Why Girls Do Better At School - Slashdot

A new study explains why girls do better at school, even when their scores on standardized tests remain low. Researchers from University of Georgia and Columbia University say the variation in school grades between boys and girls may be because girls have a better attitude toward learning than boys. One of the study's lead authors, Christopher Cornwell, said, 'The skill that matters the most in regards to how teachers graded their students is what we refer to as "approaches toward learning." You can think of "approaches to learning" as a rough measure of what a child's attitude toward school is: It includes six items that rate the child's attentiveness, task persistence, eagerness to learn, learning independence, flexibility and organization. I think that anybody who's a parent of boys and girls can tell you that girls are more of all of that.'

Actually (after three boys and two girls) I see what they mean but I'm not sure how to put it together...I suspect that a large fraction of each of those, including "learning independence", has to do with boys' greater, umm, rebelliousness -- unwillingness to do stuff that doesn't make sense to them, lesser respect for authority, stuff like that. It's a question of incentives, which will have to be addressed by 21st century school design.
Or then again, maybe not.