Author: Ben Zunica, Lecturer in Mathematics Education, University of Sydney

A major international test has revealed a concerning gender gap in maths among Australian school students. In the 2023 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), Australia’s boys did much better than girls. Year 4 boys outperformed girls by the equal highest margin out of 58 countries that did the test. The story is not much better for Year 8 students – Australia had the 12th-largest gender gap of the 42 countries. This is out of character with other subjects, such as literacy, where the gender gap is either much smaller, or girls outperform boys. Why is there a…