Prime Time 8. Coursebook plus Semester Self-checks, Schulbuch

3 Nature or nurture? Twins a) Before reading, describe the toys you played with as a child to a partner. Which were your favourite childhood games? b) Now read the text. Melissa gave birth to twins, a girl and a boy. Jasmine, she wrapped in a pink blanket, and Adam, in a blue one. Relatives brought soft fluffy toys as gifts for Jasmine, and a toy football and a tiny football jersey for Adam. Everyone cooed and gooed and talked softly to Jasmine, telling her she was pretty and gorgeous, but it was usually only the female relatives who picked her up and cuddled her. When the male relatives visited, they focused mostly on Adam, speaking noticeably louder, poking his belly, bouncing him up and down and proposing a future as a football player. (From: Barbara and Allan Pease, Why Men Don’t Listen and Women Can’t Read Maps ) c) With a partner, talk about the possibility of a gender-neutral upbringing. In pairs you should: • comment on this short text • discuss why relatives acted like they did, judging from your own experience • explain to what extent your choice of toys was influenced by your gender d) Do some research on “Baby Storm Stocker,” whose parents did not reveal his/her gender to family and friends in order to avoid the imposition of gender stereotypes onto the child. Then write a short statement on whether you are in favour or against such an “experiment”. Vital statistics a) Read the text below and underline facts about boys’ and girls’ performances at school. 1 Fact file Sex versus gender In the English language, sex refers to biological differences between male and female (chromosomes, hormonal profiles, …) while gender describes the characteristics that a society sees as masculine or feminine. Sex = male and female Gender = masculine and feminine F 2 Despite the stereotype that boys do better in maths and science, girls have made higher grades than boys throughout their school years for nearly a century, according to a new analysis published by the American Psychological Association. “Although gender differences follow essentially stereotypical patterns on achievement tests in which boys typically score higher on maths and science, females have the advantage on school grades regardless of the material,” said lead study author Daniel Voyer, PhD, of the University of New Brunswick, Fredericton, Canada. “School marks reflect learning in the larger social context of the classroom and require effort and persistence over long periods of time, whereas standardised tests assess basic or specialised academic abilities and aptitudes at one point in time without social influences.” Based on research from 1914 through 2011 that spanned more than 30 countries, the study found the differences in grades between girls and boys were largest for language courses and smallest for maths and science. The researchers examined 369 samples from 308 studies, reflecting grades of 538,710 boys and 595,332 girls. The study reveals that recent claims of a “boy crisis”, with boys lagging behind girls in school achievement, are not accurate because girls’ grades have been consistently higher than boys’ across several decades with no significant changes in recent years, the authors wrote. “The fact that females generally perform better than their male counterparts throughout what is essentially mandatory schooling in most countries seems to be a well-kept secret, considering how little attention it has received as a global phenomenon,” said co-author Susan Voyer, MASc, also of the University of New Brunswick. 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 38 Gender issues Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv