Classroom groups are basically social groups. The interplay of personalities in these groups plays a large part in the formation of students' and teachers' attitudes and feelings, with subsequent influence upon pupil learning.
Within these social groups it appears that boys are viewed much less favorably by their teachers and peers than are girls. A study of teacher perceptions of male and female students in one Maryland junior-senior high school (Walker, 1963), indicated that female students were perceived more favorably by teachers. Presumably t,hese perceptions became part of the pattern of teacher-pupil classroom interaction. Kohn and Fiedler (1961)' who studied high school freshmen, college freshmen, and college seniors from upper middle-class homes, found that females described themselves and others more favorably than did males. The females also perceived significant others in their environment in a less differentiated and more favorable manner than did males.
McCandless and Marshall (1957) found that sociometric scores of pre-school girls were one-third higher than those of pre-school boys. Girls also had slightly higher scores than boys on all measures of peer acceptance and participation except hostile interaction and adult dependency. The investigators concluded that less popular girls feel freer than boys to seek satisfaction through dependency upon teachers, whereas boys have learned that dependency is not "boylike.