Retell Lecture

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 six years, achieving scores about 10% above their male peers. There is quite a different picture when we look at the math result 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 in skills with direct consequences for school performance and achievement, the argument uses this evidence to show that biological factors such as patterns of cognitive development are closely linked to social factors such as learned gender categories. These cognitive skills are learned through preschool and subsequently at school supported by the responses of teachers creating a reinforcement of patterns.