The Effects of Gender in the Classroom: Performance & Participation

CBR Question How does gender affect students comfort level within the classroom? How does this comfort level impact classroom interaction? How does this impact the success of the student?

Methods of Observation Student surveys Student teacher observations

Sample Survey M___F___ Have you ever participated in an all-male or all-female activity? Circle one. YesNo If yes, on a scale from 1 to 5 how would you rate your comfort level when participating in these activities? uncomfortable very comfortable If you had to choose would you prefer male or female teachers? Male Doesn’t matter Female

Sample Survey 2

Results Survey QuestionsPart. (m/f)Response (numerical data expressed by average) Group activities: expressing opinion with same sex?Male4.08 Group activities: expressing opinion with opposite sex?Male4.41 Speaking in front of same sex students?Male3.91 Speaking in front of opposite sex students?Male3.21 Comfort level when participating in these activities?Male4.5 Speaking alone in front of classMale2.33 Speaking to class with groupMale4.22 Preference to choose groupMale4.91 Teacher randomly chooses groupMale0.77

Results cont’d Survey QuestionsPart. (m/f)Response (numerical data expressed by average) Group activities: expressing opinion with same sex?Female4.73 Group activities: expressing opinion with opposite sex?Female4.89 Speaking in front of same sex students?Female4.77 Speaking in front of opposite sex students?Female4.32 Comfort level when participating in these activities?Female4.5 Speaking alone in front of classFemale1.52 Speaking to class with groupFemale4.1 Preference to choose groupFemale4.7 Teacher randomly chooses groupFemale1.5

Performance? Issues with performance Creativity Discussion? How do you evaluate a discussion? Quality vs. Quantity I based performance on grades.

Performance Results Same gender groups: Quality of work, up... discipline down. Creativity: Top students—up. Lower students—down or same. Coed groups Quality of work, no significant change. Creativity: up for all

Group Performance by %

Summary of Results Students prefer same gender when given the choice 4.5 out of 5 for comfort level in single- sex classroom activities Uncomfortable speaking alone Much more uncomfortable speaking to an audience of opposite sex peers Female students are more comfortable expressing their opinions to groups Gender of teacher—case by case basis. Results were relatively equal.

Results cont’d Older students tended to include younger students of opposite sex more frequently. Opposite was true of the younger students. Demonstrates aspects of child and adult development?? Overall boys dominated discussion—with of course a few exceptions All female groups had got higher marks for creativity

Thoughts for discussion? Best learning environment? Comfort level and classroom participation are closely linked—students that are uncomfortable (classroom climate) participate less. Literature suggests that success of students closely linked to comfort. How do we/can we adjust teaching styles to “fix” this problem? Gender roles/stereotypes challenged Older female students tend to be more comfortable speaking to an all-male classroom. Dominant role within the classroom?

Thoughts cont’d Coed group work requires discussion with opposite sex—comfort of this scenario reflected in performance? Same sex groups seem to mesh better so discussion goes up—performance goes up? Performance in group work seems to increase in single sex environments However, age poses many other questions… Why did male students participate more in discussion? My gender? Surveys showed no discernable preference… TOO MANY CONFOUNDS!

Conclusions… Self reflection Conscious effort to focus more on female students during discussion All-female/male education seems to increase performance Tradeoff within the high school—too comfortable and productivity goes down. Finding a balance Did my instructional changes pay off?