Gender differentials in the classroom

Abstract

It has been claimed repeatedly that teachers of both sexes pay more attention to male students. In many mixed-sex classrooms male pupils have been recorded as receiving more teacher attention than females (Brophy and Good, 1970a; Stanworth, 1983; Spender, 1982; Galton et al., 1980). In the classroom situation pupils are actively seeking attention. Certain pupils take up unusual positions in classroom discussion so frequently and consistently that their behaviour can hardly be deemed coincidental. Boys are more likely than girls to ask questions, for example, make heavier demands on the teacher's time or offer information (Stanworth, 1983). The gender imbalances in teacher and turn distribution among pupils may be in part attributable to sub-sets of boys engaging in strategies to secure that attention. There is a tendency for boys to demand more of the teacher and hence receive more than their share of attention (Clarricoates, 1978, 1980; Spender, 1982). There is a capacity on the part of the pupils to gauge the concerns of teachers and thus make their questions and comments heard and addressed by the teacher. In one lesson studied by French and French (1983), which comprised sixty-six pupil interactional turns, fifty of these were produced by boys who numbered less than half the class. A substantial amount of the turns were not allocated to male pupils by the teacher in the first place, but were achieved through interactional techniques designed to gain the teacher's attention.