STUDY MOTIVATION AND GENDER DIFFERENCES – A PARADOXICAL SITUATION IN SWEDISH UPPER SECONDARY SCHOOL

Abstract

The background to this study is the increasing differences in grades and throughput between males and females in Swedish upper secondary school. This study has therefore investigated the relationship between beliefs about study motivation and gender in Sweden in seven different study programs in upper secondary school. The beliefs about study motivation were measured through a questionnaire consisting of 38 items that were administered to 155 female and 107 male students in upper secondary school in one region in Sweden. The Mann-Whitney test was employed to investigate gender difference. Results indicate that overall males and females to 2/ 3 held similar beliefs about their motivation to study but to 1/3 differed at a significant level. Overall, the importance of schools, teachers, families and their own efforts is highly appreciated in the study. The difference is evident mainly in the value of the teacher's importance and role in the classroom, where males have higher estimate. However, females believe that the school is less safe, that the classrooms are less inviting and that there is less silence in the lessons compared to males. The study partly explains the seemingly paradoxical situation in students' different learning strategies and addresses didactic improvements to teachers.