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Nurture vs. Nature in Math Skills

Posted on July 01, 2008

John Timmer: Why Judy can't add: gender inequality and the math gap: [T]here's a gender gap in performance on tests of basic skills: boys tend to perform better at math, while girls get superior reading scores. It has been suggested that these gaps are the result of biological differences.... But a new study suggests that, when it comes to math, we can forget biology.... A total of over 275,000 students in 40 countries took the PISA exam as 15-year-olds.... [T]he math gap wasn't consistent between countries. For example, it was nearly twice as large as the average in Turkey, while Icelandic gi...

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