In a front-page article this week, Tasmania’s newspaper, The Mercury, declared. “Boys Miss Out.” (Monday, August 11, 2014)
“EDUCATION experts have urged society to recognise that boys are falling behind in school and university as new figures show the yawning gap between the sexes.
“Australian Bureau of Statistics analysis of Tasmanian educational attainment shows that five years after finishing college, 26.8 per cent of girls had a degree but only 16.6 per cent of boys.
“Even taking into account diploma and certificate study, girls were still ahead of boys.
“Far fewer boys complete school or attempt the Tasmanian Certificate of Education.
“Sydney academic Peter West said schools, teachers and parents needed to work together.
“‘When they start school, girls are often ahead of the boys. Then boys go into an environment that prides itself on listening, writing, reading and working with other people,’ Dr West said.
“… … …”
Contrast this with results from a study in Clackmannanshire, Scotland. The study was carried out in schools in mostly disadvantaged areas, with a few schools from moderately advantaged areas.
Two of the main conclusions of this study are
1. Their synthetic phonics program led to children from lower socio-economic backgrounds performing at the same level as children from advantaged backgrounds for most of their time in primary school. Although children from disadvantaged backgrounds usually have poorer literacy skills from the start of schooling, they were only starting to fall significantly behind by the end of primary school. Even then they were still performing at or above their chronological age on word reading, spelling and reading comprehension.
2. The synthetic phonics program also led to the boys performing better than or as well as the girls.
(A Seven Year Study of the Effects of Synthetic Phonics on Reading and Spelling Attainment, 2005, http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/933/0044071.pdf)
So why are our boys falling behind? Perhaps we need to investigate what is involved in a synthetic phonics program. What is different from what is done in Tasmania? Why?
{ 0 comments… add one now }