FUTURE MEN: A group of sixth-grade boys in Nanchang, central China's Jiangxi Province, at a physical education class (ZHOU KE)

As more boys struggle in schools, educators must address their special learning styles and challenges

Over half of China's primary and secondary educators are women, and female teachers account for an even larger proportion in primary and junior middle schools, according to a recent national survey on teaching staff of primary and secondary schools. The survey, conducted by researchers from Beijing Normal University, revealed that by the end of 2009, women had rose to 52.93 percent of all full-time teachers in primary and middle schools.

The survey report warned that the demographic change of teachers' body, with more females and fewer male teachers, would hamper the growth of male students and cause a loss of masculinity and self-confidence in them. Such a finding rekindles people's interest in the so-called "boys crisis": Boys are struggling more than girls in school while becoming intellectually and physically weaker. This topic has attracted extensive attention from the country's educational community for years.

"Girls have outperformed boys extensively in academic studies," said Zhou Haiwang, a demographer from the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. During a recent survey, Zhou was surprised to learn from the third grade of primary school through the third year of junior middle school in Shanghai, girls tested higher than boys in each subject of the school curriculum, including not only English language, where girls traditionally excel, but all science courses, including mathematics, physics and chemistry.

Twenty-six-year-old Huang Yangguang, who used to study in a program for those gifted in science in a prestigious middle school in Guangzhou, capital of southern Guangdong Province, recalled that his female classmates generally did better in all tests. "They were excellent students and leaders," Huang told China Youth Daily.

He said that unlike his female classmates, who showed stronger self-discipline, he spent most of his after-school time playing games online in the last year of junior middle school and the first year of high school. He didn't realize the necessity to focus more on school until his sophomore year of high school.

"The girls seemed to know that they should be responsible for their future from very early on," Huang said.

In 2008, of the 49,983 winners of the annual national scholarships for college students granted by the Ministry of Education, 32,616 were female, an overwhelming 65.25 percent. These are some of the alarming statistics from Rescue the Boys, a book asserting that in comparison with girls in China, boys not only have poorer academic performance, but also face more psychological, social and even physical fitness problems. The book, published in 2010, is based on a one-and-half-year research study conducted by Sun Yunxiao, Deputy Director of the China Youth and Children Research Center, with two doctors in children's psychology.

The book quoted figures released by the China Youth Association for Network Development in 2008, showing that 68.64 percent of all Chinese youth addicted to surfing the Internet were male. The book also used statistics from the national children's nutrition and physical fitness survey that started in 1985. According to results of the annual surveys between 1985 and 2005, Chinese boys had become increasingly overweight and obese while scoring lower in vital capacity, strength and speed tests. According to the book, boys are also more likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and other learning disabilities.

Pedagogy to blame?

Kang Jian, a former principal of a prestigious high school in Beijing, said that the fact that boys are being left behind in school is attributed as much to the differences in learning styles between them and girls as to China's highly exam-oriented education system.

Recent studies have revealed that boys and girls learn very differently. Boys use more of their brains for spatial-mechanical functioning, which means not only that they enjoy moving things around but also that they learn better when they're able to do so. Boys also compartmentalize learning, so it's harder for them to switch from one subject to another. In addition, boys who have less serotonin in their brains are more likely to act impulsively and are less able to sit still for long periods of time.

Meanwhile, most Chinese schools emphasize maintaining orderly and noise-free campuses by not allowing students to run or shout in buildings. Moreover, it is not uncommon for schools to cancel physical education classes on the eve of major exams.

"Our current pedagogy requires students to sit still, take notes and recite a lot of information," Kang said. He believes this is psychologically against boys since these requirements play to their weaknesses.

"What we are teaching and how we evaluate students deprive boys of any opportunity to exhibit their strengths, which is the fundamental reason that there are more problematic students among boys," said Sun, co-author of Rescue the Boys.

Huang, who went to the United States for postgraduate studies after obtaining a bachelor's degree at a Chinese university, said that he was surprised to find that in contrast to China's college recruitment based singularly on students' scores at the national college entrance exam, American institutions of higher learning are given more leeway in choosing the talented. "A physics genius can get into Harvard, but can a student that plays baseball well," Huang said. He also envied American middle school students who can select teachers and courses they like, whereas elective courses are unheard of to most Chinese middle school students.

"I wish that back in middle school I was given more choices and an opportunity to prove myself with things I was good at and interested in," Huang said.

Single-sex classes

Tu Yanguo, a professor of pedagogical science at Central China Normal University in Wuhan, central China's Hubei Province, said that teachers should be trained in diverse, gender-specific learning styles, and understand the different ways that boys and girls learn so that boys' strengths and tendency toward motion and tactile learning can be respected. He also suggested that education authorities should introduce incentives to encourage more men to become kindergarten and primary school teachers.

Yue Long, a professor of pedagogical science at Shanghai Normal University, had studied the "boys crisis" for a long time. He told magazine Xinmin Weekly that educators should see their students as boys and girls and use differentiated teaching methods.

In March, Shanghai No.8 Middle School announced an all-boys program for three-year high school education. The curriculum for this program will include courses designed to address the specific educational needs of boys, such as outdoor survival, boxing and repairing electric appliances. The program, which plans to recruit 60 students and to be inaugurated in 2013, received 200 applications shortly after it was advertised at the middle school's website.

Originally established as an all-girls school in 1861, the school had long since become co-educational. As early as 10 years ago, it began experimenting with single-sex classes. New students were randomly divided into one girls-only class, one boys-only class and two co-ed classes. Students from the two single-sex classes posted significantly higher test scores, and parents of graduates from the boys-only classes said that their children had become more creative, respectful and courageous.

Shanghai Datong High School also has plans to expand its single-sex programs. Lu Shengqi, the school's principal, said that the school would offer boxing, Chinese chess and electro-acoustic music courses for male students. He said that many boys' schools around the world have been acknowledged for their high-quality education, and suggested that Shanghai should gradually experiment on expanding boys-only programs to the nine-year compulsory education stage.

Sun, co-author of Rescue the Boys, said that boy's failures in schools would cast ripples into their later lives and cause them more difficulty in finding ideal jobs and leading fulfilling lives. However, statistics from the labor market dismiss such concerns: Employers are more willing to hire male graduates and offer them higher starting salaries.

According to a national survey on the starting salaries of college graduates covering 2,113 institutions of higher learning in 2007, male graduates were given higher starting salaries compared with female graduates in all the surveyed industries.

Wang Chaowen, a principal of a junior middle school in Wuhan, said that while boys' strength, such as being more creative, methodical and handy, are not tested in schools, they can be transformed into useful skills in practical life. "This explains why our best fashion designers and chefs are often male," he said.

As for people's anxiety about more boys acting like women, Professor Tu believes this trend has more to do with pop culture than with schooling. He said that it is not a serious issue as most boys are transitioning smoothly into adult life.

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