explaining girls' advantage in kindergarten literacy learning: do
TRANSCRIPT
Explaining Girls' Advantage in Kindergarten Literacy Learning: DoClassroom Behaviors Make a Difference?Douglas Ready, Laura LoGerfo, David Burkam, Valerie Lee
This study investigated gender differences inkindergarteners' literacy skills, specifically, whetherdifferences in children's classroom behaviors explainedfemales' early learning advantage. Data includedinformation on 16,883 kindergartners (8,701 boys and 8,182girls) from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study, Kindergarten Cohort of 1998 1999 (ECLS-K). The ECLS-Kdirectly assessed children's cognitive skills and collected extensive data on children's sociodemographic andbehavioral backgrounds through structured telephone interviews with parents and written surveys withchildren's teachers. Findings suggested that not only did girls enter kindergarten with somewhat strongerliteracy skills but also learned slightly more than boys over the kindergarten year. Taking into accountteachers' reports of girls' more positive learning approaches (e.g., attentiveness, task persistence) explainedalmost two-thirds of the female advantage in literacy learning. Accounting for boys' more prevalent externalbehavior problems, thought by many to explain girls' advantage in literacy development, did little to diminishthe gender gap. (The Elementary School Journal 106(1): 21-38, September 2005.)
Other Publications by the AuthorsDouglas Ready Laura LoGerfo David Burkam Valerie Lee
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Document date: September 01, 2005Released online: September 01, 2005
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