A few days ago, I posted an article by Finnish educator Pasi Sahlberg, in which he explained that Finnish teachers are not “the best and the brightest,” but those who are bright, caring, and committed to a career in education.
One of our regular readers, who often is a contrarian, posted the following critical comment:
I would like to hear Sahlberg’s thoughts on the massive gender gap in Finnish reading scores. Finnish boys’ PISA scores are statistically indistinguishable from US boys’, and Finland’s boy-girl gap is by far the largest in the world, about twice as large as the US gap.
Perhaps there are some reasons to hold off on emulating Finland.
I contacted Pasi, who is a personal friend, and he replied:
Thanks for the question. Indeed, this is a big issue in Finland and has been
for awhile. And not only in reading but across the board of academic
subjects. One thing that makes gender gap in reading so big is
exceptionally high reading literacy performance (and positive reading
habits) among Finnish girls. Researchers are well aware of this and
policymakers try to find ways to engage boys more in reading and schooling
in general. Recent emphasis on theme or phenomenon based teaching and
learning is one step.
I asked him whether girls outperform boys in math as well, and he said yes, but not so much as in reading. Finland is the only OECD nation where the gender gap favors girls.
There is your answer, Tim.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
“Finland is the only OECD nation where the gender gap favors girls.”
I’d say that’s a major accomplishment in the education of girls, I think misogynists would be more likely to see it as a glass half empty.
Psychiatrist Dan Siegel at UCLA did a major study some years ago on the female and male brains differences and similarities. He found that while men only thought of one thing at a time, women could think about and discuss five issues at once. Great study. His book describes these differences in entertaining and understandable langurage and should be source material for teachers as well as scientists.
Remember that Larry Summers got fired from his gig at Harvard for saying that girls could not do math.
If men can only think about one thing at at time, I think that one thing is mostly about women. Maybe that explains why women read more books than men do. A man can’t focus on reading if all he does is think about women all the time.
LOL
This isn’t surprising gender disparity if taken into account that language/communication disorders are disproportional along gender lines as well. Couple that with recent research into genetic studies in motivation points to more than one factor influencing gender differences. The closer one gets to the top of the curve, the greater the impact these biological factors will/may loom as the other confounding factors are removed. With poverty having such a greater influence, when that is removed, the smaller factors can possibly be teased out.
Even though boys out perform girls in most standardized tests in America, girls often do better than boys in academics in college. This education gap is wider among African-American women than among white college students. Of course, in the market place women’s salaries lag behind men’s around $.78 to $.84 to the dollar. There are always going to be some level of differences among different groups, and sometimes the differences reflect societal forces as well as individual differences. Males may have more non-academic career choices than women so this may explain some of the differences as well.
When teaching a reading class in middle school, I found adding non-textbook science books engaged the boys. Very few were engaged by literature. As my husband (male) and I (female) have aged, he watches more story oriented television and I read non-fiction and watch reality television almost exclusively. I wonder if there is some hormone change that can be credited to our interests! Who knows what will future research will reveal.
Boys can be a tough sell but if you can engage them I’ve learned that it sticks. My school is in the bottom of the socio-economic abyss. My guys (K-5) love life science books (think critters) and any football and basketball nonfiction. I swamp my library with those types of books often at great personal expense. Consequently my boys read lots of informational text at relatively young ages. They rock! Eventually most of them spread their wings to other genres but getting them hooked is paramount. What’s funny is that some of my girls have begun to read the same books, I think because they want to see what the boys are up to.
The same was true for my daughter and son, when I read to them, both fiction and non-fiction. My daughter gravitated to fiction, and my son wanted non-fiction, even though I tried to expose them to both genres.
I have two sons. My oldest is a literature nut. He’s read the unabridged Les Miserables twice, and has adored Shakespeare since he was nine years old. I really don’t want to see too much generalization on this, as my son hasn’t read a novel at all in high school (he’s a junior), and is SO bored of informational text that he could go crazy. We need a good mix of both instead of assuming that one side is better than the other, either because of CC or gender.
LOL
When I was a teen—even with a night and weekend job working 30 hours a week—I often read two paperbacks a day and ignored most of the assignments from my textbooks. The secret was to hide the paperbacks in the textbooks that I seldom if ever read, and it’s amazing how much you can read sitting in class probably looking like you are actually studying when you are not.
Most textbooks put me to sleep but I could stay up all night reading historical fiction, science fiction and fantasy. For instance, I’ve read The Lord of The Rings and the Hobbit, three times. I also read the entire Horatio Hornblower series by C. S. Forester twice.
Thanks to all the school work I didn’t do because I was reading books checked out from the library that I wanted to read, I barely graduated from HS, but when it came time to go to college—after a few years in the Marines and a combat tour in Vietnam—I had no trouble. My literacy level was high enough to avoid taking remedial English classes in the community college where I started. I think I probably read well over 1,000 books, that I wanted to read, when I was in high school.
David Coleman and others have made it sound like many (if not most) adults can’t read and understand informational text simply because they never learned how to do it in high school. But like so many other claims by these people, this one does not hold up under inspection.
First, lots and lots of “informational text” (manuals, reports, even scientific journals) is actually very poorly written (some of it horrendously so), so it’s no surprise that even good readers can not make any sense out of it.
Much of it is actually just garbage — not even worth the time to try to “figure out”. Anyone who needs evidence for this need only pick up a software or weedwhacker manual or a government report or bill, often little more than gibberish (sometimes quite purposefully.) Come to think of it, maybe manuals and government reports should come with a weedwhacker manual.
Second, if you can read and understand Shakespeare, you can probably read and understand anything. Certainly any report, manual, etc that was clearly written.
Third, teachers of history and science have been teaching reading and understanding informational text for ages.
So claiming that we must teach informational text in English class because otherwise graduating students won’t be able to understand it is not based in fact or logic.
But then again, facts and logic do not seem to be the forte’ of people like David Coleman.
And geography teachers like yourself have also been teaching informational text for ages. No sleight intended.
and, on second thought, the manuals and government reports should probably come with an actual weedwhacker (not a manual)
I accept the answer as given because of the source ; I don’t know anything about Finland but how do they select the schools and the actual individuals who are going to take those tests? Which students , which schools, etc.
On a slightly different issue — the test scores of students in northern Italy differed from students in southern Italy; Cornoldi and others were looking into the different factors. One issue that came up was the accuracy/time trade offs (especially related to what would be the perceptual motor functions of speed with accuracy of response)…. so the differences are not just “geography” if you take it merely as northern/southern. …
this is an artifact of the test and how the actual students approach the test materials . The students are making tradeoffs of time /accuracy (at least that is what I am assuming after reading Cornoldi’s report)… I can’t accept that the differences as presented are only due t “gender” just as I can’t fully accept differences based on whether you live in north or south of Italy… let me know where my judgement is off here, please.
I asked him whether girls outperform boys in math as well, and he said yes, but not so much as in reading. Finland is the only OECD nation where the gender gap favors girls.
jeanhaverhill@aol.com
Jean Haverhill, Finland has no standardized testing in its schools except for the graduation exams. The scores referred to here are based on sampling, PISA.
Love that thoughtful answer Jean.
@retired teacher if Finland’s sports ‘heroics’ is anything like it is in the US or other male sports dominated societies, then it isn’t surprising. Societal expectations play a huge part. I am getting very tired of this international comparison game. So many societal differences: after school cram schools, private tutoring, gender exclusion from school- even if not the norm, societal expectations, financial family strictures over who gets educated and to what length/ at what cost, social isolation of genders by school/ transportation- heck even the impact of menstrual cycles and social isolation hindering attendance. A kaleidoscope of factors that these OECD/PISA test score chest thumping comparisons don’t even do a thing about ameliorating. They can’t, they won’t and I really have to wonder what all the focus on test scores really is for. It is a test for goodness sake, not a life.
on another test related issue, I was reading Kaurman and Chen this week in a study that came through from Research Gate. It’s an older study but the topic is very significant when we keep saying the goal is to reduce achievement gaps .
To accept this study you have to have some faith in the Kaufman Test (it is not the Wisc or the Woodcock Johnson but has similar factors form Horn Cattell Model).
You would also have to affect the construt that there is a true difference that can be measured called “fluid” and “crystallized” (some cognitive psychologists dispute that as a false dichotomy.
If you can get around these two issues it is interesting to note that “When education is covaried” the white/Histanic difference is reduced. I find this to be positive because it shows education does have an impact and all the work we do is important. The number of years the student has had in a consistent educational program (in a stable setting without a lot of disruption in moving , attending different schools, speaking two or more languages)…
When our students in Lawrence Public Schools were being tested with Boston Children’s Hospital they used a “DISRUPTION ” Index based on a few important factors of the child’s life . I don’t see that is understood at all today by the policy makers. In our world now, people grab something from the headlines and make policy decisions without examining any of the implications or considering the “disruptions ” they are causing.
It is an older study but it may be of interest to some
WHITE-BLACK AND WHITE-HISPANIC DIFFERENCES ON FLUID AND CRYSTALLIZED ABILITIES BY AGE ACROSS THE 11- TO 94-YEAR RANGE
JAMES C. KAUFMAN, JAMES E. McLEAN, ALAN S. KAUFMAN, AND NADEEN L. KAUFMAN
Read More: http://www.amsciepub.com/doi/abs/10.2466/pr0.1994.75.3.1279?journalCode=pr0
They were looking at racial/ethnic differences in the U.S. on “fluid ”
jeanhaverhill@aol.com
Reblogged this on David R. Taylor-Thoughts on Texas Education.
“One thing that makes gender gap in reading so big is exceptionally high reading literacy performance (and positive reading habits) among Finnish girls. Researchers are well aware of this and policymakers try to find ways to engage boys more in reading and schooling”
No surprise there. Even in the United States, girls and women read more books than boys and men do. The U.S. publishing industry keeps track and publishes an extensive annual report on the reading habits of Americans. If it was a Race to Read instead of a Race to the Top of Test Scores, women would win handily.
What surprised me was this example of common sense that missing in the United States: “Researchers (in Finland) are well aware of this and policymakers try to find ways to engage boys more in reading and schooling.”
In United States, the corporate education reformers (fools like Bill Gates, the Walton family, Eli Broad, Arne Duncan, Michelle Rhee, and Governor Cuomo, for instance) would want to give more tests so they could fail more children and then rank more teachers to see who to fire and what schools to close. They wouldn’t bother to find common sense ways to engage boys to read and study more—-after all this is the easy way out—-just blame the teachers for everything and punish them for what they have little to no power to change in the culture/society—and along the way, profits would soar for Pearson and the other test makers.
Exactly.
To all researchers:
It is a very basic instinct to acknowledge that the “nature” on this particular earth only flourishes on water (compassion, fluidity), air (wisdom, boundlessness)) and sunlight (courage, destroy darkness) whether the nature is sentient beings like mammals or insects or plants.
All above mentioned studies/researches miss the root of cause, and only compare or contrast all leaves (male vs. female), weather (racial background), and geographical locations (countries).
Wisdom, compassion, and courage are the true root that motivates, and persuades children to excel themselves in order to reach out their own unique potential regardless of their genders, socio-economy and racial background.
All of movers, shakers, and scholars in America of today are hardly native Indians, but they are three or more generations of immigrants from all corners of the world whether rich or poor whose ancestors had a very kind heart and strong will to escape the injustice from their own “ILL” societies in order to build THE POWERFULLY DEMOCRATIC America of today.
It is definitely and truthfully shame on all modern rich and power classes who try to betray their ancestors by RUINING and DESTABILIZING the most genuinely effective American Public Education.
Democracy is built on Public Education System that is paid and supported by all local tax payers. Therefore, it is time for all of citizens to get up and to restore WHAT IS RIGHT by OPTING OUT all non-nonsensical, invalid, costly and strenuous testing scheme.
Studies and researches should show that “Successful education systems are more concerned about FINDING THE RIGHT PEOPLE to become career-long teachers.”
The RIGHT people are people who have wisdom (intelligence), compassion (patience and genuine with civility) and courage (stand up and stand tall for what is right). Back2basic
I don’t think you’ve posted this. It’s pretty good. Hipsters for Charter Schools: The Big Lie “Togetherness” Tells About Race and Education
Joshua Leibner
March 21, 2015
Salon
Paul Lauter
Allan K. & Gwendolyn Miles Smith
Professor of Literature (Emeritus)
Trinity College
Hartford, CT 06106 (USA)
Tel: 860-297-2303
Fax: 860-297-5258
Mobile: 646-824-8538
That little question began a great discussion. Thanks. 🙂
Gaps! Gaps! Gaps! The sky is falling!
I am so sick of this. I am just joking, but one day hopefully those girls will stop reading and that gap will shrink…;)
Most public schools do not screen for dyslexia. Could this be a contributing factor? Up to 1/5 people are on the spectrum, the majority of which are male.
Solutions like “Bookshare” remain a secretive, little talked about solution.
Women have always seemed more verbal than men to me. Boys have always seemed more physical and less reading/writing-oriented than girls. I know there is new research supposedly showing a lack of brain differences, but I just don’t believe it. Research can show all kinds of things that are not necessarily accurate, and/or that are what those who paid for the research want to show, and research also has limitations.
Isn’t it great to see a gender gap where girls are the champs!
Finland is not the only nation where the gender gap favors girls. It is even higher in the US higher education. I know this is more general than just in reading. Has anyone tried to analyze this phenomenon?
http://www.forbes.com/sites/ccap/2012/02/16/the-male-female-ratio-in-college/
“The male-female ratio in higher education has been steadily moved in favor of the females ever since the 1970s. Total enrollment figures show that females outnumbered their male counterparts for the first time in the late 1970s, and they have steadily increased their numerical advantage ever since. The superiority first came in public universities, but soon private universities saw female enrollment surpass male enrollment.”
“On a national scale, public universities had the most even division between male and female students, with a male-female ratio of 43.6–56.4. While that difference is substantial, it still is smaller than private not-for-profit institutions (42.5-57.5) or all private schools (40.7-59.3). The nearly 40-60 ratio of private schools was most surprising, though perhaps this is partly due to the fact that most all-female schools are private. Nevertheless, the female domination of higher education prevails across all types of schools. It should also be noted that the national male-female ratio for 18-24 year olds is actually 51-49, meaning there are more (traditionally) college-aged males than females.”
Diane, just a clarification about Pasi Sahlberg’s clarification for you: If we take the latest published data by the OCDE for PISA 2012, Finland is NOT the only OECD country where gender favors girls. In reading, for all OECD countries and all partner countries (65 in total) girls outperform boys (PISA 2012 results page 200). In Mathematics, Iceland, not Finland is the only OECD country where girls outperform boys (PISA 2012 results, page 73). In Science, Finland, Greece, Turkey, Slovenia and Sweden (all of these OECD members) girls outperform boys (PISA 2012 results, page 240). And as per the comment about Finland boys-girls gap in reading; well, it is not the largest in the world (Montenegro, Bulgaria, Qatar and Jordan are even larger) but Finnish gap is the largest among the OECD countries; and yes, the Finnish gap is about twice as large as the US GAP (but also, as the ones in Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Spain and Ireland). (Source: OECD. 2013. PISA 2012 results: What students know and can do. Students performance in reading, mathematics and science. Volume I. OECD: Paris. http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results-volume-I.pdf
I hope this clarifies yours and your readers’ questions. Best regards, Eduardo Andere
Dear Diane, Hooe youa re well. I just posted a comment about this entry in your blog: Diane, just a clarification about Pasi Sahlberg’s clarification for you: If we take the latest published data by the OCDE for PISA 2012, Finland is NOT the only OECD country where gender favors girls. In reading, for all OECD countries and all partner countries (65 in total) girls outperform boys (PISA 2012 results page 200). In Mathematics, Iceland, not Finland is the only OECD country where girls outperform boys (PISA 2012 results, page 73). In Science, Finland, Greece, Turkey, Slovenia and Sweden (all of these OECD members) girls outperform boys (PISA 2012 results, page 240). And as per the comment about Finland boys-girls gap in reading; well, it is not the largest in the world (Montenegro, Bulgaria, Qatar and Jordan are even larger) but Finnish gap is the largest among the OECD countries; and yes, the Finnish gap is about twice as large as the US GAP (but also, as the ones in Belgium, Denmark, Luxembourg, Spain and Ireland). (Source: OECD. 2013. PISA 2012 results: What students know and can do. Students performance in reading, mathematics and science. Volume I. OECD: Paris. http://www.oecd.org/pisa/keyfindings/pisa-2012-results-volume-I.pdf I hope this clarifies yours and your readers’ questions. Best regards, Eduardo Andere
Cheers, Eduardo De: Diane Ravitch’s blog Para: eandereitam@yahoo.com.mx Enviado: Sábado, 11 de abril, 2015 16:00:46 Asunto: [New post] Pasi Sahlberg Answers a Question about the Gender Gap in Finland #yiv1397882109 a:hover {color:red;}#yiv1397882109 a {text-decoration:none;color:#0088cc;}#yiv1397882109 a.yiv1397882109primaryactionlink:link, #yiv1397882109 a.yiv1397882109primaryactionlink:visited {background-color:#2585B2;color:#fff;}#yiv1397882109 a.yiv1397882109primaryactionlink:hover, #yiv1397882109 a.yiv1397882109primaryactionlink:active {background-color:#11729E;color:#fff;}#yiv1397882109 WordPress.com | dianeravitch posted: “A few days ago, I posted an article by Finnish educator Pasi Sahlberg, in which he explained that Finnish teachers are not “the best and the brightest,” but those who are bright, caring, and committed to a career in education. One of our regu” | |