Gender, Behaviour and Achievement: A preliminary study of pupil perceptions and attitudes

This article reports on one element of a project undertaken in Leeds Local Education Authority (LEA) during the academic year 1995/96. The article makes some preliminary observations based on questionnaire data gathered in one of the project's schools. The data provide some useful insights into boys' and girls' attitudes towards their academic work, their behaviour, their perceptions of the relationship between the two and gender-related differences in these areas. The data also provide evidence of changes in these perceptions and attitudes with age. The analysis of the results and subsequent discussion suggests 'affective factors' which may be useful both in terms of helping to explain individual differences in performance and in the continued search for strategies which improve boys' and girls' performance.