Gender Equity

A variety of state, national and international data indicate that, on average: boys dominate early literacy re-mediation classes. Boys from year 3 on wards achieve lower scores than girls do in relation to national literacy benchmarks for reading and writing. There is a need to address these issues when they are younger. By the time students reach high school, boys tend to reading and write less than girls.


According to the Program of international student assessment (PISA), boys lag behind in reading ability. 


Focus of assessment: Mathematics, reading, scientific and problem solving.
- 41 participant countries
- 15 year old main target
- 276,000 students
- knowledge and skills


This raises issues for teachers to consider in order to help bridge the gap between genders. Glynis asked our class to discuss the following question in order for us to develop strategies that are inclusive of all students and encourage boys to enjoy reading.


Q: How can information and communication technologies applications impact positively on your student's writing and reading generally and for boys in particular? 


- develop strategies of comparing texts to one another
- students could realise that information and opinions depend on the author
- learn to enjoy reading and writing
- blogs, wikis, discussion boards
- participation in virtual worlds (gives a construct and purpose to write)
- creating websites
- digital resources with literacy as a focus
-digital story telling
- there is formal and informal reading, we need to use different constructs to promote equality. look at the diversity of the reading matter
- include subject matter that boys enjoy reading, such as game manuals and magazines. These texts are surprisingly technical and require a large amount of cross referencing and data storage. Boys just don't realise they are reading because these texts explain game rules, codes and cheats.