Teachernet, Research and evidence

The Gender Agenda — research and evidence

There are two important resources for research and evidence that relate to gender and pupil achievement: the Teacher Training Resource Bank (TTRB) and Multiverse, the website providing materials on the educational achievement of pupils from diverse backgrounds. Both have a useful and comprehensive range of resources and you will find additional content here such as an item broadcast on Teachers TV. Below are summaries of the key resources on gender to be found on the TTRB site. All the links you need are at the foot of the page.

Gap Buster summary report July 08v5: 'Schools that close the attainment gap between boys and girls in English'
This report summarises research carried out during spring 2008 into seven primary and nine secondary schools in England that had consistently closed or narrowed the attainment gap between boys and girls in English, and identifies the factors that contributed to that success.

White boys from low-income backgrounds: good practice in schools
This report from Ofsted is a small survey of good practice in the education of white boys from low-income backgrounds.

Gender and education: the evidence on pupils in England
Published in 2007, this document presents evidence on pupil gender differences from the Reception Year to the Sixth Form. It includes statistics, international performance data and research reports and considers factors such as social class and ethnicity.

Ensuring the attainment of white working class boys in English
A small project focusing on possible routes to raising achievement in white working class boys; a group identified as being at risk of underachieving.

Raising Boys' Achievements in Writing
This 2004 UKLA/PNS publication presents the findings of a project designed to raise boys' engagement, motivation and achievements in writing. Its planning and teaching model involved generating ideas for writing using visual stimuli and included new technologies alongside model making, artwork and puppetry.

Raising boys achievement
The University of Cambridge produced this report of a four-year project (2000-2004). It found the differential most marked in Key Stage 2 English and Key Stage 4 results. The research sought to identify strategies that made improvements and it also challenges interpretations of boys' underachievement.

Tackling low educational achievement
Produced by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation in 2007, this report uses data from the Pupil Level Annual School Census and the National Pupil Database of all students reaching the age of 16 in 2003. Setting out four different measures of low educational achievement, the report goes back to previous primary school records and investigates the persistently poor educational achievement of pupils from poor families; those who have a special educational needs, or who are in the care of the local authority.

'Underachievement' — from the Behaviour4Learning glossary
This definition of 'underachievement' guards against the labelling of any pupil as an underachiever, 'as it can lead to self-fulfilling prophecies'. It acknowledges, however, that certain population groupings do not achieve the same results as the average and that this varies by age, subject, region, social class: it also varies by the methods used in assessment.

Why Don't Boys Do Well in English? (Teachers TV Clip: 'Hot Research')
A short report that looks at how to improve boys' performance in school, particularly in English, where the gender gap is most pronounced. Professor Debra Myhill of Exeter University stresses the importance of the link between participation in class and achievement. She advocates an active teaching style that has high expectations of all children in the class and avoids stereo-typing.

Girls and Exclusion: rethinking the agenda — A. Osler & K. Vincent (2003)
Osler and Vincent argue that girls' exclusion is an under-examined issue that has long-term, harmful consequences - and merits urgent re-consideration and action.

Educational Inequality: Mapping Race, Class and Gender — D.Gillborn & H. Mirza (Ofsted 2000)
This report analyses the three variables of the separate effects of race, class or gender together. The groups surveyed are African-Caribbean, Pakistani and Bangladeshi pupils. Focusing on secondary school age girls, Osler and Vincent examine the causes, effects, implications and processes involved in different types of educational exclusion.

'How do boys and girls differ in their use of ICT?'
This 2008 briefing paper from Becta (British Educational Communications and Technology Agency), explores the differences between boys' and girls' use of ICT, both within and outside school, and for both educational and leisure purposes. A particular focus of this briefing is on how girls use of ICT, what impact it has on them, and whether they are disadvantaged by the increasing use of ICT in education.

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