Gender differences and effects of co‐operation in a computer‐based language task

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Abstract
Pairs of upper primary school children worked on a computer‐based language task which required the completion of a short piece of text from which some letters had been deleted. Children worked in single‐gender or mixed‐gender pairs. Previous studies have shown that mixed‐gender pairs are at a disadvantage over both boy‐boy and girl‐girl pairs, at least with this language task. (When a spatial navigation task has been used, girl‐girl pairs are at a disadvantage.) The mixed pairs may perform less well as a result of a failure to co‐operate, and so the present study observed two organizations of pairs ‐ one explicitly instructed to discuss the task and to work co‐operatively, and one in which the children were told that their contribution to the task would be assessed on an individual basis. Performance measures indicated a disadvantage for mixed pairs of children, and a general improvement in performance for pairs instructed to co‐operate. These instructions had least effect upon the performance of the mixed pairs, however, and limited effect upon pairs of girls. While girls tend to co‐operate whether instructed to do so or not, mixed pairs showed little evidence of co‐operative working. Pairs of boys showed the greatest gains when organized in co‐operative relationships because they are effectively changing working styles, both on measures of keyboard activity and on measures of problem‐solving effectiveness.