Looking at gender disparity in science and mathematics from other angles: Are there differences in logical reasoning and linguistic abilities?

Abstract

This study was carried out to further search for the true position of boys and girls in terms of participation and performance in science in classroom settings that are different from the conventional or traditional arrangement. The paper examined the differences in the logical reasoning, linguistic, reading as well as word-problem solving abilities of male and female science students which are considered important to effective learning of science. Forty science students consisting of 20 each of male and female groups were involved in the study. Each group was taught by four science teachers of the same sex for a period of six weeks. The teachers had uniform qualifications. In addition to the subject matter taught processes of science were emphasized throughout the lessons. The study showed that girls have higher achievement scores than boys in logical reasoning, linguistic, reading and word-problem solving abilities. The differences in the scores were also found to be significant at 0.05 confidence level. It was therefore concluded that the issue of gender influence on students‘ performance in science is not straight jacketed. Boys perform better than girls only in conventional classroom arrangements and in the overall science tasks but not in some tasks that are also very crucial to the learning of science. Keywords: gender differences in science achievement, logical reasoning, linguistic ability, reading ability word-problem solving ability