EDU 301 EDUCATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY DIFFERENCES IN EDUCATIONAL PERFORMANCE

FACTORS AFFECTING EDUCATION PERFORMANCE GENDER ETHNICITY SOCIO ECONOMIC BACKGROUND CULTURE ATTITUDES AND MOTIVATION PARENTAL INVOLVEMENT TYPES OF SCHOOLS

GENDER DO GIRLS PERFORM BETTER THAN BOYS? BIOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS – are girls naturally better at English whereas boys are better at science? BOYS HATE SCHOOL MORE THAN GIRLS? GIRLS LIKE SCHOOL MORE THAN BOYS?

BOYS vs. GIRLS E.G. WILLIS (1977) found that boys reject the mental labour associated with school and learning. Real man do manual work and it was who you know that got you jobs not pieces of paper. In the 70’s working class female also undervalued education and only took ‘female’ subjects In the 90’s significant change in values and expectations

BOYS vs GIRLS Sex-role development – appropriate male-sex development is establishing autonomy from their mothers (for normal sex-role development) Separate themselves from the gender identity and gender role “for boys and men, separation and individualization are critically tied to gender identity, since separation from the mother is essential for the development of masculinity”- Gilligan, 1982

BOYS vs GIRLS HARRIS (1993) found that girls tend to be more hardworking and better motivated than boys BOYS – easily distracted and less determined to overcome educational difficulties Had strong macho attitude towards education and work thus undervalues education importance

BOYS vs GIRLS GIRLS – worked better to deadlines for coursework Organised their time better than boys Had positive role models of women who managed home and employment

ETHNICITY Portes and MacLeod, 1996:270 – ‘their national background plays a significant independent role’ Eg: 1st generation immigrants (Cuban & Vietnamese) see education as a key to move upward for their children despite their own low levels of education and income (Portes and MacLeod, 1996)

ETHNICITY AUSTRALIA – children of immigrants were at a disadvantaged in mid-1970s but the situation may have improved due to the introduction of multicultural policies in the classroom (Cahill, 1996) 2nd generation (European, Indian and Chinese) have achieved substantial educational mobility compared to British, German, Dutch and Australian origins)

ETHNICITY Consequently higher percentages of children from non English speaking background achieve tertiary education Studies have found that it is more likely that Vietnamese, Chinese, Eastern European and Korean backgrounds are in higher education Contrastively, people whose language group was Arabic, Khmer and Turkish were half as likely to be in higher education than those from ESB (Dobson et al.,1996, Cahill, 1996)

SOCIO ECONOMIC BACKGROUND Can be defined as ‘a person’s overall social position…to which attainments in both the social and economic domain contribute’ SES is determined by an individual’s achievements in – education, employment and occupational status, income and wealth

CHILDREN FROM LOWER SES EXHIBIT THE FOLLOWING : 1 Have lower levels of literacy, numeracy and comprehension 2 Have lower retention rates – more likely to leave school early 3 Have lower higher education participation rates – less likely to attend university

CHILDREN FROM LOWER SES EXHIBIT THE FOLLOWING : 4 Higher levels of problematic school behavior – truancy, discipline problems More likely to have difficulties with studies 5 Less likely to study specialised maths and science subjects 6 Less successful school-to-labour market transitions

SES AND ACADEMIC ACHIEVEMENT ‘Social background remains one of the major sources of educational inequality’ (Graetz, 1995:28) ‘Educational success depends very strongly on the socio-economic status of one’s parents’ ‘ (Edgar, 1976)