'Sexist' teachers are holding back brightest girls

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It's not only the boys that can fail at school

Teachers' sexist stereotyping of girls as nervous students who are afraid of failure is preventing some of the brightest candidates achieving the top GCSE grades, according to research by a leading academic.

Clever girls are often not entered for the most testing examination papers because their teachers perceive them to be less confident than equally able boys and are worried they will be upset if they fail, Professor Janette Elwood will say in her inaugural professorial lecture at Queen's University in Belfast today.

The policy is having a particularly damaging effect in maths, where girls tend to be entered for the intermediate level paper, denying them access to the A and A* grades they may need to continue the subject to A-level. However, bright boys, seen as confident risk-takers, are more likely to be entered for the highest papers, she argues.

Professor Elwood analysed the entry patterns for GCSE maths and interviewed teachers about the reasons behind their entry decisions as part of her research.

She said: "The larger female entry in the intermediate tier represents an underestimation of girls' mathematical abilities by teachers who perceive girls to be less confident and more anxious of failure in maths than boys and more adversely affected by final exams.

"Consequently, teachers tend to place girls in the intermediate tier to protect them from such anxiety. The disproportionate number of girls who are entered for the intermediate tier are marginalised from taking their maths further."

Since the introduction of GCSEs, most exams have been structured into two or three different levels, or tiers of entry, with each tier allowing students to achieve a restricted set of grades.

Exams with two tiers have a foundation level giving access to grades C to G and a higher tier giving access to grades A* to D. The three-tier model, which is used in maths exams, has a foundation paper (grades C to G), an intermediate paper (grades B to F) and a higher paper (grades A* to C).

Candidates are allowed to enter only one level and any student who fails to achieve the lowest allowed grade on that paper is given an unclassified grade.

Supporters of tiered entry schemes say that they enable exams to be more accurately tailored to a student's ability. However, Professor Elwood is calling for tiered papers to be scrapped, arguing that perceptions of gender could unfairly influence some students' chances of achieving the highest grades.

One of the teachers questioned in the research had said: "At higher tiers boys are more arrogant, girls more worried". Professor Elwood said: "Teachers' descriptions of female ability tended to be dominated by ideas of diligence rather than ability."

She will argue that the Government's preoccupation with the underachievement of boys has encouraged neglect of girls. She said: "In some schools, strategies that have been put in place to counteract boys' underachievement seem to be having a negative effect on girls' own success."