华东师范大学学报(教育科学版) ›› 2016, Vol. 34 ›› Issue (1): 69-75.doi: 10.16382/j.cnki.1000-5560.2016.01.010

• 教育公平研究 • 上一篇    下一篇

高考成绩性别差异研究的回顾与展望

邵志芳,庞维国   

  1. 华东师范大学心理与认知科学学院 上海 200062
  • 出版日期:2016-03-15 发布日期:2016-03-31
  • 通讯作者: 邵志芳,庞维国
  • 作者简介:邵志芳,庞维国
  • 基金资助:

    2014年度教育部人文社会科学研究规划基金项目“近10年高考试题难度的性别差异研究”,项目批准号:14YJA190010。

Looking back and ahead: Research on Gender Gap in China’s College Entrance Examination Scores

SHAO Zhi-Fang,PANG Wei-Guo   

  1. School of Psychology and Cognitive Science, East China Normal University, Shanghai 200062, China
  • Online:2016-03-15 Published:2016-03-31
  • Contact: SHAO Zhi-Fang,PANG Wei-Guo
  • About author:SHAO Zhi-Fang,PANG Wei-Guo

摘要: 进入21世纪以来,中国大陆女生通过高考成为普通高校学生的比例持续攀升,新生录取的性别比例已从男生多于女生变成女生多于男生,以至于有人呼吁要“拯救男孩”。本文回顾了近年来国内外关于高考成绩性别差异的相关文献,从高考总分和科目分的性别差异、不同科目内容和认知目标上的性别差异、两性成绩差异的成因和影响因素等多个侧面,对性别差异的相关问题进行了初步的梳理。结果显示,高考成绩的性别差异确实存在,并可能影响高校录取性别比例;但性别差异的成因与影响因素十分复杂,各种研究所得的结果也不尽相同。以此为基础,本文进一步讨论了高考成绩性别差异研究存在的问题和可能的研究方向。

Abstract: Published data from the Ministry of Education of China show that more female students than male students in Mainland China passed the college entrance examination. In 2013, the female-male ratio of college admission rose up to 55:45. As a result, the percentage of female graduate students reached 51.65%, and that of female undergraduate students reached 52.12%. Meanwhile, the percentage of female students in high schools is less than 50%. Such a situation might be considered as a sign of development of China, as it happened in many developed countries earlier. But its potential consequences should be studied. The gender gap in college entrance examination scores might lead to the increase of the number of female students in high education institutions. Meanwhile, this gender gap might be widened under the proposed reform of National College Entrance Exam (NCEE), where students would take only three subjects (mathematics, Chinese and Foreign Language). Female students are better at the latter two than male students. As a response to this situation, some people even propose to “save the boys.” The present article reviews some recent major studies on the gender gap in college entrance examination scores from multiple perspectives: the gender gap in college entrance examination scores and of subject (Mathematics, Chinese, and Foreign Language) scores; the gender gaps in subfields of a given subject; the gender differences in cognitive goals and the causes of these gaps. This review reveals that in general there exists an academic gender gap in college entrance examination. Some studies show that the gender difference is not significant in mathematics, whereas females perform significantly better than males in Chinese and English. Subfields of a given subject might have different modes of gender gap: some may be positive (males better than females), whereas others negative. The gender gap influences the university admission ratio of males to females. Competing results are found due to the complicated influential factors, including psycho-traits, behavioral and emotional differences. Although some studies propose that gender differences in most psycho-traits were very small, they also point out that men are better at science, mechanical reasoning and spatial ability, while women are better at language, perception and arithmetic. Gender gap also takes the form of behavioral or emotional differences when students are coping with their learning and tests. Other factors involve motivation, anxiety, personal traits, social economic status, self-concept level, cognitive self-regulation, locus of control, competitiveness of test situation, and type of schools. Females can get more offers when they submit their applications after learning their exact NCEE scores. In conclusion, this article poses a number of problems to be solved. For example, is it necessary for NCEE to measure or even reduce the gender gap? How to manipulate the item characteristics to change the gender gap size? There are also some unknown causes of gender gap (including the possible difference of male and female’s score distribution). We know little about the consequences of current female-male ratio of college admission, including the problem of educational equity, females’ adaptation in their college career. A meta-analysis of studies on gender gap is needed in order to draw stronger conclusions.