Science achievement by gender

There was no significant difference in mean science achievement between Year 5 boys (502) and girls (506) in 2006. However, the distribution of achievement was wider for boys (313) than for girls (281) as shown in Figure 8. As Figure 8 also shows, the wider distribution among boys has been consistent over the four cycles. Similarly, there was no significant difference between the mean science achievement of boys and that of girls in each of the preceding cycles, with the exception of 1994 when girls had higher mean performance than boys. It is interesting to observe the narrowing of the distribution of science achievement for boys between 1994 and 2006.

Figure 8:  Trends in distributions of achievement for girls and boys from 1994 to 2006

Note: Standard errors are presented in parentheses.

Benchmarks for Year 5 boys and girls

There was little difference between the proportions of boys and girls reaching each of the international benchmarks except for the low benchmark, where the difference was statistically significant (see Table 12). Fewer boys (85%) reached the low benchmark compared with the girls (89%). Another way of looking at this is to examine the proportions of boys and girls who did not reach this low benchmark. Proportionally more boys (15%) than girls (11%) did not reach the low benchmark – in terms of the benchmark definitions, these students did not demonstrate some elementary knowledge of life science and physical science.¹

Table 12: Proportion of Year 5 students reaching each international benchmark by gender in TIMSS 2006/07

Note: Standard errors are presented in parentheses.

Proportionally more boys and girls were lower achievers in 2006 compared with 2002, that is, did not reach the low benchmark. In 2002, seven percent of girls and eight percent of boys did not reach this benchmark (see Caygill, Sturrock, & Chamberlain, 2007, p. 68). This pattern was also observed across the low, intermediate, and high benchmarks, with proportionally fewer girls and boys reaching each of these benchmarks in 2006 compared with 2002. However, there was no significant difference between the proportions of girls and boys reaching the advanced benchmark in 2006 compared with 2002. When comparing 1994 and 2006, there were no significant differences in the proportion of girls and boys at each of the benchmarks.

Achievement on the content and cognitive domains for girls and boys

While there were no overall differences in mean science achievement between girls and boys, there were some distinct differences in terms of the content and cognitive domains. On average, girls had higher scores in life science, while boys had higher scores in earth science (see Table 13). Boys and girls performed similarly in the physical science domain. Boys and girls also performed similarly on questions involving knowledge or applying that knowledge. However, girls on average performed better than boys on questions involving reasoning.

Table 13: Year 5 mean science scores on the content and cognitive domains by gender

Note:
▲ mean domain score significantly higher than other gender.
Standard errors are presented in parentheses.

Source: Exhibit 3.3 from Martin, Mullis & Foy, 2008.