A study of how young chimpanzees learn shows wide disparity between males and females. How does this relate to humans, asks Louise Holden

New research studying learning differences between young male and female chimpanzees reveals clear differences along gender lines. University of Minnesota researcher Elizabeth Lonsdorf spent four years filming chimps in Gombe National Park in Tanzania as they learned how to gather termites with twigs.

The young females spent their time watching their mothers, and became proficient at termite-fishing by the age of 31 months. Male chimps lost interest in their mother's activities quickly and took an average of 58 months to learn the same skill.

"To our knowledge, this is the first systematic evidence of a difference between the sexes in the learning or imitation of tool-use technique in wild chimpanzees," Dr Lonsdorf and her colleagues wrote in the April issue of the journal Nature. "A similar disparity in the ability of young males and females to learn skills has been demonstrated in human children, and may be indicative of different learning processes. In human children, studies have found that females are better at writing and drawing skills and skills requiring attention and planning. Males have been found to be better at gross motor skills, like running and jumping," Dr Lonsdorf said.

Any teacher will tell you that girls and boys have different learning styles. This study is the first documented example of gender learning differences in the wild. Is this depressing or hopeful news for boys? That depends on how you deal with it, says Michael Gurian, author of Boys and Girls Learn Differently. Gurian has been studying learning differences between boys and girls for years and has concluded that marked variance in capacity can be witnessed at all age levels. He maintains, for example, that girls, on average, attain fully comprehensible language skills by age three while boys do not reach the same level until aged four and a half. On the other hand, toddler girls are less likely to explore their surroundings once walking has been mastered, whereas boys show more interest in roaming. In pre-school and kindergarten, girls tend to build long, low, stable structures with blocks while boys build higher structures to topple. In the playground, says Gurian, girls congregate with other girls while boys run around on their own. Girls express emotions with words whereas boys use actions.

What we need to learn from this, says Gurian, is that all learning styles need to be accommodated in the classroom. At the moment, teaching environments favour female learning styles such as sitting still in confined spaces and focusing on fine motor skills and book learning.

Boys, he says, tend not to excel in these environments. Quite the contrary - they can become frustrated and "badly" behaved. Boys are far more likely than girls to be referred for help with learning difficulties, hyperactivity, ADD etc. Gurian contends that many are not disordered, just frustrated by teaching methods that conflict with their natural learning styles.

Some ways of helping boys with learning include clearing a roomy work area for homework as boys like to spread themselves out. Boys may need more frequent breaks from book-based learning. Experiential and physical learning methods are important - toys such as alphabet blocks might be more helpful to boys than alphabet books. If boys can engage physically with learning materials, they may be more likely to grasp new concepts.

Having said all this, there are three important points to bear in mind. Firstly, while male chimps are messing about in the trees they are not skiving off - they are learning the skills they will need as adult males hunting for bigger prey. Human males learn physically and spatially through active and competitive play.

Secondly, gender is only one determinant of a child's academic performance. Boys from higher socio-economic groups still fare better than girls from lower socio-economic groups. This is a more pressing issue for Irish educationalists than gender.

Lastly, boys and girls share many more skills than separate them - children have an immense capacity to learn any skill if a caring adult is prepared to put in the time. Elizabeth Lonsdorf, who has been watching chimps for four years, insists that there is no wrong way to learn, whether the task is fishing for termites or learning to read. "Each gender may be innately better at certain tasks, but that doesn't mean they aren't capable of trying any task," said Lonsdorf. Studies such as hers help us to learn about learning, ultimately helping teachers to maximise everyone's potential.

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