Boys read maps better
than girls. It's official!

The war of the sexes never stops. The argument about who is better than whom at a plethora of tasks goes on ad infinitum with boys still seeming to get the upper hand as many continue to believe it's a man's world. But it's official: boys do read maps and graphs better than girls.

According to work conducted over four years by a research group from Charles Sturt University (CSU) and Queensland University of Technology (QUT) it is clear that in the case of map-reading, girls will have to take a back seat. However, the research raised concern about the overall understanding of maps and graphs in the education process.

Leading CSU education researcher, Professor Tom Lowrie, said that the research showed that boys aged between nine and 12 years from nine primary schools across Australia scored significantly higher on items that required the decoding of information represented in maps than did girls of the same age, with boys outperforming girls by more than 10 per cent across map items and between 25 and 40 per cent on items that required the interpretation of information from street maps.

"This supports the results of earlier studies, however our study has gone a step further by using items that are typically found in national tests over an extended period of time," Tom said.

The study is part of a larger project funded by the Federal Government conducted by Professor Lowrie and Professor Carmel Diezmann at QUT. All in all, the results of the study are considered timely by the researchers, given the recent introduction of national testing of all Australian students in years three, five, seven and nine in basic mathematical literacy.

Tom believes it is important to have a greater understanding of how to use these tools in the classroom environment, given the fact that graphs and charts are a relatively new way of representing complex data and information.

Professor Tom Lowrie

"The amount of information being presented to people, including students, is growing and we are increasingly using pictures, images and graphics to handle much of this information, with mathematics playing an extremely important role in data handling," he said. "You only have to look at television news in recent years and the number of graphics now used to quickly convey information in economics and the weather.

"However, we believe there is a major mismatch between the expectations placed on students in national maths tests and the graphics they encounter in the classroom, and there needs to be some clear guidelines.

"This also casts doubts on some results in these tests, especially where graphs are used, as we don't know if children are yet ready to decode these tasks, particularly in grade three."

Tom is also concerned with the connection between graphics and the literacy demands that surround them, and their effects on student performance.

"We have been using words in tests for hundreds of years, so we should have the representation right. However, we have only been using graphs extensively in tests for a much shorter time and our expertise in this form of assessment is still developing and more work needs to be done.

"Our research has also shown that slight changes in how graphics are represented in standardised tests can have a significant benefit for students' performances."

As he can only see the amount of information bombarding people increasing, Tom is adamant people should know more about graphics and how to decipher sometimes complex content.

"We need to make the reading and interpreting of graphics more explicit in the teaching of maths, especially in the early years of schooling. We would be teaching a new set of skills that all people will need," he concluded.

The $233,000 research project, which started in 2004, was funded through the Federal Government's Australian Research Council as a joint project between QUT and CSU.