Differences between boys and girls in extracurricular learning settings

Only few psychological differences between the sexes can be proven empirically. Presented here is a study about learning in the extracurricular environment of a zoological garden during a school excursion with particular regard to the differences between boys and girls. In the main focus are, hereby, motivational and cognitive levels of the aforementioned learning situation. A pre/post-test design was conducted with 223 fifth graders of the highest stratification level (Gymnasium). Girls showed a higher degree of intrinsic motivation and also had statistically significant more knowledge gain in the subscale of open-ended knowledge-items. The results are discussed within the framework of the Contextual Model of Learning.