A new study published by Nature magazine doubts common opinions, saying that boys, of course, are better in mathematics than girls. The team of European scientists led by the famous cognitive psychologist (Elizabeth Labelki) from Harvard University analyzed the data of more than 2.5 million French students, so scientists came to the conclusion that gender gap in mathematics is not innate, but was formed in the early stages of school education.
According to the study, at the beginning of the first grade there is practically no difference in performance in mathematics between boys and girls. However, after only four months of training, a statistically significant feature appears in favor of boys, which increases strength over time, and to the fourth class it doubles four times, and this becomes more clear to the sixth class. These results refute the idea of the readiness of men of innate science.
“If there were such differences, they would have already appeared at the stage of breastfeeding. However, babies of both sexes are equal in their awareness of numbers and geometric forms, ”said Professor Black. The study depends on the data of the French Evalaide program, which was launched in 2018 to evaluate basic skills in language and mathematics.
It is interesting that the gender gap in acquaintance with the language (girls at the beginning of the first row, as a rule, acts better in language and literature) decreases or remains stable over time.
Researchers noted that the decisive factor is not the age of children, but rather the amount of time they spend in the school environment. Thus, the gender difference in mathematics was much smaller for children who began their education in 2019 and encountered schools closing due to Covid-19, which indicates that the process of schooling, and not external or biological factors, affects the formation of these differences.
The data collection helped the feeling of the media that erupted in France in 2019, where French students were last evaluated among 23 European countries of international mathematical test. It was an incentive for repair, since the mandatory material for mathematics was first introduced into the kindergarten program.
The authors confirm that there is no clear explanation with the elements that contribute during early training to the formation of gender gap. The authors intend to find out the reason for this in the upcoming research.
Source: naukatv.ru
