How+Boys+Learn

**Information about how boys learn in a classroom environment and what contributes to this**

Boys Development Preschool:
 * One directional, less cross-talk between hemispheres, more focused
 * Occupies larger space on the playground than girls
 * Playground activities involve more individual running
 * Playground games rough and vigorous, competitive and aggressive
 * Playing with blocks, builds high structures likely to topple over
 * Newcomers to group ignored until they prove their worth and value
 * Stories filled with excitement and action, ignoring victims
 * Games involve bodily contact, tumbling, continuous flow of action
 * Primarily interested in objects and things
 * Saying good-bye to mum takes approx 30 seconds
 * Uses dolls for attack weapons and warfare
 * More speech problems
 * Picks same gender peers for friends
 * Expresses emotions through action
 * Less sensitive to social and personal context
 * Less attention span and emathy

Grades 1-3:
 * Takes longer to achieve reading mastery
 * Superior at certain visual tasks in bright light
 * Better at test requiring circling of answers
 * Hypothalamus functions to keep hormone levels even
 * Better general math
 * Better at 3-D reasoning
 * More rule bound than girls
 * Make up 95% of hyperactive children
 * More able to separate emotion from reason

Grades 4-7: (Taken from Boys and Girls Learn Differently! pp35-37)
 * Hormones begin to increase at age 10
 * Primarily focused on action, exploration, and things
 * More likely than ever to use aggression to resolve differences
 * Better at reading maps and deciphering directions
 * More likely to need remedial reading
 * Solves maths problems without talking
 * Channel surfs on TV
 * When talkative in class, often attention seeking
 * 50% more likely to be held back a grade than girls the same age
 * Amount of male hormone relates directly to success at traditional male tasks
 * More likely to be a victim of physical abuse

WHY DO MANY BOYS DISLIKE SCHOOL?  Gary Wilson in Huddersfield, York, UK found that many boys disliked school because: • They wanted to be outdoors • They wanted to be ACTIVE, doing, seeking – not sitting down • Their concentration waned- they were bored with much schoolwork • They couldn’t stay on task • They didn’t see the need for consistent effort • They couldn’t be bothered being neat • They wanted to please their teacher in year 1 but by Year 6 and up- they wanted to please their mates • Reading seemed a girly thing -or at least not male. []

Educational Concerns An examination of statistical and anecdotal evidence reveals several areas where boys are presenting as being of concern. • Boys are more likely to have reading / learning difficulties identified in K – 4 • There are significantly more boys in IM (intellectually mild) classes in high school • There are significantly more boys in schools who are identified as behavior disordered • Boys dominate the < 20% UAI range • Boys are being outperformed in the great majority of subjects in the NSW HSC • Boys are often identified as the cause of learning problems for girls giving rise to negative attitudes to  boys in schools • Boys are more likely to experience problems relating to low self-esteem • Boys are more likely to be suspended from school • Boys are more likely to have attendance problems

Boys are identified, when compared with girls, as having a reading disabilities ratio of 10: 1. Researchers have attributed this to: • Maturational / biological / environmental factors which influence the ways in which boys process information and, therefore, learn. • The influence of female teachers in the early years of schooling who often treat boys in more negative ways and structure classes in such a way as to alienate some boys. However, it may be those male teachers in K - – 3 would also treat boys in a similar way. • Passive learning models (sit quietly, listen and write) fit the traditional female learning stereotype more closely than the traditional male learning stereotype. • There is a greater congruence of traditional sex / school roles for girls than for boys. • Reading is consistently regarded, by boys, as a ‘ feminine activity ’, resulting in boys being generally less motivated readers. []