Girls think they are cleverer, more successful and harder working than boys from as young as four, a study has found. Boys come round to this view by the age of seven or eight and assume that girls will outperform them at school and behave better in lessons, research from the University of Kent shows. The study—Gender Expectations and Stereotype Threat—argues that teachers have lower expectations of boys than of girls and this belief fulfils itself throughout primary and secondary school. Girls' performance at school may be boosted by what they perceive to be their teachers' belief that they will achieve higher results and be more conscientious (勤奋的) than boys, the academics claim. Boys may underachieve because they pick up on teachers' assumptions that they will obtain lower results than girls and have less drive. "By seven or eight years old, children of both genders believe that boys are less focused, able and successful than girls—and think that adults endorse (认可) this stereotype," the academic Bonny Hartley said. "There are signs that these expectations have the potential to become self-fulfilling in influencing children's actual conduct and achievement." Hartley said that while it was unacceptable to divide classes by the race of their pupils, this was not the case for gender. "In this way, it is widely acceptable to pitch the boys against the girls or 'harmlessly' divide the class in this way for practical ease." Jenny Parkes, senior lecturer at the Institute of Education, University of London, said there had been marked changes in girls' achievement in the UK in the latter half of the 20th century, in part thanks to feminism's influence on the way girls view themselves. "This seems to be particularly the case for middle-class girls. Some studies have looked at how academic work is seen as 'feminine' and so for some boys achieving highly at school risks being labelled as feminine," Parkes said. "At the same time, this differs across different countries, ethnic and social class groups and from subject to subject. Adults do have an important role in helping children—whether they are girls or boys, high or low achievers—to have confidence in themselves as learners."

单选题 The study Gender Expectations and Stereotype Threat shows that _______.

单选题 The likely result of teachers' gender prejudice is that _______.

单选题 What does Bonny Hartley think of class division by gender?

单选题 Why did British girls have great academic progress in the latter half of the 20th century?

单选题 What can we learn from the last paragraph?