Understanding gender development
Introduction
For many societies, the idea behind gender identity is to help determine what responsibilities the child will be mandated to fulfill by the society. The society has a couple of gender roles that attach to men and women, boys, and girls. In most societies, gender responsibilities have a crucial role in the determination of everyday interactions. The basic assumption is that gender identification has a core influence on behavior and the choices people make concerning life (Callaghan, 2015). The prime focus of this paper, therefore, is to design two case studies that aim to evaluate whether boys will always be boys or not.
Rationale
Gender identity and difference starts from the time of birth and as a consequence of biological maturation. The account of gender differences between girls and boys, men and women owe their origin to biological differences in their bodies (Callaghan, 2015). Biological explanations of sexual differences are based on a presumption that sexual dimorphism is a precursor of gender dimorphism. Similarly, this is to argue that, biological explanations predict that individuals come in two sets of pairs, male and female. Further, the assumption made is that one gender is masculine while the other is feminine. Further, there is a tendency to believe that both genders have different perceptions on academic grounds.
Problem statement
Over the years, boys have raised alarms for recording the lowest grades than their female counterparts. As such, this has necessitated teachers and scholars to investigate into this issue.
Main Hypothesis
Education is highly influenced by the attitude, family affluence, and effort levels of the boys that greatly influence their performance.
Null hypothesis
Attitude, family affluence, and effort levels do not only affect education for boys only.
Methodology
The first argument that boys will always be boys will take the form of quantitative study. The study will take the direction of quantitative research method in the form of a questionnaire. Since the study focuses on determining variation in academic performance between girls and boys, the questionnaires will be distributed to young children both boys and girls who are at the age of 10 years and then come up with the variables affecting performance differences between them. Questionnaire method is essential for this study as it can collect quantitative data that is comparable with other studies and make some changes where necessary (Reis, 2014). As such, the researcher will develop some questions and then distribute them to the participants of the study. For the purpose of this study, the researcher will use open-ended questionnaire design where the respondents will pick the answers from the choices given. The research will utilize the Likert-scale where respondents will choose their preferences from the scale. The survey will aim at gathering data across all variables affecting differences between boys and girls. The dependent variable for this case will be education while the independent variables will include family status, activities, the attitude of the individual and effort by the teachers.
Sampling
Boys and girls will then be categorized into various categories using simple random sampling technique and then picking a final sample of the results from each group. Simple random sampling is the best fit technique for this study since it represents data from a wide range of children learners and the final data will represent characteristics that are distributable for a wide range of population over the given sample size (Uusen & Müürsepp, 2012). Besides, the effectiveness of this sampling method is its ability to allocate an equal chance of selection for the chosen population. The main aim is to select a distinct sample that would deepen the research with valid information for further studies.
Qualitative method
Qualitative method for this research will follow the same procedure and methodology like in the quantitative research method. The qualitative study for this research will use observation method to collect data (Reis, 2014). Observation is effective as it involves collecting data directly from the respondents or the target population through the use of eyes and recording what one can see. The method of calculation for each experiment will be in the form of narrative analysis.
Participants
The study’s respondents are from learning institutions from Estonia. For the purpose of this study, 75 participants will be suitable for the research. The research will incorporate several individuals from several backgrounds to ensure research diversity (Reilly, 2012). Moreover, the investigator will ask the respondents for their satisfactory levels from the questions asked.
Conclusion
The focus of this study is to assess whether boys are always boys about academic performance between boys and girls. As such, the study will stick to that objective to the end through linking the various variables that are thought to influence the performance of boys and girls to come up with a formidable argument whether boys are always boys or otherwise. The study will also be on the verge of confirming its hypothesis by proving that the effort levels, attitude, and family affluence have an impact on the performance level of boys. Further, the study also aims at proving the null hypothesis that attitude, effort levels, and family affluence do not has an impact on the performance level amongst the boys only.
Bibliography
Callaghan, J., 2015. Are boys and girls born or made? Understanding the development of gender. Pp. 141-195. Retrieved from: http://nectar.northampton.ac.uk/7844/
Reilly D. (2012). Gender, culture, and sex-typed cognitive abilities. PloS One. 7.
Reis, H. T. (2014). Handbook of research methods in social and personality psychology. New York, N.Y., Cambridge Univ. Press.
Uusen, A., & Müürsepp, M. (2012). Gender Differences in Reading Habits Among Boys and Girls of Basic School in Estonia. Procedia – Social and Behavioral Sciences. 69 (24) 1795-1804.
