Gender Differences among Elementary School-Aged Gifted Students in Achievement, Perceptions of Ability, and Subject Preference

Abstract

Previous research suggests that, while gender differences on standardized tests among high school-aged students have diminished, they persist among academically gifted students. This study examined patterns of gender differences for younger, elementary school-aged gifted students. Results showed that, on an offlevel achievement test, males outperformed females in mathematics beginning in grade 3, although effect sizes were small. The ratio of males to females achieving very high scores on the mathematics subtest was 2:1, but this difference was only significant among 5th and 6th graders. Both males and females had a preference for mathematics over other subjects. More girls perceived their academic strengths to be in verbal areas, while most boys perceived theirs to be in mathematics and science. Girls' and boys' perceptions of their academic strengths corresponded to their actual performance on the off-level test. Tested abilities also corresponded to students' choice of easiest and most challenging subject.

Do birth order, family size and gender affect arithmetic achievement in elementary school?

“…These results indicate that relative to other variables birth order and family size are consistently not very important in explaining children's arithmetical achievement in elementary school. Geary et al (2000) and Olszewski-Kubilius and Turner (2002) in our arithmetic data several gender differences were found, favoring boys. To investigate the impact of gender in relation to birth order and family size, two regression analyses were performed.…”

“…However, often significant differences in aritmetic performance tend to favor boys (e.g., Evans, Schweingruber, & Stevenson, 2002;Geary, 2007;Olszewski-Kubilius & Turner, 2002). Boys seem to perform better than girls, especially when it comes to solving word problems, to fast and accurate arthithmetic facts retrieval from long-term memory, and to mental representation, abstraction, estimation and spatial-mechanical skills (Casey, Nuttall, & Pezaris, 2001;Voyer, & Sullivan, 2003).…”

Predictive Factors of Literacy Achievement in Young Gifted Children in Rural Schools

“…Although all identified gifted students generally performed better on math and science than on verbal subtests of the SAT, gifted males were more likely to have higher scores on the math subtest while gifted girls were more likely to have higher scores on the verbal subtest (Olszewski-Kubilius & Lee, 2011). Such distinctions in performance (e.g., OlszewskiKubilius & Lee, 2011) may begin as early as grade three, with male gifted students outperforming their female counterparts in math (Olszewski-Kubilius & Turner, 2002).…”

“…Identified gifted students also appear to be aware of their respective domain of strength: gifted boys identified their strengths as math and science while gifted girls noted theirs to be in verbal areas (Olszewski-Kubilius & Turner, 2002). Awareness of their respective strengths may contribute to the tendency of gifted males to show a stronger orientation to performance goals in math than do their female counterparts (Preckel et al, 2008) and to gifted girls' greater confidence in English than gifted boys' confidence (Dai et al, 1998).…”

“…Numerous researchers have pointed to the more significant gender gap that tends to emerge toward the upper extremes of performance (Benbow & Stanley, 1980;Cramer & Oshima, 1992;Freeman, 2003;OlszewskiKubilius & Turner, 2002). Furthermore, despite the diminishing gender gap in the general population, performance distinctions between the genders have persisted among the identified gifted population (Olszewski-Kubilius & Turner, 2002;Preckel et al, 2008). Although a more recent study found that gender differences were not more exaggerated at the upper end of the score distribution (Olszewski-Kubilius & Lee, 2011), concern for the existence of gender differences on above-level testing are particularly significant because such testing is often used for identification purposes for gifted programs (Olszewski-Kubilius & Turner, 2002).…”