Parents are more likely to overestimate maths ability in sons than daughters, according to research that suggests that gender stereotypes at home may hinder the progress of female students.this week, found that parents tend to be overconfident about their children’s academic performance in reading and maths regardless of gender. But, in maths, parents overestimated boys’ skills to a significantly greater extent.
There continues to be a substantial gender gap in maths, physics and engineering, with female students only making up 23% of A-level candidates for physics and 37% for maths in the UK and forming an even smaller proportion beyond degree level.
The test scores showed a slight gender difference, with girls achieving the equivalent of an extra 1.7% on reading and boys an extra 0.6% on maths. In reading, parents tended to rate the ability of girls more highly – but in proportion with girls’ superior test scores. In maths, though, parental overconfidence in boys’ skills significantly outstripped their marginally better performance.
The research also hinted that parental bias could have an impact on a child’s educational trajectory. When the researchers tracked how children were performing in their next Naplan tests two years later, those whose parents were most overconfident about their abilities tended to do better. In line with this, the gap between girls and boys widened in maths.
Source: Education Headlines (educationheadlines.net)
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