Gender differences in achievement in SEC biology

Abstract

This dissertation seeks to explore whether there is a difference in the achievement of girls and boys in SEC biology examinations and whether the type of question or the topic being addressed in each question exhibited any gender differences in the performance of candidates. Data regarding the candidates sitting for SEC biology, along with the attainment of girls and boys in individual questions of SEC biology from 2012 to 2017 were analysed using SPSS version 20. From statistical analysis, it has been found that female candidates opt to sit for SEC biology more than male candidates and the highest ratio of candidates come from Independent Schools. More candidates sat for Paper IIA, and the majority of candidates who presented their Practical Work were females. The Practical Work component was found to favour female candidates. Paper I was found to entail mostly short responses and favoured male candidates, whereas no significant difference in achievement between males and females was found in Paper II. This paper is mainly composed of essay-type questions. Questions entailing the candidates to provide short responses, involving the labelling of diagrams or where diagrams served as an aid were found to favour male candidates. When considering performance in questions that require an essay-type response, experiment-type, and questions involving the interpretation of a diagram, tables, and graphs, no significant gender difference was noticed. The topics of Pollution and Genetics were found to favour males, whereas no topic was seen to favour female candidates in SEC biology. The topics of Cells and Classification, Human Biology, Reproduction, Feeding Relationships and Plant Biology exhibited no difference between the achievement of male and female candidates.