What exam questions do boys and girls choose to answer in the Finnish social studies matriculations exams: differences and their interpretation

Authors

• Jan Löfström Helsingin yliopisto

DOI: https://doi.org/10.33350/ka.79826

Keywords:

social studies, gender, matriculation examination, realia subject exams

Abstract

When I was a member of The Matriculation Examination Board in Finland I often got feedback from teachers that some history exam questions had been ’male’ or ’female’ questions, favoured particularly by male or female students, respectively. A statistical analysis which I later did partly confirmed teachers’ impression. I became intrigued to find out what gender differences might exist in the social studies exams, social studies being a school subject which has been in some respects rather ’gender balanced’. This article reports the results of a statistical analysis of where are the major differences in how some social studies exam questions have been favoured by male or, respectively, female students. Questions on economy that include tables or graphs stand out as the   questions which most clearly have been favoured more by male than female students. Questions on the political system do not stand out in the results. The results show that we may loose relevant information on how students relate to school subjects if we see school subjects as monoliths and ignore their internal diversities. The article ponders on the implications of the findings for gender sensitive social studies teaching.