AreBoysSuperiortoGirlsinMathematics?

Scientistshavetriedtocomeupwithbiologicalexplanationsfortheacademic（理论的）differencebetweenboysandgirls．

Howevernonewerebelievableenoughtoexplainthegeneralpicture．Asonescientistpointsout“Thereareslightgeneticdifferencesbetweenthesexesatbirthwhichmayaffectthesubjectsboysandgirlschoose．”Butthedifficultyisthatbythetimechildrenreachschoolagetherearesomanyothereffectsthatitisalmostimpossibletotellwhethergirlsareworseatscienceandmathorwhetherthey’vebeenbroughtuptothinkofthesesubjectsasboys’“territory”．

Statistics（统计数据）showthatinmathematicatleastgirlsareequaltoboys．Arecentreportsuggestsgirlsonlystopstudyingmathematicsbecauseofsocialattitudes．Oneofthereports’authorssays“Whileitisstillacceptableforwomentosaythattheyare‘hopeless’atmathourresearchshowsthatalthoughgirlsgetmarkswhichareasgoodastheboystheyhavenotbeenencouragedtodoso”．

Theexplanationforthedifferencewhichisveryclearduringtheteenageyearsgoesasfarbackasearlychildhoodexperiences．Fromtheirfirstdaysinnurseryschoolgirlsarenotencouragedtoworkontheirownortocompletetasksalthoughboysare．Forexampleboysandnotgirlsareoftenaskedto“help”withrepairwork．Thisencouragementleadstoawayoflearninghowtosolveproblemslaterinthelife．Evidenceshowsthatexceptionalmathematicsandscientistsdidnothaveteacherswhosuppliedanswers;theyhadtofindoutbythemselves．

Afurtherreportonmathteachingshowsthatteachersseemtogivemoreattentiontoboysthangirls．

Mostteacherswhotookpartinthestudyadmittedthattheyexpecttheirmalestudentstodobetteratmathematicsandsciencesubjectsthantheirfemalestudents．Allofthistendstoencourageboystoworkharderinthesesubjectsgivesthemconfidenceandmakesthembelievethattheycansucceed．

Interestinglybothboysandgirlstendtoregardsuch“male”subjectslikemathematicsandscienceasdifficult．Yetithasbeensuggestedthatgirlsavoidmathematicscoursesnotbecausetheyaredifficultbutforsocialreasons．

Mathematicsandsciencearemainlymalesubjectsandthereforeasgirls