Playing video games can benefit students and increase exam performance, according to recent OECD research.
The study claims that single-player gaming is more beneficial than online multi-player gaming.
The findings are part of an analysis of gender differences in OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) tests, which take place every three years in 64 countries.
The report says that data “suggests that the association between academic performance and video gaming depends on the kinds of games students play and how frequently they play them.”
It notes that boys are more likely to play video games daily, which "crowds out" activities like homework, hindering them academically.
“Students who play one-player video games between once a month and almost every day perform better in mathematics, reading, science and problem solving, on average, than students who play one-player games every day.
“They also perform better than students who never or hardly ever play such games. By contrast, collaborative online games appear to be associated with lower performance, regardless of the frequency of play.
“Because boys tend to be daily users of video games and are much more likely than girls to play online collaborative games, the gender gap in video gaming translates into a performance advantage for girls.”
'The ABC of Gender Equality in Education: Aptitude, Behaviour, Confidence’ also examines the lack of women pursuing third level courses in engineering and science, and shows that among high performers, girls show “strong feelings of anxiety” towards mathematics:
“This gender difference in the ability to think like a scientist may be related to students’ self-confidence. When students are more self-confident, they give themselves the freedom to fail, to engage in the trial-and-error processes that are fundamental to acquiring knowledge in mathematics and science.”
Results show girls in Ireland are more likely to follow traditional gender roles than the OECD average, taking jobs in healthcare rather than science or engineering.
