It has also been argued that women have more desirable skills than men do, such as: teamwork, good communication skills, flexibility and being kind/friendly to customers. This means employers might be biased towards hiring females, creating more job opportunities for them, in comparison to males.
Another explanation includes the introduction of the National Curriculum, where girls and boys both have equal opportunities and access to all subjects in schools. This means that females are no longer confined to just home economic type subjects, but are exposed to the same teachings and opportunities as boys. Therefore, they can gain good qualifications in any field they wish to choose, raising the levels of female achievement in the United Kingdom, (see Achievement of two or more GCE A levels or equivalent: by sex).
These studies in the UK show that, on average, female GCSE results exceed males’. I hope to discover the reasons for this by using a variety of different research methods.
Methodology:
I will carry out my research by using questionnaires, observations and interviews.
Questionnaires are often an accurate and reliable research method. They are relatively cheap and gather a general opinion from a large number of people. They provide quantitative data, which is data in statistical form, which can be used to make generalisations about the population. They are fairly reliable and can easily be replicated. I will use
open and closed questions in my questionnaires. This way I can easily gain relevant information as well as giving an opportunity for the participant to express themselves in more detail.
I will hand out questionnaires to a mixture of students in different years. The majority of them will be given to the groups which I will observe. I would like equal numbers of both males and females to complete my questionnaires so I have accurate information from which to compare them.
Observations are useful, as they will enable me to study a group in their natural surroundings, hopefully providing a true picture of the situation. They also allow me to understand a group from their point of view and it is often the most valid method.
I will be a non-participant observer, observing but not taking part in the group’s activities. This is the most appropriate method when recording information as it would be difficult to record results and take part at the same time.
I will be an overt observer, where the group is aware of my presence. This may affect my results as the teacher and students may behave differently, knowing that I am there. However, if I want to accurately record results, without creating a disruption, I would need to make my intentions clear to the group, so as not to distract them.
I will create a table, which I can use as a tally chart. Down the left hand column, I will mention different types of disruptive behaviour. Subsequently, I will create two more columns, one for males and the other females. From this, I can easily mark the different types of behaviour that might occur and by which sex.
My aim is to observe the core subjects: English, Maths and Science. I believe they will contain equal amounts of males and females; they will not be biased towards one sex. For example, if I chose to observe the lesson construction then the majority of students will be male.
This will also affect my questionnaires, as I will hand them out to the groups I am going to observe. Consequently, I will end up with more questionnaires completed by males, which will not give sufficient information from which to compare the two sexes. Therefore if I observe the core subjects (English, Maths and Science) then my questionnaires and observations will be both fair and accurate. I hope that by observing these compulsory lessons my results will be valid and represent a true picture of Minster College.
I will try to interview the three different subject teachers from whose lessons I will observe. My interviews will be structured, in the sense that I will have a list of pre-prepared questions which I will read out to the interviewee, asking their opinion on the subjects at hand. Although it is argued that this method of research depends heavily on the questions I will ask, this means I will be able to collect data relevant to my assignment. From this data I hope to make conclusions about teachers’ expectations about the two sexes and whether it collates with my own findings, through observations and questionnaires.
My hypothesis was to discover whether males are more disruptive, in the classroom, than females and whether this is reflective of recent GCSE results.
I distributed questionnaires to the three lessons which I observed (English, Maths and Science) and randomly to classes in year 11. These questionnaires revealed that, females tend to prefer school, in comparison to males. This is evident from ‘Graph 1 – How Much Do You Like School?’ This graph shows a clear pattern, demonstrating that more males hate school and more females like school. This negative attitude towards education by males, might suggest a reason why, on overage, they receive lower GCSE qualifications when compared to females. However, this information may not be representative of the entire population as the attitudes and behaviour towards education may differ at Minster College than other schools in the United Kingdom.
In response to the ‘How well behaved would you say you are in a classroom’ question (Graph 2), the male and female results were fairy similar. Despite their similarity, males still proved to behave more ‘badly’ than females. This information may not be reliable because it was dependent on the respondent, i.e. whether they were truthful or not. In order to eliminate this area of uncertainty, I carried out several observations as well, which will hopefully create a true picture of the situation, which might either agree or disagree with these responses from my questionnaires.
On average, females stated that education was more important to them, in comparison to males (Graph 3). Although a lot of males agreed that education was important to them, some also commented that it was not very important, and some that it was not at all important to them. These results lowered the average, causing females to value education higher than males. These results are reflective of the national average, i.e. GCSE results. As a consequence of this it might be that females value education higher than males, causing them to gain better qualifications, on average.
I created a graph of my findings from my observations. I used tally sheets throughout more observations, which lasted approximately an hour. I recorded all of the negative behaviour which took place for both of the genders. I then created a table; totalling all of the results, from my three different observations, from this table Graph 4 was created. Graph 5 is just a continuation of graph 4 with the different types of behaviour on the x axis.
Some conclusions can be made from this graph, such as the fact that females talked more and received slightly more verbal warnings. Also males tended to be out of their seats more and threw a lot more objects around the classroom. There were also higher levels of swearing amongst males than females. This shows that males tend to be involved in physical types of behaviour, such as moving around more and throwing objects. This shows that males tend to be less focused on the work at hand and easily distracted. However, females still talked more, which can be classed as less focused. I think males might feel a need to ‘prove’ themselves in the classroom, hence swearing, shouting and throwing objects.
This extract explains some of the possible reasons for the different levels of performance amongst males and females:
Statistics suggest that the achievement levels of males are remaining static, while female achievement levels are increasing. Harris’s research into the attitudes of 16-year-olds from mainly working-class backgrounds has shown:
- Boys are thought to be suffering increasingly from low self-esteem and poor motivation.
- Boys seem to be less willing to struggle to overcome difficulties in understanding their work.
- Boys are less likely to work consistently hard than girls and are more easily distracted. In areas such as coursework, boys found it more difficult to organize their time effectively.
- Girls are more willing to do homework and also spend more time on it.
- Girls give more thought to their futures and to the importance of qualifications in achievement of this, whereas boys do not seem as concerned.
Source: Sociology for GCSE and Modern Studies by Pauline Wilson and Allan Kidd (Harris et al. 1993).
I believe some of these points relate to my own research, as these seem typical of my findings. These would explain why males are achieving lower grades than females in the UK.
I managed to conduct two interviews, asking questions which might help me to understand which sex behaves better in the classroom. I also hoped to discover whether there was any bias responses and whether this was reflective of their teaching. I could analyse this as I interviewed the teachers whose lessons I observed, in this case English and Maths.
One of the results, from my interviews, clearly shows that males are more disruptive in the classroom and that females work harder and are expected to achieve a higher result. The other depicted that males and females were both equal, although males are likely to be more disruptive in the classroom. If I had more time, I would interview a third teacher (Science) to see what their opinion is on the subject. This would make my results more valid, creating a clearer picture of the situation.
Overall I have established that males are more disruptive in the classroom and this is probably the reason why they achieve lower GCSE results in comparison to females. National statistics have shown me that overall the trend is: females out perform males by about ten percent. My questionnaires have proved that females prefer school, are better behaved and value education higher than males. My observations prove that females are less disruptive than males. This is because they take part in less physical activities such as shouting, being out of their seat, disobeying instructions and throwing objects. Females are more focused and less easily distracted. Some of my interviews also support these statements, representing the reasons why females achieve higher GCSE qualifications than males.
I feel I have met my hypothesis because I have accurately investigated whether boys are more disruptive than girls in the classroom. I have discovered that my results are reflective of the national average; that females out perform males by approximately 10 percent
I thought I obtained detailed, informative information, which I used as secondary sources/background research. I was able to see how my results were reflective of this information, which was helpful when I was comparing it to the national average.
I used different techniques to analyse whether males were more disruptive than females, such as questionnaires, interviews and observations. It was helpful using all three different methods because they all showed the same result, suggesting it was quite valid.
By distributing large quantities of questionnaires (ninety in total) I was able to make accurate comparisons between males and females, for example when analysing which sex preferred school (Graph 1).
However, if I distributed even more questionnaires my results would prove more valid, creating a better picture of the situation. I could also hand out questionnaires to a number of students in different years throughout the school. For instance: handing out fifty questionnaires to students in year nine; fifty to those in year ten; and fifty to year elevens. In this way, I could examine whether age is a factor when analysing the behaviour differences between the two genders.
If I were to repeat this project I would use stratified random sampling. This would be accomplished by using a sampling frame of the sample I wish to study. I would sort the sample into groups, in this case year nine, ten and eleven. I would then randomly select fifty students from each year to distribute my questionnaires to. This would make my results fair, as currently they may be biased, as I used no form of sampling.
In addition to this, I would change two of the questions in my questionnaire. For question number five I would ask why the recipient behaves well in their favourite lesson. Also, for question number eight, I would include a box with ‘None’ beside it, in case the recipient has not committed any of the following offences.
I would also create two more questions for my questionnaires. These would be: “What class do you consider yourself/your parents in?” and the possible answers would be: Working class, Middle class and Upper class. However, this question might be misunderstood by the person filling it in. They may not understand the differences between the three classes or what
each one means. In this sense, the results might not be valid as the question might be misunderstood or misinterpreted by the respondent.
Furthermore, I could include the question: “How many hours do you spend on homework a week?” The possible answers would be: 1 hour, 2 hours, 3 hours, 4 hours, 5 hours, or 6 hours+. This would provide insight to whether females spend more time working or put a greater amount of effort into school work than males. I could then compare this to the source Harris et al. 1993 mentioned in my conclusion.
If I had more time when completing my project, I would interview a greater number of staff about their views on gender behaviour. This would prove my results more valid, and I would gain a greater in-depth knowledge about teachers’ views on gender achievement and disruptive behaviour.
Likewise, I would increase my number of observations which would create a more valid picture of the situation. I could also take part in participation observations (covert) as well as non-participation observations. In this sense, I could compare the two and see if participation observations create difference results, which might be more valid.
When observing classes I noted the number of males and females, as this would affect my results. After taking all of my observations into consideration, the level of males to females was 29 – 47. As the lessons I chose to observe should have contained fairly equal amounts of males and females (although these classes might not have been representative of the whole school), this made me realise that attendance might be another factor linking gender with achievement. As an additional study I could research whether females, on average, have a higher attendance than males, which might suggest why they tend to outperform males when it comes to examination results.
- Sociology for GCSE and Modern Studies by Pauline Wilson and Allan Kidd (Harris et al. 1993).
- Doing Social Research – A Guide To Coursework
