Do stereotypes influence how teachers and parents see boys and girls’ maths performance?

Gender stereotypes are an issue in maths teaching from a young age. Stock picture.

Many people would expect that professional judgements by teachers would reflect objective assessments of children’s ability, so that if children were above average on nationally validated standardised maths tests, whether they were boys or girls would make no difference to the teachers’ perception of their performance in that area.

Maths is a gender-marked subject with boys doing better than girls at the very highest level other than in a small number of countries such as Sweden.