prominence of girls and boys in the classroom: schoolchildren's perceptions

Sex Roles, Vol. 27, Nos. 9/10, 1992

Prominence of Girls and Boys in the Classroom: Schoolchildren's Perceptions 1

Marilyn P. Safir 2 and Rachel Hertz-Lazarowitz Universi O, of Haifa, Israel

Shoshanna BenTsvi-Mayer ORANIM Teachers College, Israel

Haggai Kupermintz University of Haifa, Israel

Several studies have revealed teachers' a6ymmetric perceptions of gMs and boys in their classes. The present research examines these effects on schoolchildren's own perceptions of the prominence of male and female peers in school relevant categories. A total of 147 (native born, Jewish middle class) second and sixth graders participated in the study. A questionnaire in two versions was prepared: One formulated in the masculine plural, habitually used in Hebrew as the generic plural for both sexes. The other in both masculine and feminine (optional he~she) plural, also admissible in Hebrew usage. Overall, students judged more boys as prominent, even more so in sixth grade. Subjects also pointed to same-sex peers as prominent. Surprisingly, the sex-optional formulation of the questionnaire did not decrease stereotyping perceptions. Results raise questions about the status of girls in school. Implications for girls' future as achievers in modern society are discussed. Furthermore, the effectiveness of language manipulation in Hebrew regarding sexist vs. nonsexist attitudes is put into question.

1The authors would like to thank Sharon Gil-Steinfeld and Anal Levav for their help in data collection and coding.

ZTo whom correspondence should be addressed at Department of Psychology, University of Haifa, Israel 31905~

439

0360-0025/92/1100-0439506.50/0 © 1992 Plenum Publishing Corporation

440 Safir a aL

A number of studies have examined the way teachers perceive boys vs. girls in the classroom (BenTsvi-Mayer, Hertz-Lazarowitz, & Safir, 1989; Fagot 1984, 1978; Serbin, O'Leary, Kent, & Tonick, 1973). Their findings indicated asymmetric perceptions according to which girls and boys are dis- tinguished as separate groups, each having unique gender-linked characteristics in the school context. Girls as a group are perceived as conformist, obedient, neat, and dependent; boys are perceived as unable to adjust to the conformist atmosphere of school and to the teacher's demand for good behavior (Brophy & Good, 1974; Serbin et al., 1973). Despite the discipline problems characteristic of boys, teachers tend to admire their brightness, activeness, interest, openness, and independence. Girls are preferred, if at all, only for their compliant behavior (Davies & Meighan, 1975; Ricks & Pyke, 1973).

BenTsvi-Mayer et al. (1989) asked teachers to name their most outstanding pupils in general and in specific school-related categories of com- pe tence and conduct . Responses were then examined for gender stereotypes. Findings showed conventional, stereotyped preferences and di- vision of pupils into gender-typed categories by their teachers. In general, boys were perceived as more outstanding. They were nominated as prominent in discipline problems and in the categories of mathematics, general excellence, and high general potential. In addition, they occupied teachers' thoughts more than did girls. The latter were outstanding only in Hebrew language and social activity. The authors raised the issue of the effect of teachers' perceptions of students in general, and of female students in particular. If teachers consistently perceive boys to be their outstanding students, girls may find themselves marginalized, and their chances of success are likely to decrease. Moreover, if teachers' biased attitudes find their ex- pression in the classroom, this may damage girls' self-esteem. This speculation is suppor ted by Parsons, Kaczala, and Meece (1982), who demonstrated the effects of differential treatment of girls and boys by teachers on pupils' self-esteem--praise expressions of high expectations raised pupils' confidence. In this study, teachers tended to give more praise to boys. Even when similar expectations for boys and girls were held, praise given to girls was less enthusiastic and less meaningful, which resulted in girls' lower self-esteem. This, in turn, might decrease girls' aspirations and motivation and in the long run, adversely affect their personal development--all contrary to the aims of modern education.

The finding that teachers hold stereotyped perceptions about girls was documented by Levitin and Chanannie (1972) and Hartley (1978). Re- search in recent years has focused on behavior-related stereotypes (Sadker, Sadker, & Bauchner, 1984; Stanworth, 1984). Less attention has been given

Prominence of Girls and Boys 441

to the investigation of the perceptions of participants in the classroom context, and first and foremost the pupils themselves.

As a follow-up to the study of BenTsvi-Mayer et al. (1989), the present study examines schoolchildren's own perceptions of the prominence of their male and female peers in the classroom, which may be effected by the stereotypes held by teachers. Peer relationships, importance of peers' opinion, and sometimes peer pressure are well-known aspects of child development and the group dynamic of school life. Accordingly, peers may reinforce gender-typed behaviors and self-awareness, especially if such stereotyping is already practiced by the teacher--the natural authority. Hence the significance of the present follow-up to BenTsvi-Mayer et al. (1989), whose findings revealed teachers' markedly gender-stereotyped perceptions of their pupils. In order to compare children's perceptions of their classroom peers with teachers perceptions, the original questionnaire was adapted for children.

Our first hypothesis was that in most areas of conduct and endeavor, both positive and negative, boys as a group would be perceived by their fellow pupils as more outstanding than girls, thereby reflecting their teachers' expectations.

In light of Steitmatter's findings (1985) that the greatest discrepancy in the perception of male-female functions occurs around the age of 12 or 13, we attempted to answer when these processes begin in the classroom context. This study examined two age groups. The first group were young pupils in second grade (age 7), the youngest pupils who would be capable of independently reading and answering the questionnaire, and sixth graders (age 12), the oldest group in grammar school. Consequently, our second hypothesis was that boys' prominence will be more pronounced among the sixth graders than among the younger group. In addition, this study attempted to uncover possible causes for some unusual findings reported by Lieblich (1985) and Safir (1986). Lieblich called attention to the fact that Israeli boys begin to surpass girls on verbal intelligence tests at the age of 9; by the age of 13, boys surpass girls on performance subtests, and at the age of 16 boys' overall IQ scores are about one standard deviation higher than those of girls. It should be noted that before the age of 9 girls achieved higher test scores on all subtests, but this difference lacked statistical significance. Lieblich attributed her findings to the atmosphere of the educational environment, including teachers. Safir also reported (1986) that when testing for giftedness, girls aged 7-9 manifested marked nonrisk-taking behavior, when compared to boys, a phenomenon uncommon in other societies before early adolescence. These findings may reflect influences of the Israeli educational environment. It seems that very young girls, perhaps yet unaware of gender-typing attitudes, do well, but

442 Safir ~ aL

years of exposure to such attitudes may result in cumulative affects that "produce" their inferiority.

Since social life among the relevant age groups is carried on in gender-separate groups (Hertz-Lazarowitz, Feitelson, Zahavi, & Hartup, 1981; Hartup, 1979), and there are findings of increased gender role stereotyping among children with regard to members of their own gender (Albert & Porter, 1988), our third hypothesis was that subjects will perceive their same-gender peers as more prominent. Despite this tendency, we expected that boys would be perceived overall more prominent, in accord with our first hypothesis.

The fourth hypothesis concerns the gender-linked language effect. In the school context, where most instructional materials are often not gender equitable, consistent research findings indicate that for students (preschool through college) the use of male generic language often results in male associations, while neutral language forms, or forms including both sexes, yield gender-balanced associations (Schau & Scott, 1984; Murdock & Forsythe, 1985). All these studies ascribe sex biases to the English language (Spender, 1980; Sheldon, 1990; Banks, 1988). This feature is even more pronounced in Hebrew, a highly gendered language in which all nouns are either masculine or feminine, never neutral; verb usage and most parts of speech are also regulated by gender forms.

The generic, general masculine plural is used for an all-male population, or for a mixed male-female population. The feminine form is re- served for all-female populations only. For example: Talmid means male student, but is also used to designate student in the generic form. Talmidim means male students, but is also used to designate students in general, as well as mixed populations of male and female students. According to the rules of Hebrew grammar, even one male among a multitude of females necessitates the usage of the masculine form. Talmida means female student and its plural will be Talmidot, meaning a population of female students only. When one wishes to emphasize that one refers to both sexes, the form Talmidim/Talmidot, or its abbreviation Talmidim/ot, a kind of he/she form, may legitimately be used. Henceforth, we shall refer to this latter form as the "he/she version."

Although the masculine -ira plural ending is the most common usage for mixed populations, BenTsvi-Mayer (1979) found that the great majority of schoolchildren understand this generic, all-inclusive masculine plural to designate males only, thereby rendering Hebrew particularly androcentrie. To further test this finding, and also to determine whether a more specific he/she choice would produce different results, we employed two versions of the questionnaire: one in the common standard all-masculine plural, and one offering a he/she option. We predicted that the latter version, specifi-


cally including the explicit feminine grammatical form, would result in greater selection of prominent girls' names than the version employing the general, generic masculine plural.

METHOD

Subjects

One hundred and forty-seven elementary school pupils who attended school located in an urban middle-class neighborhood participated in the study: 71 second graders and 76 sixth graders. There were 78 boys (35 second graders and 43 sixth graders), and 69 girls (36 second graders and 35 sixth graders). Two classes from each grade were randomly selected from a pool of four classes at each level. All children who attended class on the day of administration participated in the study. All pupils were white, Jew- ish, and born in Israel.

Research Instrument

A questionnaire to determine perceived prominence of girls and boys in eight school-relevant areas of competence and conduct was adapted from BenTsvi-Mayer et al. (1989), for usage with children. The questionnaire included the following categories: general academic excellence, discipline problems, thinking about pupils after school, social activity, need for teacher 's academic help, excellence in mathematics, excellence in Hebrew, and general ability (Appendix 1). These categories were decided on as most relevant regarding salient pupils by a group of 24 experienced teachers who helped construct the questionnaire for the original study.

Two versions of the questionnaire were prepared, One employed the conventional masculine plural; and the other employed an explicit choice between the masculine and feminine--noun and verb endings, separated by a slash (similar to he/she), a fully acceptable grammatical form in He- brew texts.

PROCEDURE

The questionnaires were administered in each class. The two versions were randomly distributed. In the second grade, 18 boys and 21 girls re-

444 Safir a aL

ceived questionnaires with the conventional, masculine plural wording, while 17 boys and 15 girls received the he/she version. In the sixth grade, 21 boys and 17 girls received the conventional version, and 22 boys and 16 girls the he/she one.

After distributing the questionnaires, the directions, printed at the top of the sheet, were read aloud by one of the administrators, who were two students of psychology. The questionnaires were answered anony- mously, in writing. To avoid calling attention to the importance of the respondent's gender, we marked the questionnaires handed in by the girls with an asterisk. Pupils were told that the purpose of the study was to examine their agreement as to the traits of their classmates. Our assistants coded the sex of nominated pupils by the first names given. A small number of names were equally applicable to either sex. These names were coded alternatively as female or male. Interrater agreement was 98%.

RESULTS

The statistical analyses were designed to facilitate the examination of gender-based differences in nominations of classroom peers. The difference between the number of boys and of girls submitted by each student was the major statistic of interest. Thus, our analyses were based on a within- subjects model, testing the above-mentioned difference for gender, age, and questionnaire version.

Paired t tests were performed in order to evaluate the overall differences between numbers of boys and girls nominated as prominent students in each category under study.

Table I and Fig. 1 demonstrate significant prominence of boys. A greater choice of boys' names rather than girls' names was found in the following categories, in descending order: discipline problems, excellence in mathematics, social activity, general ability, and general academic excellence. The girls were not found to be prominent in any of the categories. The first hypothesis of the study was thus supported.

To investigate the interactions between gender of the prominent students and respondent's gender, age, and questionnaire version, we used gender-difference scores. The difference score in each category was the number of boys' names mentioned minus the number of girls' names. Thus, a mathematically positive value indicates more prominence of boys, while a negative value indicates prominence of girls. To avoid a potential negative connotation of the sign "minus," prominence of girls will be presented in brackets in our tables.

Prominence of Girls and Boys

Table I. Prominence of Boys and Girls in Eight Categories a

445

Category Boys Girls t(146)

General academic excellence M 1.65 SD .92

Discipline problems M 2.33 SD .84

Thoughts after school M 1.37 SD 1.22

Active socially M 1.53 SD 1.11

Need help M 1.65 ~. SD .87

Excellence in mathematics M 1.84 SD .93

Excellence in Hebrew M 1.38 SD 1.08

General ability M 1.69 SD 1.01

1.35 .91

0.53 .73

1.41 1.27

1.98 b

14.69 c

-.21

1.33 1.10 1.10 1.16 3.67 c

.85 1.06 5.15 c

.94 1.43 -.28 1.05 1.17 3.21 c 1.01

aRange: 0-3. bp < .05. cp < .0].

These scores were then subjected to a series of three-way analyses of variance (ANOVAs) to determine the effects of gender, age, and questionnaire version. It should be noted that this analysis is equivalent to a re-

Category

General Excellence

Discipline Problems

Thoughts After SchL

Active Socially

Need Help

Mathematics

Hebrew

General Abil ity

I

' [ J

~fJJJJJJJfjJJJJJJJ.~

i ~JJJJJJJJJJJJJJ.~

~-JJJJJJfjjjJJJJJJJJJJ..~

' i I I I

0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5

i l l Boys ~ Girls

Range: 0-3

Fig. 1. Prominence of boys and girls: mean number of nominations.

446 Safir a aL

peated measures ANOVA, with gender of prominent students as a within- subjects factor. Significant effects were further analyzed by means of separate paired t tests within each group.

Table II and Fig. 2 present the results of respondent age effect. The second hypothesis concerning the greater prominence of boys in sixth grade was supported in five of the eight categories: general academic excellence, discipline problems, need for teacher's academic help, social activity, and excellence in Hebrew.

Sixth graders nominated more boys in the categories of general academic excellence [t(75) = 3.28; p < .001], need for teacher's academic help [t(75 = 2.44; p < .01) and social activity [t(75) = 3.81; p < .001], while second graders showed no significant gender preference in these categories. In the category of discipline problems, both age groups nominated'more boys, but this preference was stronger for sixth graders [t(75) = 12.47; p < .001) than for second graders It(70) = 8.92; < .001]. In the category of excellence in Hebrew, second graders nominated more girls [t(70) = -1.95; p < .05], while sixth graders gender preference was non- significant.

Table III and Fig. 3 present the results of respondent gender effect. The table indicates that the gender of the respondent is significant for all categories except social activity.

Table 1I. Gender-Difference Scores in Eight Categories by Age a

Second Sixth Category grade grade F(1,139)

General academic excellence M {.11} .68 6.77 c

SD 1.78 1.82 Discipline problems M 1.35 2.22 15.82 c

SD 1.28 1.55

Thoughts after school M {.21} .12 0.04 SD 2.31 2.46

Active socially M {.21} .58 4.48 b SD 2.22 2.07

Need help M .18 .78 6.04 b SD 1.38 1.78

Excellence in mathematics M .90 .67 1.64 SD 1.82 1.86

Excellence in Hebrew M {.49} .37 6.31 b SD 2.13 1.85

General ability M .20 .82 2.96 SD 1.82 2.04

aRange: 0-3. Braces indicate girls' bp < .05. Cp < .01.

prominence.


Category

General Excellence

Discipline Problems

Thoughts After Schl,

Active Socially

Need Help

Mathematics

Hebrew

General Abil ity

I

[]

[]

l

<~3 Girls Prominence Boys Prominence C>

1 2 n d Grade ~ 6 t h Grade

Range; 0-3

Fig. 2. Prominence of boys and girls: mean gender-difference scores by age.

The third hypothesis was that members of each gender group would tend to perceive their same-gender peers as prominent. This hypothesis was supported in five out of the eight categories: general academic excellence, thinking about pupils after school, need for teacher's academic help, excellence in Hebrew, and general ability. In these categories boys nominated more boys, while girls nominated more girls. In the category of excellence in mathematics, boys nominated more boys, but girls showed no gender preference. However, in the category of discipline problems, boys were perceived more prominent by girls than by their masculine peers.

A significant age by gender interaction effect was found for the category of need for teacher's academic help. In second grade, each gender perceived their same-gender peers as prominent. In sixth grade, however, both genders attributed greater prominence to boys [F(1, 139) = 5.45; p < .051.

Table IV and Fig. 4 present the results of questionnaire version effect. This effect was significant in the following categories: Contrary to our pre- diction, in the conventional masculine plural version, more girls were nominated in the general academic excellence category [t(76) = -2.36; p < .01]; The he/she version elicited boys' prominence [t(69) = 5.49; p < .001]. In the category of excellence in mathematics, both versions elicited boys' prominence but the difference was stronger for the he/she version. Only in the category of social activity did the conventional masculine plural ver-

448 Safir et al.

Table 1II. Gender-Difference Scores in Eight Categories by Gender a

Category Boys Girls F(1,139)

General academic excellence M .88 {.36} 20.73 c SD 1.82 1.63

Discipline problems M 1.56 2.07 6.13 b SD 1.63 1.26

Thoughts after school M 1.74 {2.06} 244.46 c SD 1.62 1.22

Active socially M 1.00 {.71} 27.72 c SD 1.88 2.13

Need help M .63 .33 1.41 SD 1.42 1.81

Excellence in mathematics M 1.44 .04 24.1 c SD 1.84 1.55

Excellence in Hebrew M .74 {.94} 31.19 c SD 1.87 1.84

General ability M 1.33 {.41} 34.66 c SD 1.70 1.81

aRange: 0-3. Braces indicate girls' prominence. bp < .05. Cp < .01.

sion show a prominence for boys [t(69) = 5.99; p < .001], while no gender preference was elicited by the he/she version, in accordance with our hypothesis.

Category

General Excellence

Discipline Problems


Active Socially

Need Help

Mathematics

Hebrew

General Abil ity

<~ Girls Prominence Boys Prominence

l Boys ~ Girls

Range: 0-3

Fig. 3. Prominence of boys and girls: Mean gender-difference scores by gender.


Table IV. Gender-Difference Scores in Eight Categories by Questionnaire Version a

Gender Category Conventional specific F(1,139)

General academic excellence M {.44} 1.11 35.37 c SD 1.64 1.70

Discipline problems M 1.83 1.77 0.11 SD 1.24 1.73

Thoughts after school M {.17} .10 0.09 SD 2.48 2.29

Active socially M .10 .30 0.07 SD 2.24 2.10

Need help M .94 0.00 15.15 c SD 1.37 1.74

Excellence in mathematics M .47 1.13 4.66 b SD 1.80 1.84

Excellence in Hebrew M {.30} .23 2.03 SD 2.07 1.97

General ability M .49 .54 0.04 SD 1.85 2.07

aRange: 0-3. Braces indicate girls' bp < .05. Cp < .01.

prominence.

A significant version by age interaction effect was found in the categories of general academic excellence [F(1, 139) = 7.12; p < .01], need for teacher's academic help [F(1, 139) = 5.54; p < .05], and excellence in

Category

General Excellence

Discipline Problems


Active Socially

Need Help

Mathematics

Hebrew

General Abil ity

Range: 0-3

<~3 Girl8 Prominence

Conventional

B B

[ ]

Boys Prominence C>

Gender-Specifio

Fig. 4. Prominence of boys and girls: mean gender-difference scores by version.

450 Safir a aL

Hebrew IF(l, 139) = 9.85; p < .05]. Contrary to expectations, in these three categories, the he/she version of the questionnaire elicited much greater prominence of boys from sixth graders. For second graders, the same version elicited prominence of girls in two categories: need for teacher's academic help and excellence in Hebrew.

DISCUSSION

The major finding of this study is that when asked to write down the names of prominent pupils in their classes, elementary school children re- called more boys than girls. Boys were prominent in most of the categories examined: general academic excellence, discipline problems, social activity, excellence in mathematics, and general ability. This finding departs from teachers' perceptions of girls' prominence in the highly gender-stereotyped categories of social activity and in excellence in Hebrew (BenTsvi-Mayer et al., 1989). According to our schoolchildren, girls are not prominent in any of the school-related categories in our questionnaire.

Paralleling, the results of teacher evaluation in the original study, it appears that the serious discipline problems characteristic of boys have no adverse effect on classmates' perceptions of boys' outstanding capabilities. This lends support to the speculation of BenTsvi-Mayer et al. (1989) that boys' disruptive conduct is accepted as natural. The perceived compliance of girls' behavior, however, does not contribute to their image as successful, a fact that may indicate that as early as elementary school, students dif- ferentiate between conformity to school regulations and "real" achievement.

As for the social milieu, a tendency was found for each gender group to view same-gender peers as prominent. This tendency, however, did not affect the overall prominence of boys. It appears that despite girls' incli- nation to nominate girls as prominent, this preference is not strong enough to prevent them from nominating more boys on the whole. In contrast, boys hardly ever mentioned girls as prominent. The boys in this study, who ignore the girls in their classes, may be seen as reflecting the "man's world" view as normative, a conception deriving from social stereotypes in general, and teachers' attitudes in particular.

Another important finding is the increased prominence of boys in sixth grade, compared to second grade. The tendencies to allocate prominence to boys, which had been demonstrated in the second grade (discipline problems and social activity) appear to have grown stronger in the sixth grade. Moreover, boys were found to be prominent in additional areas in which they were not prominent in the second grade: general academic ex-


cellence and need for teacher's academic help. The implications of this finding may be that with time, the discrepancy widens, the image of boys as talented, successful, and dominant increases, while girls become even further marginalized. For example, girls tend to choose more girls in second grade. By sixth grade they have "learned" their lessons well, and accepting the prevailing notions, endorse boys' prominence.

It seems that a possible explanation for these findings may be the cumulative effect of teachers' attitudes, which naturally play a central role in the lives of pupils. Teachers allocate more prominence to the boys (BenTsvi-Mayer et al., 1989), thus conforming with a broader societal-en- vironmental source of influence on the reinforcement of the higher status of boys (Safir, 1986).

Findings with regard to the questionnaire version were intriguing. One surprise was that the he/she version, which we assumed would increase nomination of girls as prominent, actually elicited fewer girls' names than the conventional all-masculine version, in three of the eight categories. This phenomenon was even more pronounced in sixth grade, suggesting that the he/she form as used in our questionnaire may actually increase sexist responses in situations in which a strong sexist bias already exists. Note that in the conventional version, more girls were nominated in general academic excellence and more boys in social activity. It is possible that when respondents who have clearly stereotyped conceptions fill out such questionnaires, the explicit male-female options in Hebrew serve to encourage gender stereotypes. If this is true, then serious doubts can be raised regarding the frequently voiced contention that adopting nonmasculine language would reduce gender stereotyping. It may well be that to achieve desired equity, attitude change in Israel must precede linguistic changes. Research on gender-linked language in Hebrew, employing both children and adults, is needed before such speculations can be verified.

This study is the second in a planned series of studies, examining the situation of girls and boys as members of gender groups in the school context. Since our findings point to an increase in boys' prominence by sixth grade, this developmental trend should be examined with higher grades pupils as well. Moreover, it seems important to determine whether similar findings emerge in other well-defined populations in Israel, such as the Kibbutzim, the Arab sector, and the Ultra-orthodox.

In sum, our findings raise concern, for they reveal that schoolchildren perceive girls as inferior to boys, as early as second grade and even more so in sixth grade. This has serious implications for girls' chances of devel- oping positive self-concept in accordance with their actual abilities, and for their chances of becoming successful achievers.

452 Safir et al.

R E F E R E N C E S

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Banks, T. L. (1988). Gender bias in the classroom. Journal of Legal Education, 38, 137-146.

BenTsvi-Mayer, S., Hertz-Lazarowitz, R., & Safir, M. P. (1989). Teachers' selections of boys and girls as prominent pupils. Sex Roles, 21, 231-245.

BenTsvi-Mayer, S. (1979). Male and female in mathematics word-problems. Ha-Hinukh, a-b, 73-79.

Brophy, J. E., & Good, T. L. (1974). Teacher-student relationship: Causes and consequences. New York: Holt, Rinhart and Winston.

Davies, L., & Meighan, R. (1975). A review of schooling and sex roles, with particular reference to the experience of girls in secondary schools. Educational Review, 27, 165-176.

Fagot, B. (1978). Reinforcing contingencies for sex role behaviors, Effect of experience with children. Child Development, 49, 30-36.

Fagot, B. I. (1984). Teacher and peer reactions to boys and girls play styles, Sex Roles, 11, 691-702.

Hartup, W. W. (1979). The social worlds of children. American Psychologist, 34, 944-950. Hartley, D. (1978). Teachers' definitions of boys and girls: some consequences. Research in

Education, 20, 23-35. Hertz-Lazarowitz, R., Feitelson, D., Zahavi, S., & Hratup, W. (1981). Social interaction and

social organization of Israeli five to seven year olds. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 4, 143-155.

Levitin, T. E., & Chaninie, J. D. (1972). Responses of female primary school teachers to sex-typed behaviors in male and female children. Child Development, 43, 1309-1316.

Lieblich, A. (1985). Sex differences in intelligence test performances of Jewish and Arab school children in Israel. In M.P. Safir, M. S. Mednick, D. Israeli, & J. Bernard (Eds.) Women's worlds: The new scholarship. New York: Prager Publications.

Murdock, N. L., & Forsythe, D. R. (1985). Is gender-biased language sexist'? Psychology of Women Quarterly, 9, 39-49.

Parsons, J. E., Kaczala, C. M., & Meece, J. L. (1982). Socialization of achievement attitudes and beliefs: Classroom influences. Child Development, 53, 322-339.

Ricks, F. A., & Pyke, S. W. (1973). Teacher perceptions and attitudes that foster or maintain sex role differences. Interchange, 4, 26-33.

Sadker, D., Sadker, M., & Bauchner, J. (1984). Teacher reactions to classroom responses of male and female students. Paper presented at the American Educational Research Association meeting, New Orleans, LA.

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Prominence of Gir~s and Boys 453

APPENDIX 1

The Questionnaire--Here Translated from Hebrew

We are giving each of you a questionnaire. The purpose of the ques- t ionnaire is to see how much agreement there is among you on school-related behavior and traits of your classmates. For each question, you are asked to write the first names of the three students who best fit the de- scription given.

You may write your own name if you think it fits. If there are two students with the same first name, please add the

initial of their family names. Don ' t write your name on top of this questionnaire, so neither the

teacher nor anyone will know what you have written.

best students 3

students who cause most disturbances during lessons

students students students

you most think about after school are: who are most active socially are: who need help in learning from the teacher

1. The three in class are:

2. The three are:

3. The three 4. The three 5. The three

are: 6. The three students who are best at mathematics are: 7. The three students who are best in Hebrew are: 8. The three students who have the best abilities (not necessarily

the best students, but those who could be best, the smartest) are:

3In the conventional version, the masculine plural, generic ending used has been, according to grammatical rules, repeated in all parts of speech in the sentence. In the he/she version, the masculine/feminine option, divided by a slash, has been repeated in all parts of speech in the sentence.

prominence of girls and boys in the classroom: schoolchildren's perceptions

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