The Gendered Classroom Abigail Norfleet James, Ph.D Germanna Community College, VA League for Innovations in Community Colleges Chicago, IL March 20, 2016

Equality  “ Equality is not the empirical claim that all groups of humans are interchangeable; it is the moral principle that individuals should not be judged or constrained by the average properties of their group.” Steven Pinker, (2002) The Blank Slate

Brain Differences  Left side of the brain develops first in girls, the right in boys  Probably source of girls’ verbal skills and boys’ spatial skills  Hippocampus and Amygdala  Hippocampus (memory) develops earlier in girls and amygdala (emotions) earlier in boys  Pre-frontal lobes – Executive Decisions  Girls develop by early 20s, boys may not finish development until late 20s

Differences in Learning Issues  ADHD  More males due to social bias? Electronics?  Cause of inattention may be something other than learning problem  Dyslexia  More males – but is it a developmental problem?  Dysgraphia/Dyspraxia  More males – but is it due to social expectations?  Dyscalculia – 2 forms  One form is a problem with memory  Females give up too easily because of social beliefs and males will avoid math

Emotional Differences  Fight or flight – adrenalin  Leads to movement  Tend and Befriend – oxytocin  Leads to freezing  Do not praise or discipline with global terms – use specific references  Global references may result in males getting angry and females becoming anxious  Remember that some behavior may be impulsive not purposeful

Females and School  Believe effort is the key to doing well  Stress hinders learning for females  Stress + effort → academic anxiety  Need to understand it is a normal reaction and identify and cope  Focus on words, tend to be verbal learners  Need practical applications for math  Solve problems face-to-face

Strategies with Females  Teach females to persist on problem solving before asking for help – Socratic approach  Cooperation not competition – work in even number groups for females  Help females develop independence  Use rubrics to help females cope with need to get the “right” answer  Teach females to have confidence in their abilities and to recognize inner strengths not outer conflicts

Males and School Believe ability is the key to doing well Stress helps males to learn Standing gets their attention Learn well from seeing and doing Start there, move into reading and listening Work well in groups Teacher’s influence is very important Shoulder-to-shoulder when dealing with problems

Strategies with Males  Teach attention management strategies  Teach active reading and good underlining techniques  Assist males to develop a variety of learning strategies and approaches  Males learn best what they like, develop methods to communicate with teachers  Use graphics for memory – charts, tables, graphs, pictures

Technology  Males learn better from an electronic source  Females do better with technology when they can work in pairs  Assume males will take chances – that means that they may have access issues, but will interface with the materials  Assume females will wait until they can find out exactly what to do – that means that they will do what you ask, but little else

Teaching in the Gendered Classroom  Provide a variety of teaching and learning approaches so all will have a chance.  Do not assume that a person’s sex determines their learning approach  Encourage students to work together so that they will learn different strategies from each other  Make sure that class requirements include verbal, auditory, visual, and kinesthetic tasks

Conclusion  There are cognitive differences between males and females which are brain based  Adapting teaching strategies for those differences improves learning  Accommodating for learning differences allows students to make use of their learning strengths to compensate  Remember, equality is achieved not when all are the same, but when all are allowed to learn the way that best suits them

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