Gender, behaviour and achievement: a preliminary study of pupil perceptions and attitudes

This article reports on one element of a project undertaken in Leeds Local Education Authority (LEA) during the academic year 1995/96. The article mak es some preliminary observations based on questionnaire data gathered in on e of the project's schools. The data provide some useful insights into boys ' and girls' attitudes towards their academic work, their behaviour, their perceptions of the relationship between the two and gender-related differen ces in these areas. The data also provide evidence of changes in these perc eptions and attitudes with age. The analysis of the results and subsequent discussion suggests 'affective factors' which may be useful both in terms o f helping to explain individual differences in performance and in the conti nued search for strategies which improve boys' and girls' performance.