Is This Why Boys Do Better At Science & Maths?

Question

"The majority of maths and science teachers are male, whereas languages and arts boast many more female teachers.

The reason boys do so much better at maths and the sciences is because they do pay attention to what is being taught, rather than the teacher.

Conversely, in artistic subject, boys are more interested in paying attention to the teacher herself, than in the subject she is teaching.

Additionally, both boys and girls look to their teachers as role models, so a male student is more likely to aspire to do well in subjects taught by a male teacher. The same is true of girls"

Is this why boys outperform girls in maths and the sciences?

Answer 1

I've always done better in Math and science...

I'm not saying I'm doing bad in Language and Art, but they bored me and the good grades are only for academic reasons..

Answer 2

Apparently boys do NOT, in fact, outperform girls.

This is a study reported in the journal Science:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story...

This is a study from Northwestern University that found that countries with a great deal of gender equality, there are no differences at all:

http://www.sciencenews.org/view/generic/...

In fact, in Iceland, girls outperform boys in math by 3%.

Answer 3

Interesting.... I thought you had to be in it to win it. Now there are some contradicting studies mentioned by other answerers, so lets take a snapshot of the real world, today, as of this academic year at my son's college.Unscientific approach, but very interesting.

My son has just started his A'Level courses including Maths, Chemistry and Physics. As of today, September 2008, In his Maths class of  20 students, there are only 2 male students (18 female) in his Chemistry class  of 18 only 5 are males but in his Physics class of 25 there are 21 males.

In his Year at school the GCSE results top grades were nearly ALL girls in ALL subjects.

This is almost the total opposite picture of when you and I grow up Twig. Now, they changed the maths and science courses for my daughter's year, she is one academic year behind. In maths they have removed the assessed coursework modules. Coursework typically advantages females. It will be interesting to do another snapshot and ask this question again next year to see if this very unscientific representation shows up in the numbers doing the same subjects in her first week of College.

Answer 4

According to this rather controversial study, it's because girls are not interested.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/...

It very well may be a cause that the teachers are not of the same gender.

Answer 5

I think there are a few more variables that you should have considered because (1) boys will obviously pay more attention to an attractive female teacher than a male teacher.  Also consider (2) our society is moving away from gender roles and only beginning to encourage girls to enter fields once dominated by males.  Kids (and adults) (3) gravitate to what interests them so why would there be more successful male artists than female (see #2)?

Your explanation is too simplistic to address the complexities involved and there are many more complexities involved than I've mentioned.

Answer 6

Hee hee -- didn't you post another one about girls outperforming boys overall . . .?

I'm afraid I'm not qualified to answer this one, as my degree is in English, I write poetry (among other things), and my 27 in Science on the ACT pulled my composite down to a 34.  Oops.

But I did have a really hot English teacher my sophomore year of high school . . . but then again, most of my English professors in college were men (and I'm straight) . . . so I'm just here to put a funny (hopefully) monkey wrench in by skewing your data!

Have a great day!

:P

Answer 7

No, that is stupid and I'm a feminist. Studies done show that in elementary, girls and boys were at the same level but in Junior high or high school something happened and made the girls just drop. While male and female brains are the same in almost every function and we have the same abilities. Ultrasound scanners in fetuses of male and female s*x reveal that our brains are a bit different.

In the study they found out that when men read, only the left part of their brain was active while in women, boths sides showed activity. They believe this could be why many women are better suited for literature and language than science or math. Our brains makes us different just like most boys suffer from learning disabilities than girls do. It's advantages and disadvantages for both sexes.

Answer 8

Not in my case, but my mother home schooled me after a very bad time. You ever been beaten up for being a “nerd?” Mum brought me up on star trek, mathematics, logic, rationality. I am glad she took me out of school because everyday I was being criticised for doing my homework, for getting good grades. People used to throw oranges at me and call me the antichrist. (Went to a catholic school) All because I asked if “God” was the same in all-different religions. They said I was a witch trying to undermine the whole school, I just wanted answers I was 16. From my experience with the education system I hate it.

In the end, it doesn’t matter what a person get from schooling: The two people I admire most Einstein dropped out had no education but look what he did for the world, and Marie Curie graduated and became one of the first women to win a noble prize. Education is important, how you learn and gain knowledge isn’t.

Answer 9

Here's a little tidbit I picked up recently on New Scientist (a UK publication on science news):

'In countries where women occupy an equal position to men in society, such as Sweden, there was virtually no gender gap in maths ability. However, in countries with lower levels of gender equality, such as Turkey, the boys performed better in maths tests than the girls.

"The gender gap in mathematics doesn't seem to be a feature of every society," says Sapienza.

What's more, the girls produced better reading scores than the boys in all the countries looked at, but did even better in countries with higher levels of gender equality.'

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn14...

When girls live in egalitarian societies, boys do NOT do better at science and math. (For instance, it's not that the girls are mooning over their science teacher, but that the boys monopolize the lab equipment.)

Answer 10

Poppycock! I am male and the majority of my teachers during school age were women (nuns in particular). I didn't gravitate to any particular gender. As a matter of fact, 1-8th grade teachers were all women. When I was first taught a class by a male teacher I actually thought he was weird to have such a career. Anyways, I have excelled in basically all subjects and I consider myself well-rounded.

I also have to say that my personal observations and experiences are totally contrary to the commonly held statistic that women don't excel in math and science. I see women ALL AROUND in science and math vocations. I am in the mechanical design and engineering industry and see women everywhere. So, personally, I don't know what the statisticians are looking at.

Answer 11

Excuse me?  I do not know where you heard that, but in college, the top five students (including myself) in our Physics class were girls, as well as in our Electronics class with the top three students (including myself) being girls.  I am not sure where do you are getting all your erroneous information from.  =P  

Answer 12

There is extensive research coming from multiple prestigious centres, e.g. UCSF, Stanford, etc. where fMRI data is revealing that the there is greater metabolic activity (which is translated into higher intensity signal prior to Fourier Transform) in neurologic areas associated with logic, mathematics ability, motor coordination and abilities with respect to the Natural Sciences in males as compared to controlled female groups.

In areas of verbal ability such as poetry, women have more intense signal on similar studies.

To clarfiy, this are statistical differences and do not necessarily apply to a given individual, per se.

For example, I am a man but I have trouble adding two and two, so clearly, I do not fall into this statistical difference.  I also cannot do well in Tekken level 4 against Himbachi.  Additionally, I have difficulty owning a motor vehicle for more than 2 to 3 months at a time without totaling the vehicle (even when I'm not inebriated, even when there are not other vehicles in my way).

By I can still to a fem-fem graft like mother ******* riot.

Answer 13

Nope. My english teacher was male and I excelled. My chemistry teacher was female and I sucked.