Confidence key in development
BIG academic differences between girls and boys emerge in Year 9 and parents play a crucial role in developing their child’s confidence during this time, experts have warned.
Boys’ reading and writing skills drop significantly compared with girls while female students often lose interest in maths and science because they may see them as traditionally male or nerdy.
University of South Australia maths education expert Dr Rebecca Marrone said perceptions were starting to change thanks to the likes of former Victoria’s Secret model Karlie Kloss who started a coding camp for teen girls. “They are really trying to break the stigma, it is working, the language is starting to shift,” she said.
“We’re starting to see a massive shift in attitudes. Working in schools you don’t really hear those terms like nerdy or geeky.”
Monash University’s Professor Amanda Berry said parents could make high school girls see themselves as competent and capable of doing science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) subjects by making it seem fun and relevant to their lives.
“You can talk to them about what is going on in the world, particularly in relation to some of the current issues from climate change to globalisation,” she said.
“The more that parents encourage their daughters to be interested in STEM, that has a big effect on whether or not they feel part of the STEM world and willing to persist with some of those subjects.”
Boys education expert Dr Peter West said boys were at a disadvantage in the latter years of high school when it came to reading and writing but parents could alleviate it by finding reading material they found interesting.
“If you look around the stores, they are selling girly writing materials, there are a whole lot of books for girls but we need to take boys down a strong male track,” he said.
“We need to be conscious we have to work hard with the boys on literacy and writing. Writing is quite poor among boys, they’re all texting and playing video games.”
NAPLAN scores show the decrease relative to boys but parents could play a key role getting them writing at home so they could see it wasn’t purely academic and useful to write to friends and family further away. “A lot of it is confidence, and just like with the trainer at the gym, having someone to build up that confidence is really useful,” he said.
Toongabbie mum Christine Belville said she tried to pique her kids’ interests in a range of subjects by taking them to museums around Sydney including the Powerhouse. “I have three kids, Luke is my eldest, I have a daughter who is 11 and my youngest is seven, so trying to keep them satisfied is difficult because they have different kinds of interests but the Powerhouse is somewhere we really like to visit,” she said.
Her son Luke elected to study History and Physical Activities and Sports Studies in Year 9 this year at St Paul’s Catholic College Greystanes. That’s on top of an already busy schedule of homework, football training and somehow fitting in time to read about Anzac history.
THEY ARE REALLY TRYING TO BREAK THE STIGMA, IT IS WORKING, THE LANGUAGE IS STARTING TO SHIFT
DR REBECCA MARRONE