Boys' Underachievement in Mathematics and Science: An Analysis of National and International Assessment Data from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia

Autor/inn/en	Elsayed, Mahmoud A. A.; Clerkin, Aidan; Pitsia, Vasiliki; Aljabri, Nayyaf; Al-Harbi, Khaleel
Titel	Boys' Underachievement in Mathematics and Science: An Analysis of National and International Assessment Data from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
Quelle	In: Large-scale Assessments in Education, 10 (2022), Artikel 23 (40 Seiten)Infoseite zur Zeitschrift PDF als Volltext Verfügbarkeit
Zusatzinformation	ORCID (Clerkin, Aidan) ORCID (Pitsia, Vasiliki)
Sprache	englisch
Dokumenttyp	gedruckt; online; Zeitschriftenaufsatz
DOI	10.1186/s40536-022-00141-9
Schlagwörter	Foreign Countries; Males; Underachievement; Gender Differences; Single Sex Schools; Mathematics Achievement; Science Achievement; Grade 4; Grade 8; Readiness; Attendance; Correlation; Self Efficacy; Elementary Secondary Education; Saudi Arabia; Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study + Suchen Sie Ihr Suchwort? Ausland; Male; Männliches Geschlecht; Performance deficiency; Leistungsschwäche; Geschlechterkonflikt; Single-sex schools; Single-sex classes; Single sex classes; Getrenntgeschlechtliche Erziehung; Schule; Mathmatics sikills; Mathmatics achievement; Mathematical ability; Mathematische Kompetenz; School year 04; 4. Schuljahr; Schuljahr 04; School year 08; 8. Schuljahr; Schuljahr 08; Anwesenheit; Korrelation; Self-efficacy; Selbstwirksamkeit; Saudi-Arabien
Abstract	Boys in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia consistently and significantly underperform compared to girls across different grades and subjects, forming one of the largest gender gaps in student achievement in the world. Saudi Arabia offers a unique setting in which boys and girls attend separate schools on a universal basis starting from grade 1. This means that boys and girls are educated only by male and female teachers, respectively, in effect inhabiting parallel education systems. In this context, this study examines the factors that are associated with student achievement in mathematics and science in grades 4 and 8 and the extent to which these associations are different for boys and girls, in an effort to gain insights into boys' underachievement in mathematics and science in Saudi Arabia. The paper employs data from two recent large-scale assessments of education: Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2019 and Saudi Arabia's National Assessment of Learning Outcomes (NALO) 2018. A series of hierarchical two-level linear regression models showed that in grade 4, school climate was more strongly associated with boys' compared with girls' achievement in both mathematics and science, with boys attending schools of poorer school climate having a considerably lower performance compared with girls attending such schools. The findings also indicated that although greater literacy and numeracy readiness was linked with higher science achievement among boys and girls, grade 4 boys tended to benefit more from this readiness than girls. In addition, the results show that student absenteeism in grade 4 is particularly strongly associated with decreases in mathematics achievement among boys. In grade 8, significant interactions between gender and the extent to which students feel confident in science, the degree of schools' emphasis on academic success, and teachers' age are observed. The paper concludes by discussing some of the implications of these findings for educators and policy makers in Saudi Arabia. (As Provided).
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Erfasst von	ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), Washington, DC
Update	2024/1/01