Can Boys Beat Girls in Reading?

Told reading tests are a game, boys score higher.

A new study challenges the notion that girls are better at reading than boys.

The research, in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, showed that boys outscored girls on reading tests if they were told the tests were a game. But boys scored significantly lower than girls when told the tests were assessments of their reading skills.

Previous research has shown that girls read more often than boys, but most studies have focused on the gender gap in math that favors boys, researchers said.

The latest study, in France, involved 80 children, 48 boys and 30 girls age 9 years old on average, from four third-grade classes at three schools. All classes received a silent reading test that required students to underline as many animal names as possible in three minutes from a list of 486 words (animal names comprised half the list). Two classes were told the test was an evaluation of their reading abilities, and two were told it was a new animal fishing game designed for a fun magazine.

In classes given reading evaluations, boys made an average of 33.3 correct answers compared with 43.3 by the girls. But when the tests were framed as animal games, boys’ average scores were significantly higher: 44.7 compared with 38.3 for the girls.

Caveat: The study was relatively small and involved children who were still learning how to read.

http://www.wsj.com/articles/can-boys-beat-girls-in-reading-1462202491


Does being competative help people learn?

Does being competitive help people learn?

Only if you have a competitive nature. It wouldn't work on me. I don't really have a competitive streak unless I'm playing darts.....for some reason.

eddie wrote:Does being competitive help people learn?

Only if you have a competitive nature. It wouldn't work on me. I don't really have a competitive streak unless I'm playing darts.....for some reason.

Then it would be of a benefit in studying would it not?

eddie wrote:Does being competitive help people learn?

Only if you have a competitive nature. It wouldn't work on me. I don't really have a competitive streak unless I'm playing darts.....for some reason.

God almighty! Knowing how easily you are distracted I bet everyone stands behind you!

Miffs2 wrote:

eddie wrote:Does being competitive help people learn?

Only if you have a competitive nature. It wouldn't work on me. I don't really have a competitive streak unless I'm playing darts.....for some reason.

God almighty! Knowing how easily you are distracted I bet everyone stands behind you!

Hahahahahahaha you know me toooooo well nems

I do lol
I also know what I was like when I had a go at darts:shock:

Miffs2 wrote:

eddie wrote:Does being competitive help people learn?

Only if you have a competitive nature. It wouldn't work on me. I don't really have a competitive streak unless I'm playing darts.....for some reason.

God almighty! Knowing how easily you are distracted I bet everyone stands behind you!

nope they all stand in front of the dart board...its the safest place.....

Ha bloody ha

Ooops. We have gone off topic

BACK IN THE DIM DARK PAST, way back when I was still at school, it was always boys topping reading, spelling and comprehension topics, with a higher proportion of boys as well represented among the groups of better students in reading, and maths and science...

THEN, down here in Oz, from the 1980s onwards, there was a growth in the numbers of boys who considered it a lot cooler to be acting stupid, and too uncool to be thought of as in anyway being nerdy, good readers, or handy at science, maths, or even technical subjects.

TOO MANY of that "too cool for school" crowd who believe that being as least competent academically isn't for them, and would rather be seen as "jocks" -- even if 70% of them will never be; and then that also then results in larger groups of rebels/rads/wastrels/layabouts, where some of them probably have some potential being stymied by bad attitudes.
EVEN carrying their poor attitudes onto the next generations in more extreme cases..

EVEN THOUGH still in a minority in most cases, there are still large enough clusters of gangs of boys deliberately "acting dumb" as to drag down the group averages -- so much so, that over the last 10-15 years girls have been dominating the top groups in English, Maths and Science results..

BACK IN the 1970s amd 1980s, Australia was consistently placing among the top 10 in international comparisons for scholastic abilities. Over the past 15 years, it has dropped out of the top 10 for various subjects, and down into the 20s with some..

SO NO,  I don't believe that it is so much related to a direct gender-bias or some physiological/brain chemistry link, but rather cultural and attitudinal shifts within the genders -- and how the education system see fit to deal with those shifts...