ATTRIBUTIONAL PATTERNS AND PERCEPTIONS OF MATH AND SCIENCE AMONG 5TH-GRADE THROUGH 7TH-GRADE GIRLS AND BOYS

A culturally and economically diverse group of fifth to seventh grader s (n = 361) from Boston-area public schools rated their perceptions fo r liking and difficulty of core academic subjects, including math and science, and their attributions for explaining performance on a math t est. inconsistent with earlier work; girls and boys reported similar p erceptions of core subjects, with all students reporting a relatively high liking of math and science. Girls' and boys' attributional patter ns for success in math were somewhat consistent with earlier findings, but not their attributions for lack of success. Observations of the m ath and science classrooms in the study indicated that most teachers, aware of gender equity issues, attempted to teach their students in a gender-fair manner This factor may account for differences between cur rent findings and those from past studies.