Effecten van individuele attitudes en van de attitudes van de peer group op de prestaties voor wiskunde van jongens en meisjes

Abstract

In this study we investigated whether the gender gap in favour of girls in mathematics achievement can be explained not only by gender differences in attitudes and behaviour but also by the attitudes of the peer group. Multilevel analyses were carried out on the LOSO-data. The results showed that girls have more positive attitudes towards schooling and behave better at school and that once these gender differences were taken into account, the gender gap in mathematics achievement disappeared. We found that the gender gap became smaller, the more boys and girls had positive attitudes towards schooling. Moreover, the results indicated that the attitudes of the peer group had effects on the mathematics achievement of boys and girls: girls and boys performed better in groups with high positive attitudes towards schooling than in groups with low positive attitudes towards schooling (A-curriculum).