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• 17Apr2012

  What will the commission on boys' reading find?

  Posted by Fiona Lewis

  At some point most of you will have pondered the differences between boys and girls when it comes to literacy.

  Research consistently reveals an educational gender gap. Boys’ attitudes towards reading and writing, the amount of time they spend reading and their attainment in literacy are all poorer than those of girls. The attainment statistics speak for themselves: at age seven, 7% more girls reach the expected level in reading, and at age 11, it’s 8% more; by age 13, the gap has increased to 12%, and at GCSE level 14% more girls achieve A-C in English GCSE.

  Why do girls (in general) do better in reading and writing? What is it about reading for pleasure that appeals more to females?

  While these questions are interesting cultural discussions in themselves, if this issue is not properly investigated and addressed, we risk poorer outcomes for boys at school and social problems throughout life, such as limited access to the job market.

  Our All Party Parliamentary Literacy Group is focusing on this issue in its boys’ reading commission, launching this month. Over the next three months MPs and members of the House of Lords will investigate the scale of the problem in the UK and try to establish why boys are falling behind. They will also look at what approaches are successful and how boys are being effectively supported. In June, the final report of the commission will recommend key policies for schools, libraries and local areas and suggest approaches that should be supported and expanded across the country.

  We have prepared a review of evidence for the commission which outlines our findings on boys’ reading and draws from sources including Younger and Warrington’s study Raising Boys' Achievement and statistics from international comparison studies such as PISA and PIRLS. More than 200 of you responded to our call for evidence to inform the commission earlier this year. 76% of you told us that boys did not do as well in reading as girls in your school/ setting and 82% of you have strategies in place to support boys’ reading, despite the absence of a national framework in this area.

  A variety of reasons were given for the gap between boys and girls:

  • Negative influence of peer pressure on boys who don’t see reading as “cool”
  • Clash between boys’ reading interests and more feminine curriculum texts
  • Lack of male reading role models in peer group and at home
  • Impact of a largely feminine workforce
  • Assessment favouring girls
  • Active learning styles among boys that are less compatible with literacy

  However, there were also many of you who felt there was not a gender gap among the children you work with. In the last couple of weeks we have been speaking to some of these schools to find out how they are successfully supporting boys’ reading. Strategies have included descriptions of school libraries as ”retail” spaces that give the customer what they need and a reason to come back; lessons on choosing books that give extra support to boys; and encouraging ”dads and lads” to read together.

  If you have developed successful strategies to support boys’ reading in your school, please get in touch. We look forward to sharing the findings of the commission with you in June.

   

Tags: Policy

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