If you’re wondering why your daughter always seems to get much better grades than your son, you’re probably not alone.Girls have a far greater tendency to pay attention in lessons, according to learning styles expert Derek Tully, which helps them reap academic rewards.The good news is the Island’s public schools curriculum now offers boys more hope of bridging the gap — and as a parent you can help too.Dr Tully, who taught in Bermuda’s public schools for 40 years, has lectured on teaching methods for boys in North America and has co-authored a soon-to-be-published book: ‘A Parents, Grandparents and Teachers Guide to How Children Really Learn’.He points to research showing girls are 35 times more likely than boys to cooperate and help each other during school lessons and projects, particularly when ‘caring and sharing’ is important.But the Cambridge Curriculum now adopted in Bermuda encourages educators to tailor teaching methods towards the individual needs of students.Dr Tully said this means boys can be taught how to write in ways which appeal to them, such as sports reporting, or adventure story writing.In addition, smart boards and interactive websites have emerged as fun learning tools for boys to use at school with their teacher, and at home with mom and dad.Dr Tully said parents often can’t understand why their son’s academic and behavioural performance is worse than their daughter’s.He said: “The answer is that siblings are often vastly different from each other and from their parents: different genes, different gender, different hormones and different learning styles.“Girls are far more holistic in their outlook to life; research also shows that girls are 35 times more likely than boys to cooperate and help each other during school lessons and projects and any other aspects of learning in which sharing and caring is important.“Boys tend to be competitive, aggressive and need to be the winners in things they are involved in.“Often they hesitate to ask questions out loud in class for fear that they are seen to be slow or even dumb, so they sit silently, unwilling to ask questions when they do not understand.“Alternatively, they do not want to be seen as an over-studious nerd by their peers — and again remain quiet.”He said studies in Europe, Australia and North America have shown boys are three times more likely to drop out of school than girls, and eight times more likely to find themselves in disciplinary trouble.But he continued: “In Bermuda their educational experience need not be so gloomy.“Those educators and practitioners who wrote the Cambridge Curriculum did so wisely. They listed the outcomes to be assessed, but left the nuts and bolts of how to get there to the creativity of individual teachers.“It meant that boys could be taught grammar, paragraphing, sentence construction, exclamation marks, ideas, concepts and apostrophes through materials close to the hearts of boys.“And that could include writing about the Champions League and a titanic scrap between Barcelona and Glasgow Celtic. In fact many of the writing genres in the Cambridge Curriculum can be taught to boys via sports and adventure.”Smart boards help keep boys tactually and kinesthetically engaged, said Dr Tully.“Boys can now safely leave their seats, stand up, and work interactively at a smart board solving problems, using interactive websites, working with pairs or peers to play competitive education games, all without pencils and work sheets — only the tips of their fingers,” he said.“Smart boards are a first class educational innovation especially for boys who are restless, need to stretch their legs or who cannot sit still for long periods.“Every unit of our Cambridge Math Curriculum can be explored via equivalent websites, games or problem-solving situations, literally at our fingertips.“Our children can now take home a list of these sites to work with on home computers, and to share with moms and dads and siblings in an enjoyable home learning experience.“Additionally, our children also have marvellous internationally acclaimed programmes provided by Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences, the Aquarium, the Bermuda National Trust and Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute to name but a few to supplement their school curriculum.“Truly Bermuda is blessed with a plethora of educational resources which whole families can enjoy.”Dr Tully, who was recently elected the first Bermudian board member for the Association for Middle Level Education, has been helping Francis Patton School establish Saturday morning learning classes for boys over the past year.Principal Garita Coddington’s Saturday morning programme includes outside learning centres in the school’s courtyard, using circular concrete picnic tables as learning clocks, and paving stones as calculating tools.Other schools will be invited to participate with their own ideas, to help compile a DVD of outside the classroom learning experiences.Dr Tully said: “It is estimated that by the year 2020 females will outnumber males in college graduation by the ratio of three to two.“The situation need not come to pass. Girls often learn better simply to please the teacher or to receive praise for being a nice student.“Boys are different. They need to know how the subject applies to them personally or how the knowledge gained will assist or benefit them.“The key to success with boys is to find out how they learn individually, and then teach them that way.“Allied to and used in conjunction with our Cambridge Curriculum, the way ahead for our boys and their families in Bermuda will be bright indeed.”For more on children and parenting see ‘Parenting’ supplement in today’s Royal Gazette.