistently outperform boys over a period of 6 years, achieving scores about 10% above their male peers. There is quite a different picture when we look at the Math results with no real difference between genders in the results. What is the explanation for these key differences? To answer this question, researchers look at biological and cognitive factors, and a range of social factors. The interaction between these different components in early childhood development are seen as maintained and reinforced in the school context. And this leads to distinct gender patterns of behavior and skills with direct consequences for school performance and achievement. The ultimate uses of this evidence (are) to show that biological factors, such as patterns of cognitive developments are closely linked to social factor, such as learned gender categories. This cognitive skills are learned both pre-school and subsequently at school, supported by the responses of teachers, creating a reinforcement of patterns.
