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

As for why girls perform better in school than boys, the authors speculated that social and cultural factors could be among several possible explanations. Parents may assume boys are better at maths and science so they might encourage girls to put more effort into their studies, which could lead to the slight advantage girls have in all courses, they wrote. Gender differences in learning styles is another possibility. Previous research has shown girls tend to study in order to understand the materials, whereas boys emphasise performance, which indicates a focus on the final grades. “Mastery of the subject matter generally produces better marks than performance emphasis, so this could account in part for males’ lower marks than females,” the authors wrote. (Psychological Bulletin) 40 45 50 b) Discuss the situation in your class: Do girls/boys perform better at certain subjects? Why is this so? Listening: Boys like bashing drums and girls prefer the flute. So what? a) You are going to listen to a journalist’s personal comment on new gender research findings. First you will have 45 seconds to study the task below, then you will hear the recording twice. While listening, answer the questions (1–5) using a maximum of four words. Write your answers in the spaces provided. The first one (0) has been done for you. 0 According to recent research findings, what kind of instruments do boys like? loud ones ✔ 1 What kind of instruments do girls generally play? 2 What is Math 55? 3 What does the American Title IX legislation demand? 4 When the narrator was a child, she used to play with which toys? 5 What did the narrator want her daughter to do? b) Sum up the author’s opinion on gender issues today. “Bitch” by Meredith Brooks a) All adjectives below can be associated with both women and men. Circle the character traits that describe your personality and explain your choice. b) Listen to the song “Bitch” by Meredith Brooks (e.g. on the internet) and take notes on how the woman and the man in the song are portrayed. Describe the two people and their relationship. 3 1.5 4 truthful vacillating irrational infuriating noble flexible decent gentle exasperating kind well-structured fair calculating honest independent strong logical patient straight-forward self-sacrificing self-confident easy to please good-natured soft illogical changeable wild 39 Nur zu Prüfzwecken – Eigentum des Verlags öbv