Quote:
A key reason why boys lag behind in the classroom is revealed for the first time today – female teachers.Ground-breaking research shows that boys lower their sights if they think their work is going to be marked by a woman because they believe their results will be worse.
It also shows their suspicions are correct – female teachers did, on average, award lower marks to boys than unidentified external examiners. Male teachers, by contrast, awarded them higher marks than external examiners.
The findings, published by the Centre for Economic Performance today, could have immense repercussions for boys because of the dearth of male teachers in the profession. Only 15 per cent of primary school staff are men.
Very interesting - though I’m not sure I completely understand the research.
I’ve always thought there is a danger of this kind of thing. But, surely, it can’t be in maths (numeracy). Surely then an answer is either right or wrong and not subject to the teachers’ prejudices?
But I can see it in English. Males like action and females like (I don’t know) description of emotions(?). So one can see how the gender of your assessor is going to affect their view of the merit of your work.
I think there's a certain National Curriculum approved writing style- adjective and adverb laden, heavily descriptive, emotive etc which is anathema to the writing style of many boys (and some girls as well...) which, in my limited experience, tends to be more racy and action packed.
Some girls stories I had to level as a student teacher were jaw breakingly yawnsome but they scored higher, level wise, than some really quite interesting boys tales, because they ticked all the boxes of what is (narrowly, IMO) considered good prose in the NC
storytelling ideas for KS2
storytelling- without a book!
KS1 story writing worksheet