Is research on gender‐specific underachievement in gifted girls an obsolete topic? New findings on an often discussed issue

Abstract

A decline of gender-speci®c underachievement among gifted girls can be observed. So, is this topic becoming gradually obsolete or do certain kinds of underachievement still exist? We investigated achievement and related factors among 10th-grade gifted girls in comparison to gifted boys in two separate settings: in a regular German secondary upper-level school, the Gymnasium (study 1, n=31); and in a curriculum-compressing acceleration program within the Gymnasium system (study 2, n=116). In both school settings gender differences were found to exist: in the regular setting these differences are equally distributed; in the gifted program, on the other hand, they rather favor the girls. Nevertheless, for both settings lower self-con®dence in the math self-concept can be observed among the girls. All in all, the ®ndings reported here make obvious that things actually have changed and a general convergence of boys and girls can be observed. However, it also became clear that some decisive differencesÐespecially on behavioral levelsÐstill exist.

Time students spend working at home for school

“…Combined with the findings of other studies (Schober, Reimann, & Wagner, 2004) showing that girls are characterized by more unfavourable values in some determinants for scholastic achievement, namely test anxiety and self-concept, our findings provide a relevant supplement to the results of gender research. If one links the findings together, they can be seen as indicating that girls apparently invest more time at home learning for school than boys probably due to higher levels of test anxiety and low self-concept (see .…”

Effects of Role Models from Films on Short-Term Ratings of Intent, Interest, and Self-Assessment of Ability by High School Youth: A Study of Gender-Stereotyped Academic Subjects

“…Girls report less confidence in their own abilities (Eccles, Wigfield, Flanagan, Miller, Reuman, and Yee, 1989;Schober, Reimann, & Wagner, 2004), less interest in mathematics and the natural sciences (Weinburgh, 1995;Evans, Schweingruber & Stevenson, 2002), as well as having poorer achievement rates (Engelhard, 1990;Hyde, Fennema, & Lamon, 1990;Hedges & Nowell, 1995;Penner, 2003). These differences increase from childhood through adolescence (Eccles, et al, 1989;American Association of University Women, 1997;Beller & Gafni, 1996).…”

A Commentary on “Differentiating Low Performance of the Gifted Learner

“…Gifted girls who underachieve are too often neglected in the literature (Schober, Reimann, & Wagner, 2004). Replicating this study with a more diverse population of gifted students might add valuable literature on the subject.…”