Exploring Concepts around Gender and Learning

Gendered-Education Approaches

Bulletin: – Men are not from Mars and women are

not from Venus. – Males and females are the same species.

There are far greater behavior and intellectual differences within each sex than between the sexes.

Segregated education is inherently unequal.

In a democracy, we learn from each other.

The “us versus them” mentality is destructive and scientifically inaccurate.

Persistent History of Sex-Role Stereotyping

Craniology

Basketball Uterus Scare

Algebra or Ovaries

Hysteria

Girls Lack Math Gene

Today: Hardwired Brain Differences

What We Know about the Brain Neuroplasticity: the basis of

all learning.

Neurons that fire together, wire together.

The brain is like a muscle to be toned.

Wonderful news: we are the architects of our brain, unless we give away our power.

Experience and thought, not gender or race, rewire the brain.

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“Once in a while it really hits people that they don’t have to experience the world in the way they have been told to.”

-Alan Keightley

Hard-Wired Brain Teaching Strategies: Leonard Sax Teachers should smile at girls

and look them in the eye, but must not do either with boys.

Boys do well under stress and girls do not.

Boys should receive strict discipline and can be spanked, but not girls, who should be disciplined by appealing to their empathy.

A boy who likes to read and does not enjoy contact sports has a problem. He should be firmly disciplined, required to spend time with “normal males” and made to play sports.

Sax (2005)

Hard-Wired Brain Teaching Strategies: Michael

Gurian Boys are better than girls in math because

boys’ bodies receive daily surges of testosterone. Girls have similar skills only during the few days in their menstrual cycle when they have an estrogen surge.

Boys are abstract thinkers, therefore naturally adept at things like philosophy and engineering. Girls are concrete thinkers and need to handle objects to do well in math and science.

“Pursuit of power is a universal male trait. Pursuit of a comfortable environment is a universal female trait.”

Gurian (2003; 2006)

A Brief Report Card 88 percent of girls and 94 percent of boys

believe that males are “supposed to protect themselves and others.”

More than a third of students in grades 3–12 believe “people think that the most important thing for girls is to get married and have children”

(2006)

A year after college, a female of any racial, ethnic or socioeconomic group earns less than a white male with the same college degree.

A Brief Report Card Boys often view reading and writing as

“feminine” subjects that threaten their masculinity.

Many boys, especially minority and economically disadvantaged boys, view school as irrelevant to their futures.

Over-diagnosis of disorders, prescription of drugs and referral to special educational services has become widespread among boys. (2006)

The Power of Stereotypes

Complexity is hard, simplicity is easy.

Stereotypic thinking is difficult to loosen (i.e., Ada E. Yonath).

It becomes a self-fulfilling prophesy.

Stereotype Threat abounds.

Evaluating “Learning Styles”

What is the extent to which we create the very stereotypes we use to justify gender biases and

inequities in learning unintentionally?

Societal Organ Transplant: Focus on the Heart

We accept enormous child poverty and hunger in the wealthiest nation.

We look for happiness in consumerism rather than finding meaning in our lives.

We fragment society by class, race and now gender.

The United States ranks 90th in the world in female representation in government.

Our schools are focused on NCLB, rather than compassion, kindness, honesty, unique gifts and community.

“...I had incredible teachers. As I look at my life today, the things I value most about myself— my imagination, my love of acting, my passion for writing, my love of learning, my curiosity— all come from how I was parented and taught.

And none of these qualities that I’ve just mentioned— none of these qualities that I prize so deeply, that have brought me so much joy, that have brought me so much professional success— none of these qualities that make me who I am ... can be tested.”

-Matt Damon

What Kind of Mindset Should We Create? (Carol Dweck)

Fixed Mindset: – Intelligence is innate – Fixed and Unchangeable– Protect Self-Image

Growth Mindset– The brain is a muscle that gets stronger when

used– As we learn new things, our brains form new

neuropathways – We welcome and learn from challenges

Bottom Line: Whether male or female, assuming a child’s abilities are fixed from birth defeats the purpose of education.

What Teachers and Students Can Do

Instruction– Desegregate learning

– Insure equitable teacher-student interaction

– Promote both cooperation and competition

Curriculum– Broaden the formal and informal

curriculum

– Expand career options

Offer schools resources on equitable and effective learning and promote a growth

mindset

What Teachers and Students Can Do

Honor individual gifts and talents– Offer a variety of learning opportunities

– Provide a variety of assessment strategies

– Offer freedom to fail

– Get to know each student’s heart as well as intellect

Final Thoughts

Michele’s Story

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that most frightens us.”

-Marianne Williamson