Boys' English grades are up to a tenth worse when high numbers of girls are in the class with them, though girls' grades are unaffected

Boys do worse in English when there are girls in their class, researchers will say today, contradicting the widely held belief that girls are always a good influence on boys in school.

Boys do best with "as few girls as possible" in English lessons at primary and secondary school, Steven Proud, a research student at Bristol University, will tell the Royal Economic Society's conference.

But when it comes to maths and science, both boys and girls at primary school achieve up to a tenth of a grade more when there is a high proportion of girls in the class, Proud found.

Proud tracked boys' and girls' test results at the ages of seven, 11, 14 and 16 in 16,000 schools in England between 2002 and 2004 for his PhD.

He analysed the test scores to see whether the proportion of girls in a year group made a difference to the results of both genders in maths, science and English.

There are marginally more boys than girls in schools, but most classes in mixed schools are almost equally split between the genders. Proud looked at these and schools that were exceptional in their high or low proportion of girls.

Boys consistently perform up to a tenth of a grade worse when they study English with high numbers of girls as opposed to few or no girls, Proud found.

The more girls there are in an English class, the worse boys perform. This is particularly the case in primary schools, he discovered.

Proud will argue that his results show boys should be taught English in single-sex classes.

Girls, who outperform boys in English at every stage at school, are unaffected by the number of boys in their English classes.

Girls also do better when there are some boys who receive free school meals in their class, Proud found.

He said: "The results imply that boys would benefit at all ages from being taught English with as small a proportion of girls as possible. In maths and science, the results tend to imply that both boys and girls benefit from having more girls in the classroom. A mix of the genders in both science and maths is optimal."

Proud said boys may do worse in English when there is a high proportion of girls in their class because they realise that the girls are better than them. It could also be that teachers use teaching styles more appropriate to girls when there are more girls than boys in the class. Both genders perform better in maths and science at primary school when there are more girls in the class because boys tend to disrupt the class more, he said.

Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at the University of Buckingham, said girls started school with slightly better verbal skills, while boys started with a slightly greater aptitude for maths.

"Boys might be discouraged by how well girls are doing in English," he said, "but that still does not explain why they would do better in maths and science with a higher proportion of girls in their class.

"This is one study, among many, which detects very small differences between boys and girls. But you can't say that it means boys or girls should be separated. It has very little practical importance for schools."

研究发现，当班上女生人数较多时，男生的英语成绩要下降10%，而女生们的成绩则不受影响。

研究人员今天宣称，当班上女生人数较多时，男生的英语就会学得较差。而人们以往普遍认为，在学校中，女生对男生总是有积极影响。

布里斯托大学的研究生Steven Proud将在皇家经济学会的回忆上宣布：小学与初中的英语课上，女生越少，男生成绩越好。

然而Steven Proud同时发现在数学与科学学科上，女生人数多对男女生都有积极影响--成绩提高10%。

在2002年至2004年间，Proud为了完成他的博士研究课题，跟踪查询了英格兰16000所学校中7岁、11岁、14岁、16岁的男女生测试成绩。

为了研究女生所占比例对所有学生的数学、科学以及英语成绩的影响，他对测试分数进行了分析。

男生数目比女生数目要稍多一些，但是在大多数学校的班级中，两性比例是基本平分的。Proud研究的对象是那些女生所占比例超低或者超高的学校。

Pround发现，相比于班上没有或者很少女生之时，当班上女生人数较多时，男生的英语成绩总是会下降10%。

特别是在小学校中，女生越多，男生的英语就学得越差，Proud同时发现。

在学校的所有学习阶段英语表现都要强过男生的女生英语成绩则不受男生人数影响。

Proud还发现，女生们的表现在班上有些吃免费学校餐的男生时会较好。

Proud称："研究结果表明了，如果能降低英语课上女生人数比例，所有年龄组男生的英语成绩都将受益。在数学和科学学科上，研究结果表明女生多对班级中的男女生都有好处。数学与科学学科中，性别混合是最优化的选择。"

Proud认为男生的英语成绩被女生人数影响的原因是男生会认识到女生在英语方面要比他们强。也有可能是老师的教学方式在女生较多之时更加适合女生。而在小学数学与科学课程中，女生人数的增加使得喜欢扰乱课堂秩序的男生们没那么"猖狂"了，应此男生女生都能从中受益。

白金汉大学教育与职业研究中心的Alan Smithers教授认为，开始学校教育之时，女孩们在口头表达方面要比男孩们稍稍强一些，而男孩们对数学的热情要比女孩高。

"女生们的表现使得男生们在英语上有挫败感，"教授称，"但这不能解释为何女生比例高时，他们的数学与科学表现也较好。"

"这只是许多针对男孩女孩不同天性的研究中的一个，但是你不能就此得出男女生应该被分开的结论。这种分歧的重要性对学校教育来说可谓实际意义不大。"