A study in France noted that there is something in primary school that is causing a gender difference in children, in teaching mathematics.
Primary school may be causing a gender difference in performance in mathematics; And this effect seems to start in the first year.
The revelation was done in a study, last week in the Naturewhich included data on mathematical skills of over 2.5 million children of the first year in France.
The study revealed that although girls and boys started school with a similar level of mathematical skills, within four months, boys had significantly better mathematics than girls.
That Difference quadrupled at the end of the first year.
The disparities between the sexes in mathematical performance are documented worldwide, and the origin of this disparity was for a long time attributed to differences supposedly inherent in the sexes: “The boys are better mathematics” and “girls are better to languages.”
In fact, this is just stereotypes without any scientific support.
Primary increases differences?
What the new study suggests is that something in Formal Mathematics Education is provoking the formation of this pit, in the first year.
“I was very surprised, not that there is a difference between the sexes, but with the fact that it arises at the moment when the formal teaching of mathematics in school begins,” the study co -author said in an interview, in an interview, the study co -author, Elizabeth SpelkeProfessor of Psychology at Harvard University.
As Live Science details, the new study took advantage of an initiative by the French Ministry of Education to improve national mathematics standards, which was launched after several years of disappointing performances in international evaluations and revealed the disturbing extension of gender difference in mathematical skills in the country.
With the help of cognitive scientists and educators, the French government has implemented a universal testing program for all French children in order to help teachers better understand the needs of each class and update national standards.
Since 2018, the language and mathematical skills of all children have been evaluated at the first year, the first compulsory year of education in France. They were tested again after four months of formal education and after a full year of learning.
These tests did not reveal significant differences between the mathematical abilities of girls and boys at the beginning of education.
However, within four months, a considerable pit was opened among them, putting the boys ahead, and this gap was increasing As schooling advanced.
Regardless of socioeconomic status, family structure or school type, on average, boys performed substantially better in assessing than girls.
After data analysis, the authors of the study now disclosed theorize that the classroom activities are responsible for such disparities. And Covid helps to prove it.
When the schools closed, In the pandemic, the gender difference decreased. But when they opened again, the disparities increased again.
“Therefore, there are many reasons for thinking that gender difference is linked in some way that we do not understand the beginning and progress of formal mathematics teaching,” says Elizabeth Spelke.
Worrying scenario
In Live Science, Jenefer Goldingspecialist in Pedagogy at University College London, who was not part of the study, said that the investigation raises worrying questions about attitudes or behaviors in the classroom that may be creating this disparity.
“Gender patterns are widespread, but they are not inevitable. What is at stake is equal opportunities. We have to make sure that we are not putting a preventable obstacles in the way of young people who could thrive in these areas,” he said.
As this is a purely observational study, research does not allow us to draw definitive conclusions about why this difference between the genres becomes so sharp at the beginning of education. However, the expert considers the results alarming.
The role of play at home
To the same magazine, the educational analyst Sabine meinckfrom the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Success, based on its own investigation, says that “the data suggests early gender standards in parents’ involvement, [pelo que] Gender stereotypes can begin to take root through early childhood play”.
For example, “parents report that girls involve much more in early literacy activities, while boys are more often involved with building blocks and construction toys,” he said.
These differences in early childhood games may be launching the foundations for the way children get involved in learning reading and mathematics at school.
