Question

According to the text, what best explains girls' superior performance in school and the relatively poor performance of boys?

1) Girls report more positive experiences in the classroom.
2) Girls feel greater support by their parents.
3) Girls have higher contact time with their teachers.
4) All of these answers are correct.

Answer 1

Text-based evidence points to social factors such as gender socialization and explicit and implicit classroom dynamics influencing girls' superior academic performance over boys, which cannot be explained by cognitive differences.

Step-by-step explanation:

According to the text, the best explanation for girls' superior performance in school compared to the relatively poor performance of boys does not explicitly align with any of the provided options (1-4). Instead, the text attributes girls' superior performance to the lack of statistically significant cognitive differences, combined with social factors such as gender socialization and the reinforcement of restrictive gender roles and stereotypes once a child reaches school age. Teachers have been found to subconsciously reinforce gender-differentiated behavior by providing more praise and opportunity to male students, interrupting female students more, and treating boys and girls in opposite ways. Consequently, the social dynamics and teacher interactions in classrooms may influence girls to conform and excel within the established educational expectations, while the boys experience a more lenient atmosphere, resulting in possibly less disciplined academic performance.