TEACHING REFORMS NEEDED: Chinese boy learners need new teaching methods or they risk falling behind, says a new survey (ZHOU KE)

With growing evidence emerging of the difficulties boys face in China's classrooms, educators are becoming increasingly aware of the necessity to re-examine teaching methods and adapt these to the special learning styles that boys require.

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, 52.93 percent of all full-time teachers in primary and middle schools were women.

 The survey report warned that the demographic change of the 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 to the third year of junior middle school in Shanghai, girls tested higher than boys in each subject of the school curriculum.

 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, and 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.

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