On the Search for Gender-Related Differences in Dutch Primary Mathematics Classrooms

This paper reports on a study carried out in the Netherlands which is aimed at finding an explanation for the curious evidence that the reformed approach to mathematics education appears to have a less positive influence on girls' results. Over and over it turns out that girls' achievement scores in primary mathematics are lower than those of boys. The research started with 5000 schools and ended up with 4 schools. The paper focuses on the last part of this zooming-in research in which the classroom observations took place. By means of these observations a number of classroom characteristics, which make the teaching less optimized for girls and may cause their mathematics scores to be lower, have been traced. (Contains 1 table.) [For complete proceedings, see ED500860.]