I particularly took a liking to the section of chapter six on having a gender-friendly mathematics classroom. As a female I've ofter been told or made to feel that I'm automatically less capable of being able to be good at math. I loved the section where it talks about involving all the students. I have been a part of a classroom where the teacher is in that show-and tell mode and it really does reinforce the boys' overt behaviors like the text suggests. I also think that by telling our young girls that math and science are fields dominated by males it intimidates them and scares them away from pursing those subjects- it's counterproductive. They are less likely to try to figure out a problem or answer a question in the class for the fear of them being wrong which in turn would prove - to them at least- that boys are only good at math and science. It reinforces the passive behavior the many girls' have.
I think that as a teacher being aware of how you interact with boys vs girls is cruical in their development. I think that it's very easy to not even notcie if you're paying more attention or giving more opportutines to one gender rather than the other. Espically if one gender is speaking up while the other just sits back. This chapter brings up excellent points of awareness
RSS Feed