Girls’ achievement in mathematics - draft
This publication was first drafted in 2005 to support anyone working with
children in the primary sector, to help increase the progress of girls who do
not achieve what they should in mathematics. The gap in the progress being
made by girls and boys in mathematics has widened and remains an issue.
This publication includes advice and guidance on a range of strategies to
support those who work in classrooms, relevant data, research findings and
suggestions for further reading.
The introduction outlines the need to consider specifically the achievement of
girls in mathematics and is followed by:
 Advice and guidance to support learning and teaching
- Creating a learning culture
- Questioning
- Closing the gender gap
 A summary of research and references
Introduction
Nationally there is a gap in boys’ and girls’ performance in English, and in
particular writing, that has been a concern for some time. There has also been
a gap between girls’ and boys’ progress in mathematics.
44.8%/52.9% of 7 year old girls/boys moved from L2C in mathematics to L4 in
mathematics at 11 in 2007
77.1%/81.7% of 7 year old girls/boys moved from L2B in mathematics to L4 in
mathematics at 11 in 2007
72.2%/77.6% of 7 year old girls/boys moved from L3 in mathematics to L5 in
mathematics at 11 in 2007
The problem seems to begin in Y3/4. We need to look at 2 groups of girls those who achieve L2B/C in Y2 and don’t get L4 in Y6 and those L3s who
don’t make L5.
The national data indicates that there are no significant gender differences
when looking at pupils achieving at L3 and pupils achieving below L3.
Research1 into the reasons for differences in attainment between girls and
boys in mathematics suggests a number of hypotheses, linked to learning
styles and ways of working, as well as teachers’ attitudes and perceptions,
and the way girls perceive themselves as learners. For example:
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All children need practice and with practice comes secure understanding.
Girls enjoy the routine practising of skills and techniques more than boys,
but get too little time in lessons to consolidate what they know in a quiet
working environment as the lessons are dominated by the response of
attention seeking boys. The quiet hardworking girl who could, with
effective teaching, achieve L5 is ignored, hidden by her own silence and
desire to please.
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Boys seem to pick up and retain ideas quickly and often see, or think
they see, how to use taught methods and rules after relatively few
examples. Girls like to have the methods and rules clearly defined and
explained and be shown how to use them. If they are not given clear and
simple rules they can use and apply, they are more likely to make up
their own even if they are not founded on a secure understanding. In
addition, teachers may attribute girls’ success to their ability to follow
rules rather than ‘real understanding’.
Boys are more likely to have a go without worrying about presentation,
consequences and results. Girls give more attention to detail, want to see
what they do in a well presented outcome and are more unsettled by the
unexpected so do not get stuck into something as freely as boys.
Girls are happy to invest time in generating a response and completing
what they are given to do. They are more likely to become engaged with
a question that they cannot answer and to spend time thinking about how
they can respond. Boys flit, move on to the next task and aim to reach
the end as quickly as possible even if they have not answered everything
on the way.
On the whole, girls are likely to attribute mathematical success to effort
and failure to lack of ability, whereas boys are more likely to attribute
success to ability and failure to lack of effort. Children’s beliefs about
their own lack of achievement affect their learning behaviour, and failure
linked in the child’s mind to lack of ability has a greater negative effect
then anything else on further performance. Thus failure in mathematics is
more likely to impact on a girl’s future achievement than on a boy’s.
Confidence is a critical variable linked to mathematics achievement
levels.
Action research programmes intended to address the differential attainment of
boys and girls have highlighted the need for and the effectiveness of group
work, co-operative learning and collaborative approaches, positive feedback
and the importance of getting all learners involved in talking about
mathematics.
1 Research
references:
Burton, L. (ed): 1986, Girls into Maths Can Go, Sussex: Holt Education
Burton, L. (ed): 1990, Gender and Mathematics: an international perspective,
Cassell, London
Burton, L. (ed): 1994, Who Counts? Assessing Mathematics in Europe,
Trentham Books
Fennema, E and Leder, G.C. (eds): 1990, Mathematics and Gender,
Teachers’ College Press, N.York
Solar, C. 1995, ‘An inclusive pedagogy in mathematics education’,
Educational Studies in Mathematics 28, 311 – 333
Walden, R. and Walkerdine, V.: 1885, Girls and Mathematics: From Primary
to Secondary Schooling, Institute of Education, University of London, London
Walkerdine, V.:1989, Counting Girls Out, Virago, London
Most research relating to gender and mathematics learning outcomes has
focused on affective variables. The APU (1988) report Attitudes and Gender
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Differences indicated that girls do better on computation, probability and
algebra, and boys do better on volume and geometry.
Creating a learning culture to meet the learning needs of girls
Good quality teaching and learning experiences, where pupils are actively
involved in their learning will lead to a vibrant learning culture in the
classroom. Teachers need to be able to adjust their teaching in order to meet
the needs of all pupils. In mathematics, girls’ attitudes to learning need to be
fully understood by their teachers if they are to be successful learners. Girls
may attribute any successes which they have in mathematics to the amount of
effort that they have put into the activity; whilst failure, will be directly
attributed to a lack of ability on their part. In contrast, boys will often see
things quite differently. They will make a direct correlation between ability and
success, whilst failure may be linked to a lack of effort.
There are several elements to ensuring that a classroom has a vibrant
learning culture within it.
 Good quality planning by teachers and practitioners for explicit learning
intentions
 Sharing learning goals and success criteria
 Effective questioning
 Active involvement of pupils in self assessment
 Good quality feedback on how to improve
 A belief that all can succeed.
When there is clarity in the learning intentions with clear success criteria,
many girls will feel more confident in “having a go” because there is less
uncertainty in their minds about the task. It will be of enormous benefit to all
learners, but particularly to those lacking in confidence, to be clear about what
they are learning in a lesson and what their teacher is looking for when work
is being marked and assessed later.
An effective learner and an effective classroom culture display a number of
elements that enable success to happen for the learner.
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Emotional resilience
Competent basic skills being learnt/taught
Self-help strategies available and positively encouraged
Motivation to achieve goals and self driven learning
Application of learning to new situations
Self evaluation and time to reflect on learning
Higher order thinking promoted
Girls’ responses to the marking strategies used by teachers will have a
powerful effect on their ability to be successful in mathematics. Research
shows that marking by grade or score can have a dramatic effect on pupils’
perceptions of their abilities and how they compare themselves with others.
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This can be more marked in girls than boys. Self esteem and motivation can
be lowered significantly by this type of marking and can demoralise less
successful or less confident learners.
Marking by teachers or other adults in the classroom may be linked to the
quantity of work and quality of presentation rather than the quality of learning
that has taken place. This can often mask a lack of understanding of key
concepts by girls, when they have made a great effort on presentation.
Marking can serve managerial and social behaviour issues in relation to the
child rather than addressing how the child might learn more effectively.
Work carried out by Shirley Clark on quality marking in the classroom points
to four different types of marking which could be applicable in different
situations:
 Acknowledgement marking
 Marking exercises which are correct or not
 Quality marking by the teacher with “closing the gap” prompts to move
learning forward
 Quality marking by the child/children together.
Extremely detailed marking of a piece of work can be demoralising,
overwhelming and counterproductive because the pupil does not link the
marking to the intended learning in the lesson. Pupils need to be clear that
marking will focus on the purpose of the task they were given; how far they
got in achieving that task and what they need to do in order to close the gap
and move on with their learning. This type of quality marking is likely to meet
the learning styles of girls very well in that it is clear, well directed and explicit.
As a result of such marking, research has shown us that pupils like the clarity
and are eager to receive their feedback; all pupils benefit from targeted
marking; pupils will focus on the learning, self-esteem increases and it can be
a liberating, exciting opportunity for teachers. Not all work can be quality
marked, as it is a time consuming method of marking. However, by targeting
particular pieces of work, teachers can ensure that there is maximum impact
on learning.
Quality marking ensures that the work is assessed according to the identified
success criteria and comments are directly linked to the learning intention.
Such comments might be:
 A reminder
“Remember what happens to the digits when you divide by 10”
 A question
“Which of these two answers for question 12 is correct?
 A directive
Come and explain how you answered question 12
 An unfinished sentence
When we divide by 10, all the digits move…….
 If all of the questions have been answered correctly
“These are all correct. What do you need to understand to be able to do
this?” or
“These are all correct. Can you tell me the rule?”
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Creating a learning culture for girls to succeed in mathematics is about good
quality teaching matching the needs of all pupils:
“In learning environments where the ethos supports learning:
There is an expectation on the part of both adults and children that learning is
important and enjoyable, and that everyone can achieve,
Teaching uses a range of approaches and there is a culture of collaborative
learning,
Teachers and practitioners are ambitious for children and expectations of
learning are high,
Children are motivated to be “the best that I can be”
Excellence and Enjoyment: learning and teaching in the primary years
Conditions for Learning
Questioning
Questioning is an important and effective teaching strategy that supports
children in reflecting on their prior and current learning and helps to develop
their understanding of new knowledge and skills.
While the use of appropriate prompting, probing & promoting questions is
effective for all pupils, certain types of questions, which are highlighted in the
text below, should be particularly effective for girls’ learning of mathematics.
Prompting questions:
 Direct children to the knowledge and skills they have learned and can
apply
 Help children to use knowledge to derive new facts and skills
 Help establish the next step in children’s learning
 Help children to understand the tasks or problems and decide how they
will begin to tackle them
 Draw children’s attention to alternative approaches, methods or
ideas they have used previously
 Offer children simpler starting points and illustrations of how they might
tackle a problem
 Create links and stimulate children’s thinking
Probing questions:
 Establish the extent to which children’s knowledge and
understanding is secure
 Help children to identify and correct any errors they have made and
recognise why they might have made them
 Encourage children to review their ideas and methods and seek ways of
improving their work
 Support children in articulating their strategies and choices, and in
use of correct vocabulary and notation
 Sharpen children’s thinking skills and ability to hypothesise, test and
justify
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Promoting questions:
 Set children challenges so they can apply their ideas and reasoning skills
and deepen their understanding
 Encourage children to take decisions and enquire by setting-up and
testing hypotheses of their own
 Stimulate discussion about efficiency and the merits of alternative
strategies
 Foster children’s ability to think, review their approaches and solutions and
identify other, more efficient, strategies they might use
Dialogue
Teaching through dialogue is a strategy to share and build on ideas by
sustained talk.
When teaching through dialogue, teachers encourage children to listen to
each other; share ideas and consider alternatives; build on their own and
other’s ideas to develop coherent thinking; express their views fully and help
each other to reach a common understanding.
This process can take place when teacher talks with an individual pupil, or two
pupils are talking together, or when the whole class is joining a discussion.
It is particularly effective with girls.
Strategies to raise the mathematical achievement of girls
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Use teaching through dialogue as a strategy to share and build on
mathematical ideas
Develop confidence by explicitly praising ability, not just effort.
Seek opportunities to highlight ability by eliciting ideas, knowledge and
reasoning from girls
Provide opportunities for girls to clearly define and explain methods and
rules, which they can later apply.
Promote confidence through the use of talk partners and paired work to
rehearse answers and ideas
Scaffold the learning of new methods and rules by alternating practice and
plenary sessions within lessons.
Ensure quality working time for girls to consolidate skills and techniques –
use paired and independent activities
Exploit girls’ willingness to invest time in generating a response and
attention to detail by giving them opportunities to demonstrate their
findings for the class.
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Summary of Research
The differences in attitude and performance in mathematics between boys
and girls has been researched and highlighted as an issue since the 1960’s.
Collected data from exam and test performance indicate that the attainment of
boys is greater than girls, particularly at the highest levels. This has for a long
time been recognised at Secondary level but is now emerging as an issue at
Primary level. Girls are less likely to pursue their study of mathematics
beyond compulsory education and take up careers involving mathematics.
Researchers have sought to identify the reasons for this gender difference.
Factors which have been identified as influencing the achievement of girls
are:
 Girls’ attitudes towards mathematics
 Teachers’ attitudes and the teaching strategies adopted
 Parents’ attitudes
Girls’ attitude towards mathematics
In general girls have lower expectations and are less confident in the subject
than boys. They have a tendency to attribute failure to lack of ability (Stipek
1991) and success to “good luck” (Weiners 1971). Boys exhibit greater
confidence, sometimes to the extent of being over confident. This can result in
them taking greater risks, sometimes resulting in success. Girls find security
in procedures and are more likely to use a more conventional approach to
solving problems. (Gallagher et al 2000). The approach taken by the
Numeracy Strategy where informal strategies are overtly taught and
developed will give girls a necessary toolkit on which to draw. Girls may also
prefer the security of concrete objects, whereas boys prefer to retrieve facts
from memory. (Carr, and Jessup 1997). The opportunity and ability to make
jottings to support mental calculation may provide the security that girls need
and take away the pressure of needing to hold everything in their heads.
Teachers’ attitudes towards girls and mathematics.
Research suggests that teachers’ attitudes towards girls and mathematics
and the way they conduct their teaching can have an adverse affect on the
performance of their female pupils. Walkerdine (1989) noted that girls in the
early stages of schooling did enjoy playing with construction toys, but did not
get the same encouragement or opportunities from teachers as boys; thus
reinforcing a stereotypical viewpoint.
Several studies point to the style of teaching and activities presented by
teachers indicating that girls prefer working in non competitive classrooms,
while boys are motivated by a competitive atmosphere (Li and Adamson
1994). Strategies for encouraging a non competitive atmosphere include,
allowing thinking time and opportunities for everyone to answer rather than
the traditional hands up format.
Teachers’ expectations can have a significant impact. Gutbezahl suggests
that a cyclical effect occurs where girls believe they cannot do well in
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mathematics, they therefore do not do well. Teachers seeing this result do not
expect them to do well and so the cycle continues.
Parents’attitudes
Research indicates that parents can perpetuate the view that boys are better
at maths than girls. A study of four and five year old children showed that their
parents believed that boys would solve mathematical problems more quickly
than girls. (Bevins-Knabe et al 1991)
Other reasons for girls’ underperformance
Biological differences have been studied and cited as reasons for the
difference in performance of boys and girls. However evidence is by no
means conclusive. Bain (2001) argues that biological differences are not fully
understood and also would not account for the differences in performance
between boys and girls across different countries. An analysis of data from
the latest TIMMS report indicates that girls (aged 10) performed significantly
better in geometry in several countries, an area traditionally thought of as
favouring boys.
References
Stipek, D, Granlinski, H, (1991) "Gender Differences in Children's
Achievement-Related Beliefs and Emotional Responses to Success and
Failure in Mathematics," Journal of Educational Psychology , v. 83 n. 3 pp.
361-71, September 1991.
Weiner, B. (1971) Perceiving the Causes of Success and Failure. New York:
General Learning Press
Gallagher, A. M., & De Lisi, R. (1994). Gender differences in scholastic
aptitude test — mathematics problem solving among high-ability students.
Journal of Educational Psychology, 86, 204-211.
Carr, M. and D. L. Jessup (1997)."Gender Differences in First-Grade
Mathematics Strategy Use: Social and Metacognitive Influences." Journal of
Educational Psychology 89(2): 318-328.
Walkerdine, V. (1989) Counting Girls Out. Virago: London
Li, Anita, Adamson, Georgina, (1992) "Gifted Secondary Students' Preferred
Learning Style: Cooperative, Competitive, or Individualistic?" Journal of
Education of the Gifted , v. 16, n. 1, pp. 46-54
Gutbezahl, Jennifer, "How Negative Expectancies and Attitudes Undermine
Females' Math Confidence and Performance: A Review of the Literature,"
Blevins-Knabe, Belinda, and Musun-Miller, Linda (1991), "Parental Beliefs
about the Development of Preschool children's Number Skills," paper
presented at the Biennial Meeting of the Society for Research in Child
Development, Seattle, WA, April 18-20,
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2003
Bain R (2001) Philosophy of Mathematics Education Journal 14 editor Paul
Ernest
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