As of: March 8, 2024, 4:55 p.m
By: Ulrike Hagen
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Girls “can” do language, boys can do math. Primary school teachers use such prejudices to reinforce differences in performance, a new study shows.
That has consequences.
Halle – Germany is still a long way from achieving gender equality, as the annual calculation of the gender pay gap shows.
Clichés still seem to be set in stone - including the assumption that girls are weaker in mathematics while boys are not as good at languages.
But do teachers themselves have such prejudices - and do they also influence the performance development of students?
A new international study suggests so.
We spoke to one of the study directors about the influence of gender prejudices on the performance development of primary school students.
Girls can do language, boys can do math. Primary school teachers use such prejudices to reinforce differences in performance, a new study shows.
That has consequences.
(Symbolic image) © Imago/Sven Simon
Prejudices in the classroom: Teachers underestimate girls in mathematics and boys in languages
The international research team from Germany, Great Britain and the USA, including from the Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU), has found that teachers tend to assess the abilities of girls in language and boys in mathematics better than objective ones Tests suggest.
The study, published in the journal Social Science Research, evaluated longitudinal studies and data from 17,000 children.
Our results on the differences in performance development between girls and boys are an indication of the existence of self-fulfilling prophecies.
Study director Dr.
Melanie Olczyk, Institute of Sociology, Martin Luther University Halle
“The basis of the analyzes was an assessment of the students’ abilities by the teachers at the beginning of primary school as well as performance tests, the results of which were compared with the teachers’ assessments,” said co-author Dr.
Melanie Olczyk from the Institute of Sociology at the Martin Luther University Halle told
IPPEN.MEDIA
.
As part of the studies used, the children were followed throughout primary school, their performance was regularly tested and parents and teachers were interviewed.
Misjudgment with consequences: teachers overestimate boys in math and girls in languages
The result: “Teachers tend to judge girls’ language skills and boys’ math skills better than their performance in objective tests suggests,” explains Olczyk.
However, according to the scientist, there are differences between the countries examined.
In the area of language, the distortion was greatest in England; in the area of mathematics, the largest outliers were found in Germany.
In the USA the differences were significantly smaller.
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“Systematic biases” in assessments compared to performance
The researchers were able to show that the assessment by primary school teachers cannot be completely traced back to the measured performance of the children.
“It also turned out that these distortions are systematically related to the gender of the students.
In the area of language, girls’ abilities tend to be overestimated and boys’ abilities underestimated; in mathematics it’s exactly the opposite,” says Olczyk.
Study results suggest: Differences in performance development can be attributed to distorted judgments
Comparing the performance at the beginning of primary school with that at the end of primary school showed: Overall, over the years, the advantage of boys in mathematics and girls in language increased even further.
“In our study, we can further show that the observed differences in performance development between girls and boys were partly related to the distorted teacher judgments,” summarizes Melanie Olczyk.
“Our results on the differences in performance development between girls and boys are an indication of the existence of self-fulfilling prophecies.”
In addition to teacher assessments, factors such as support and class size also played a relevant role in overall performance development.
Overall school performance is evaluated annually by the PISA study.
In 2023 it turned out: the students have never been so bad.
(ulha)