Teenage turning point. Bower shows the decline in self-esteem as boys and girls enter their adolescent years, especially girls. The change from elementary to a more complex atmosphere with higher social and academic demands can bring stresses that result in a decrease of self-esteem. Boys felt lack of success stemmed from the topics lack of usefulness.
Girls learn best and gain self-confidence through collaboration with other students and faculty.
Boys perform best on competitive tasks. Gender is being examined to see if it has effects on student s favorite and least favorite subjects. The performances in these areas seem to be relatively high due to the interest they have for these areas. Types of emotional traits can represent the assignment of subjects as masculine or feminine. This can be explained through inherent sex differences, cognitive style, learning style, and gender stereotyping amongst students and teachers.