Boys’ reading ability is affected more by their classmates views than by any stereotypical views … [+]
Gender stereotypes held by their classmates are putting boys off reading and hampering their reading skills, according to a new study.
A belief that ‘reading is for girls’ means boys are less motivated to read and translates into poorer performance in reading tests, the research found.
But while the relationship between gender stereotypes and boys’ reluctance to read is well-known, the study claims to be the first to also look at the link between the attitude of a student’s classmates and individual reading ability.
It found that the effect of classmates’ views had an effect on reading over and above that associated with the individual’s beliefs considered on their own.
Researchers said the findings suggested teachers should confront gender stereotypes in the classroom, as well as tailor classroom texts to boys’ interests and encourage fathers to read to their sons.
‘Reading is first stereotyped as a female domain,’ said Francesca Muntoni, a researcher at the University of Hamburg and lead author of the study, published today in Child Development, the journal of the Society for Research in Child Development.
‘This and other gender stereotypes that emphasize that girls are more competent in reading than boys significantly affect boys by causing them to devalue their actual reading ability while also having less motivation to read, which in turn impairs their reading performance.’
The study found that boys who held a strong belief that reading was for girls were less likely to want to read and more likely to believe they were not very good at reading.
Conversely, girls who held the same beliefs were more likely to see themselves as readers and have more faith in their reading ability.
But while individually-held stereotypes affected how students viewed their own reading ability, researchers found no link with objectively-measured reading achievement.
However, this link did appear when researchers looked at classmates’ gender stereotyping, at least as far as boys were concerned.
In classes with a strong stereotype in favor of girls as readers, boys were less motivated to read, were less likely to believe they were competent readers, and performed less well in a reading test.
The researchers concluded that an individual’s own stereotypes are not the only ones that matter when it comes to reading ability for boys.
‘These findings suggest that gender stereotypes in classes can have profound consequences on boys’ reading outcomes,’ according to the study, which examined a cohort of 1,500 10 and 11-year-olds in Germany.
To counteract this effect, the researchers suggest that teachers should avoid reinforcing stereotypes around gender-specific competencies. Teachers should also find out what their students are interested in, and use that information when planning their teaching, including supporting text related to boys’ interests, the researchers said.
Encouraging fathers to read to their sons could also help boys become more engaged in reading and help to dispel stereotypes, they added.
‘To reduce socially determined disparities in reading, it may help to create classroom contexts that discourage students from acting on their stereotypical beliefs,’ said Jan Retelsdorf, professor of the psychology of learning and instruction at Hamburg University and co-author of the study.
‘Teachers and parents might consider socializing boys and girls in ways that reduce stereotypical behaviors, and students could become aware of their gender stereotypes to counteract their effect on other student outcomes and to create a gender-fair learning environment,’ he added.
