ABSTRACT
Beliefs about gender differences in intelligence, education or cognitive ability permeate society. Such beliefs also appear in academic discourses. For instance, Baron-Cohen (2004) has recently argued that the different cognitive styles of men and women (systemizing and empathizing, respectively) suit them to different domains of academic study and career. Whether we agree with such arguments or not, it is difficult to imagine that these and other commonly held perceptions of the genders do not tie in to processes of communication and collaboration in some way or other. This ‘tie-in’ might operate in two directions: for instance, differing expectations and stereotypes of gender may affect how children communicate and collaborate with one another. But gender differences in communication may also create or reinforce these expectations and stereotypes (Maccoby 1988, 1998). Of course, the two possibilities are not mutually exclusive, and it is often assumed that there is an intimate inter-relationship between gendered patterns of communication and gender attitudes and stereotypes (Leaper and Ayres 2007). Given this close relationship it should not be surprising that gender differences in classroom communication have been presented as strong candidates for explaining variations in educational outcomes.
