GENDER DIFFERENCES IN ACADEMICALLY TALENTED YOUNG STUDENTS MATHEMATICAL REASONING - PATTERNS ACROSS AGE AND SUBSKILLS

When a sample of academically talented students in Grades 2-6 was give n a test of mathematical reasoning ability, boys performed better over all than girls. The gender differences for mathematical ability appear ed as early as 2nd grade in samples tested over a 7-year period but va ried somewhat according to mathematical subskills. There were no subst antial gender-related differences on tasks requiring students to ident ify whether enough information was provided to solve a task; however, boys performed better than girls on tasks requiring application of alg ebraic rules or algorithms, as well as on tasks in which the understan ding of mathematical concepts and number relationships was required.