The reasons boys are falling behind run deeper than culture or politics. For evidence, just take a look at a map. Girls are leaving boys in their educational dust almost everywhere, from the Nordic countries where students are lauded for being top performers, to Middle Eastern countries, where feminism can’t take credit. A pedagogical smorgasbord of approaches has been tested, small movements are afoot, and, in some cases, the gap between girls and boys is not even seen as such a bad thing.
Finland
Finland earns plaudits on the international stage for how its students rank in reading, math and science tests. But a look behind the big numbers shows that there are problems brewing.
Girls are consistently doing better than their male counterparts in reading and science, and they’re not that far behind in math, according to a 2006 survey of 15-year-olds conducted by Paris-based Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.
The problem of boys lagging in school is widely recognized. It’s just a matter of addressing it, said Pasi Sahlberg, a former senior education specialist at the World Bank who now runs the National Centre for International Mobility in Finland. The movement may not be as strong as the one in North America, or even some other developed countries for that matter, but steps are being taken to curtail the widening achievement gap.
Textbooks have been modified so they don’t enforce traditional gender stereotypes. Quite the opposite in fact, with many authors presenting alternative role models for boys and girls: men using vacuum-cleaners and girls changing light bulbs. And adjustments are being made to the selection of reading materials. "Now pupils can choose from the menu of different books and readers, like Harry Potter, to get into the reading flow. Girls have always been more comfortable and attentive to reading what teachers have suggested. Now, there is much more choice,” Mr. Sahlberg said.
Finland’s students who are lagging behind or have particular learning difficulties can also be subject to a personalized study plan, where they get special attention from an instructor. Mr. Sahlberg said the threshold to be included in special education is very low, and boys who are struggling normally find themselves in the program.
He said it helps the student when rolled out properly, but since there’s no centralized control of how the program is running, it’s difficult to pinpoint its success rate.
“We are very well aware of ... the fact that boys and girls are achieving differently in the classrooms and in similar instruction,” he said. “The issue is really we are not fully utilizing the instrument that we have available and we have to work harder for that.”
Australia
“Boys are having problems at school. They are experiencing learning difficulties and behavioural problems, and the literacy gap between boys and girls is increasing.”
Those words, on a government news release dated June 19, 2000, set into motion one of the most ambitious inquiries into boys education and resulted in millions of dollars being poured into schools to close the achievement gap.
The Australian government initiated the Boys Education Lighthouse Schools project, and followed up with the Success for Boys initiative, targeting at-risk and disadvantaged boys with activity-based learning, mentoring programs and guidelines for schools. Grants were provided to schools to document successful practices. This came despite arguments from some that boys shouldn’t be treated as a homogeneous group.
“Finally government admitted we had a problem,” said Peter West, an educational consultant based in Sydney.
But the success of those programs has largely been muted, and they appear to have faded into the background with successive governments and a focus now on the economy.
