Abstract
Geschlechtsunterschiede werden bei kognitiven Leistungen kontrovers diskutiert. Dies gilt auch für die Kulturtechniken Lesen, Schreiben und Rechnen. Hier unterscheiden sich Mädchen und Jungen teilweise hinsichtlich ihrer schulischen Fertigkeiten, was das Thema der vorliegenden narrativen Überblicksarbeit darstellt. Im mathematischen Bereich erlernen Jungen im Grundschulalter das Stellenwertsystem der mehrstelligen Zahlen früher als Mädchen. Eventuell hängt dies mit besseren räumlichen Fähigkeiten der Jungen zusammen. Im Jugendalter finden sich Leistungsunterschiede zu Gunsten der Jungen bei komplexen Textaufgaben. Im internationalen Vergleich sind diesbezügliche Geschlechtsunterschiede in jenen Ländern höher, in denen eine geringere Gleichstellung zwischen Frauen und Männern herrscht. Das Lesen und Schreiben baut hingegen auf sprachlichen Vorläuferfertigkeiten auf. Hier gibt es Hinweise darauf, dass sich Mädchen schneller entwickeln. Unterschiede werden aber vorwiegend bei jungen Kindern gefunden und werden mit zunehmendem Alter geringer. Im höheren Schulalter sind im Bereich Lesen und Schreiben meist keine Unterschiede mehr zwischen den Geschlechtern nachweisbar. Für die Diagnosen einer Lese-Rechtschreibstörung (LRS) oder Rechenstörung (Dyskalkulie) gibt es hingegen deutliche Unterschiede. Bei Jungen wird die LRS deutlich häufiger erkannt. Im Gegensatz zu den meisten anderen Entwicklungsstörungen scheinen Mädchen tendenziell öfter von einer spezifischen Rechenstörung (Dyskalkulie) betroffen zu sein, wohingegen Jungen mindestens so häufig wie Mädchen Rechenprobleme in Kombination mit anderen kognitiven Störungen aufweisen. Sowohl bei der LRS als auch bei der Dyskalkulie scheinen Umweltfaktoren mit dafür verantwortlich, dass Jungen relativ gesehen häufiger identifiziert werden als Mädchen.
Background: Cognitive gender differences and their origins are a hotly debated subject. Strict nature-nurture dichotomies concerning causal roles of gender differences are not useful for their understanding due to the reciprocal influences of environmental and biological factors (Halpern, 1997). Comparable to calculation, reading and writing are relatively new competences from an evolutionary perspective. Therefore, it is improbable that the evolution has selected a special mechanism for these capabilities. E. g. for reading and writing, it is more capable that learning a written language reorganises the cortical structures that are originally used for language and visual processing (Blomert & Willems, 2010).
Aims and methods: .In this narrative review, we wanted to summarize findings from meta-analyses and recent studies identifying specific areas which show gender differences in the fields of reading, writing, and mathematics. We also focused on underlying cognitive gender differences and their possible biological or environmental reasons. Furthermore, we reviewed prevalence rates of learning disorders and factors which might influence differential detection rates for boys and girls.
Results: In the mathematical domain, performance differences between boys and girls are usually not found for general aptitude or school achievement tests (Kimura, 2000). Only breaking down mathematics to more clearly defined faculties reveals a male advantage during early primary school years for the acquisition of multi-digit number understanding (Krinzinger, 2011) and from adolescence onwards for complex word problems (Kimura, 2000). Both may be related to better spatial skills in boys (Voyer et al., 1995), probably leading to an advantage in using spatial cognitive strategies (e. g., Carr et al., 2008; Van Garderen, 2006). On the other hand, it was recently shown that in international studies (PISA, TIMMS) gender differences in the mathematical domain were related to national gender gap indices mirroring economic, academic and other fields of (in)equality between women and men (Guiso et al., 2008). This demonstrates the influence of social factors on gender differences in mathematics.
Reading and writing are based on our language system. Some studies found that the language development of girls is faster (e. g. Bleses et al., 2008). Contrary to spatial skills, the effects sizes were small, but they were replicated in many languages. Differences between boys and girls are especially found in young children under the age of 3 years, but the dissimilarities disappear with higher school age. No differences could be detected at the age of six years (Bornstein & Hahn, 2004). Thus, boys seem to make up for their developmental delay. Comparable results were found for written language, wherein girls were better in first grade only in letter identification, and no differences were detected in fifth grade (Siegel & Smythe, 2005).
However, different sex ratios are described for developmental dyslexia and dyscalculia. There is a significant variation of the sex ratio dependent on the definition of the disorder (see Miles et al., 1998). Contrary to most other developmental disorders, girls seem to be more often affected by specific developmental dyscalculia (e.g., Von Aster et al., 2005), whereas boys with mathematical learning difficulties combined with other cognitive deficits are at least as often found as girls with the same problems. In general, boys are more often identified with dyslexia. For both disorders, environmental factors seem to be responsible for the higher identification rate in boys.
Discussion: .In general, we suggest that teachers and care-takers should be aware of academic fields in which gender differences might occur and their possible underlying factors. More specifically, attention should be drawn to the development of multi-digit number understanding in girls with poor spatial skills during early primary school years. Teachers should also pay specific attention to girls with problems in the acquisition phase of reading and writing, as their problems are more often overlooked compared to boys with the same difficulties. The reason for this is that in general, boys with additional other difficulties (e. g., attention, behaviour) are identified more often, which makes their problems easier detectable.
Overall, preventive training programs targeting cognitive precursors of academic skills in kindergarten (which are already quite successfully implemented in Germany regarding language functions) are desirable, as children with the lowest performance should profit the most – no matter if they are girls or boys.
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