Investigate and determine why girls tend to achieve higher grades than boys at key stage 4.

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Aim

The aim of this project is to investigate and determine why girls tend to achieve higher grades than boys at key stage 4.To help me fulfil this I will collect some secondary information to obtain other peoples views on this particular subject. To see what has been written in the past and in the present, to compare and notice the changes in this chosen area.

        I will gather this secondary information from newspapers, books and sources from the internet. I will then quote this, ensuring that it is relevant to the proposed question.

         After completing this, I aim to conduct some of my own work and to find out myself what other people believe about this and I will do this in the form of a questionnaire. I will keep each on confidential and I will make people aware of how the information will be used before using it for my project. Questionnaires are a good way of obtaining information as using a YES/NO format is an easy way to get a clear comparison of what people actually think.

        Although it seems quite cheap to produce questionnaires, photocopying comes from school funding, so any payments are made from the school.

         I will give questionnaires out at school and to the public to give a large variety of different people and age groups. I will collect data from 15 males and 15 females. Each group will be separated into three different age groups. This will provide a non-biased investigation.

        I will collect them later to give them time to fill them in. This will be done in my own time; therefore, I will have to make it convenient for them and myself.

        In my project I will be including an interview. It will have to be linked to my project and the interviewee will have to know or be connected in some way to make it relevant to my question.

        I think that interviewing the head teacher or an head of department would be an appropriate option, as it would be nice to see his/her opinion on this issue. I would also have to interview a female member of staff to have opinions from both genders. They would have to be of similar status though or be relevant to what I’m investigating. I would have to interview him/her in my own time and when he/she is available. They would also have to agree to me quoting their remarks in my project.

        Throughout my project I have to consider a few factors in my mind so that I don’t drift off the question in hand. I have to think of the years I am going to look at, to keep it up to date and relevant to the age group I am aiming at.

         I have to think about why girls have an advantage at key stage 4 and what tends to hold boys back. These are all necessary questions I have to keep asking and bearing it in mind.

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Why do girls to achieve higher grades than boys at key stage 4?

Secondary information

Passage from books ‘an introductory to Sociology second edition’ by Ken Browne.

Gender Differences in Education

The underachievement of boys

        ‘In the early 1990’s girls began to outperform boys in all areas and at all levels of the education system. The main problem today is with the under-achievement of boys, although there are still concerns about the different subjects studied by boys and girls.’

        The following graph is to show the differences in ...

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