abstract: 

We implement ateaching methodology that aims at improving children’s mathematical skills inprimary school and we evaluate its impact on the gender gap in mathematics inItaly, through a randomized controlled trial. The methodology focuses on peerinteraction, sharing of ideas, students’ engagement, and problem-solving. Thetreatment significantly improves math performance for girls (0.14 s.d.), withno impact on boys, contributing to reduce the gender gap by more than 40%.