Back in February 2020 there was a parliamentary debate on ‘Education and Attainment of White Working-Class Boys’. Part of the expert evidence stated that ‘We know that on average boys consistently underperform against girls, and white boys from disadvantaged backgrounds underperform against boys of all other races and ethnicities.’ The issues around boys’ underperformance have rattled around in schools for years and evidently still persist.
Evidence shows the differences between boys and girls can emerge from birth. According to some research it’s possible that sex-related genes or hormones account for the different ways the brains of boys and girls react to human speech. Overall, more boys than girls are late talkers, and boys may use more limited vocabularies. Girls tend to be better at reading non-verbal signs, like tone of voice and expression, which also makes them better communicators early on because they can connect feelings and words faster.
Boys’ gross motor skills tend to develop slightly faster (look at any outdoor area in EYFS!), while girls’ fine motor skills tend to improve first (again, look at who is holding a pencil, writing and drawing in most EYFS settings). For this reason, girls may show an interest in writing and art before boys.
However, the issues can be exacerbated by staff expectations. There was some interesting research by Debra Myhill at the University of Exeter back in 2004 entitled ‘’Troublesome boys’ and ‘compliant girls’: Gender identity and perceptions of achievement and underachievement’. One of the key findings is that teachers can unconsciously expect boys to be low achievers, hard to motivate and likely to cause problems rather than work, whilst girls are perceived as being high achievers, keen to engage and hard working. His despite teachers involved in the research stating they had high expectations of all children, did not have pre-conceptions and treated all pupils the same. The gender biases that emerged were in the main, subconscious. It’s available online and well worth a read, especially the quotes that teachers ascribed to ‘typical’ boys and ‘typical’ girls.
It’s situations like when a group of children are talking with each other when working independently in a lesson. Is there an assumption that if the group of children are girls then they must be discussing the work and collaborating, but if the group is made up of boys then they must be off-task and probably planning a mini riot or some such heinous activity?
There’s a considerably amount of research out there which explores this, although some findings are contradictory. Nevertheless, it’s worth considering what we do in schools to address any issues of boys’ underperformance. Strategies such as ‘make it link with football’ do seem to ignore the fact that not every boy likes a football. And what kind of stereotyping is this promoting with regard to the girls? Football not for them then? Another issue is when history units focus are adapted to focus on the gory stuff – war, torture and fighting in general – to get the boys interested apparently. Hardly helping to challenge issues of toxic masculinity is it, if this is seen as the preserve of boys and used to focus their attention?
Of course, there are many, many schools where boys’ outcomes are strong and any kind of bias, unconscious or otherwise, is challenged and best practice shared effectively.
But it’s still worth being mindful of the language that we use and the resources that we provide for the pupils. Only last year I was in a school where I overheard an adult say, “Right, I need some big strong boys to help me move this table.’ To a class of Y1 pupils.
There has been a lot of useful research into effective practice to help engage boys and raise outcomes, as well as research into adults’ attitudes and unconscious bias.
I would recommend ‘Boys Don’t Try’ by Matt Pinkett and Mark Roberts as a really thought provoking book, and the research paper ‘Nine Contradictory Observations About Girls’ and Boys’ Upbringing and Education’ by Määttä and Uusiautti ,University of Lapland 2020.
I’ll be exploring these issues and providing examples of best practice in the forthcoming Focus course ‘Improving Outcomes for Boys: What can we learn from the research and how can this be implemented effectively?’ on 29th April (view here) and then available as a mini clip download afterwards (view here).
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For more information about Tim’s courses he is running click here.
To book Tim or one of our consultants to work in your school on Raising standards of boys (or any other area), email us consultancy@focus-education.co.uk
You can find us on Twitter @focuseducation1 or get in touch with the Focus Education office on 01457 821 818.
Self-Evaluation for a New Era
Planning for Improvement
Writing a Self-Evaluation Statement
Tim has been a headteacher with a successful track record; his last school had a reputation for innovation and their initiatives have been utilised by others and presented internationally.
School improvement has been at the heart of his career, working as an LLE, a School Improvement Partner, Professional Partner as well as an Ofsted inspector and mentor for trainee inspectors.
