According to a new doctoral thesis, the answer to why pupils perform differently in school is not found by looking at girls and boys as separate groups.
Why do we make the choices that we do? Are we born this way or have we become this way? Behavioural economists look for answers through economic and math experiments in the laboratory.
There is no doubt that boys and girls perform differently at school. But simply looking at gender in order to understand why is not enough.
Norwegian textbooks juxtapose a positive, liberal Norwegian sexuality with a negative non-Norwegian, often Muslim, sexuality. And nobody agrees on what racism entails or how the topic can be taught in the classroom.
Boys in primary school talk about their feelings and hold hands. And they are very, very concerned about their bodies and appearance.
Physics has a reputation as being only for the stereotypical nerds. According to science education researcher Maria Vetleseter Bøe, that is unfortunate both for the field and for everyone who misses out on the chance to find out how much fun physics is.
“It’s about time that we explore what includes women in the ICT field and stop focusing on what excludes them,” says Knut Holtan Sørensen, who recently published a book on the topic.
