Abstract:
Sixteen items were chosen from the 1992 and 1993 Newcastle Permanent Primary School Mathematics Competition tests which are taken by school children in Years 5 and 6. Five of the items were such that males gave a statistically significantly higher proportion of correct answers than females; six of the items were such that the proportions of males and females who gave correct answers were virtually identical; and five of the items were such that females gave a statistically significantly higher proportion of correct answers than males. The 16 items were randomly sequenced and shown to 60 educators-20 practising primary teachers, 20 trainee primary teachers, and 20 tertiary mathematics educators. Each educator was asked to select questions on which they would have expected (a) boys to have done significantly better than girls; (b) girls to have done significantly better than boys; and (c) girls and boys to have performed at about the same level. Results of the analyses are discussed in the paper.