4 ms·

Is this suggesting that girls do not choose STEM faculties because they can read better so they like more humanistic faculties, where there are more texts (as i

Is this suggesting that girls do not choose STEM faculties because they can read better so they like more humanistic faculties, where there are more texts (as in literature books) to read? Or my text comprehension is that bad?

huntertwo 7y ago
That’s how I understood it but I feel the same way as you do about my text comprehensions skills.
FabHK 7y ago
> so they like more humanistic faculties Either that ("like more", ie preference), or they ask themselves what they're good at ("intraindividual comparisons of achievement"), and conclude that a career with words rather than numbers is better suited for them.
0xcafecafe 7y ago
>> Or my text comprehension is that bad? That depends. Are you a woman or a man? /s
0815test 7y ago
It may be that the advantage in reading simply correlates with stronger interest in people/'social' stuff and weaker interest in STEM - this would then be the actual causative factor. One could guess that being interested in people/stories/'social' things would incent girls to read more and get better and better at reading.
- tickerticker 7y ago
  My hunch about the reading skills gap is that little boys like physical movement marginally more than little girls, thus boys struggle to sit still and read.
orwin 7y ago
Not exactly. From what i understood, this article is telling that if someone feel he is better at reading/comprehension than he is at math, he is more likely to not go into math-related field, regardless of his math performance compared to the average. To dumb it up, most of the time, you don't go into a math-related field because you compare your math skills with other, but because you compare your math skills with your own reading skills (at least when you're young). It feels right, it was a really tough choice between math and philosophy for me and only peer pressure sent me to STEMs (and i sometime regret it). I'm gonna wait until replication is done until i define an opinion.
- Diggsey 7y ago
  That's interesting and a very strange idea to me, I never considered comparing "maths ability" vs "reading ability" because I never saw subjects on a scale from "reading <-> maths". For me the scale was more like "problem solving <-> wrote learning" and I did everything I could to avoid stuff on the RHS.
- jdavis703 7y ago
  Me and my sister were homeschooled and only one grade level apart. So this ancedote is kind of like a twin study. We both did great at reading, in most years on standardized California Achievement Tests we'd be in the 98th or top percentile for reading. On the other hand for math we were always below the median, sometimes our score was so low we were in danger of the state forcing us to be in public school. These results probably aren't surprising, we both had essentially the same educational experience. Interestingly enough we both went on to different universities with full scholarships. She chose creative writing. I (he) chose information technology. I don't know what can explain this aside from random variation, because this study certainly doesn't explain this well.
  - jbob2000 7y ago
    When growing up, did you equally share duties around the house? One of the guys I grew up with was the middle child between two girls. Girls never had to do chores, he helped with garbage and dishes, and in later years, helped with renos and yard work. My point being that he was basically trained from birth to be productive, whereas his sisters were always allowed to explore their creativities (since they didn’t have to do chores). His sisters both have liberal arts degrees and have bounced around jobs, but he owns a very successful landscaping company.
turk73 7y ago
Maybe they're just better at sniffing out bullsheet and not getting involved with it in the first place?
jerf 7y ago
While this isn't what they necessarily said, to add another point of view, consider a population X which has a job option A, and a equally-sized population Y which has options A and B. In this simplified-beyond-reality model, it would be fully expected that Y will not be "equally represented" in job A. It also won't be "equally represented" in job B, as it will have 100% of the positions. This is not a complete explanation of anything, but a tidbit to keep in mind.
michaelt 7y ago
The abstract mentions "choice models in which educational decisions involve intraindividual comparisons of achievement and self-beliefs in different subjects" This is a fancy way of saying lots of kids'll stick with the things they think they do best at; and they'll decide that by comparing themselves to their peers and comparing that between subjects. For example, if Alice is a 75th-percentile maths student and a 85th-percentile english student; whereas Bob is a 75th-percentile maths student an a 65th-percentile english student, Alice is less likely to study maths than Bob despite having the same marks in maths as she recognises her talents lie elsewhere.

huntertwo 7y ago

That’s how I understood it but I feel the same way as you do about my text comprehensions skills.

FabHK 7y ago

> so they like more humanistic faculties Either that ("like more", ie preference), or they ask themselves what they're good at ("intraindividual comparisons of achievement"), and conclude that a career with words rather than numbers is better suited for them.

0xcafecafe 7y ago

>> Or my text comprehension is that bad? That depends. Are you a woman or a man? /s

0815test 7y ago

It may be that the advantage in reading simply correlates with stronger interest in people/'social' stuff and weaker interest in STEM - this would then be the actual causative factor. One could guess that being interested in people/stories/'social' things would incent girls to read more and get better and better at reading.

tickerticker 7y ago
My hunch about the reading skills gap is that little boys like physical movement marginally more than little girls, thus boys struggle to sit still and read.

orwin 7y ago

Not exactly. From what i understood, this article is telling that if someone feel he is better at reading/comprehension than he is at math, he is more likely to not go into math-related field, regardless of his math performance compared to the average. To dumb it up, most of the time, you don't go into a math-related field because you compare your math skills with other, but because you compare your math skills with your own reading skills (at least when you're young). It feels right, it was a really tough choice between math and philosophy for me and only peer pressure sent me to STEMs (and i sometime regret it). I'm gonna wait until replication is done until i define an opinion.

Diggsey 7y ago
That's interesting and a very strange idea to me, I never considered comparing "maths ability" vs "reading ability" because I never saw subjects on a scale from "reading <-> maths". For me the scale was more like "problem solving <-> wrote learning" and I did everything I could to avoid stuff on the RHS.
jdavis703 7y ago
Me and my sister were homeschooled and only one grade level apart. So this ancedote is kind of like a twin study. We both did great at reading, in most years on standardized California Achievement Tests we'd be in the 98th or top percentile for reading. On the other hand for math we were always below the median, sometimes our score was so low we were in danger of the state forcing us to be in public school. These results probably aren't surprising, we both had essentially the same educational experience. Interestingly enough we both went on to different universities with full scholarships. She chose creative writing. I (he) chose information technology. I don't know what can explain this aside from random variation, because this study certainly doesn't explain this well.
- jbob2000 7y ago
  When growing up, did you equally share duties around the house? One of the guys I grew up with was the middle child between two girls. Girls never had to do chores, he helped with garbage and dishes, and in later years, helped with renos and yard work. My point being that he was basically trained from birth to be productive, whereas his sisters were always allowed to explore their creativities (since they didn’t have to do chores). His sisters both have liberal arts degrees and have bounced around jobs, but he owns a very successful landscaping company.

turk73 7y ago

Maybe they're just better at sniffing out bullsheet and not getting involved with it in the first place?

jerf 7y ago

While this isn't what they necessarily said, to add another point of view, consider a population X which has a job option A, and a equally-sized population Y which has options A and B. In this simplified-beyond-reality model, it would be fully expected that Y will not be "equally represented" in job A. It also won't be "equally represented" in job B, as it will have 100% of the positions. This is not a complete explanation of anything, but a tidbit to keep in mind.

michaelt 7y ago

The abstract mentions "choice models in which educational decisions involve intraindividual comparisons of achievement and self-beliefs in different subjects" This is a fancy way of saying lots of kids'll stick with the things they think they do best at; and they'll decide that by comparing themselves to their peers and comparing that between subjects. For example, if Alice is a 75th-percentile maths student and a 85th-percentile english student; whereas Bob is a 75th-percentile maths student an a 65th-percentile english student, Alice is less likely to study maths than Bob despite having the same marks in maths as she recognises her talents lie elsewhere.