Gender Differences In The Classroom Analysis

Picture this; a six year old girl sits in her kindergarten classroom on career day. At the front of the room, a teacher asks what she wants to be when she grows up. She excitedly answers that she’d like to be an engineer, and one of her classmates firmly tells her, ‘That’s a boy’s job.’ Ten years later, she’s sixteen, and she’s overwhelmed by the tiny female to male ratio in her AP biology class. Then, she’s eighteen and she’s putting in college applications. She’s torn. She wants to put in her application to MIT, but all around her are voices saying she won’t make it in, she’ll be overwhelmed by the work, and their admissions rates for girls are so low as it is, and does she really want to go into such a male university? From kindergarten …show more content…
Tannen takes these perceived differences one step further; what can they be used for in a classroom? She proposes that male and female students function differently in a classroom environment, and that by playing to the way their brains work differently, the productivity of each gender can be increased. Centered classrooms are suggested for males; large group discussion that encourages debate, competition, and analysis. For girls, she states that small groups where everyone is listened to and concepts are discussed, rather than debated, work best. (Interestingly enough, these ideas play into traditional gender roles- men are expected to be strong and aggressive, while women are softer and more …show more content…
For example, if society needs lots of bridges, then it needs bridge-builders. An education that serves society will begin to pump out bridge builders en mass, likely training them to meet certain standards of bridge building. But what happens if society decides, randomly or factually, that men are better bridge builders than woman? What is the purpose of educating a woman in a society that only needs bridge builders, and men are better bridge builders than women? When education serves only to provide what society needs at that moment, it is worthless to educate those who can’t or won’t fill the role of bridge builder. But if education is meant to shape society, those studies become vitally important. In order to form a cultured society with a better understanding of how the past affects the future, society needs people well versed in these studies. Society needs people of all genders, races, and backgrounds. Whether that is it purpose or not, the way students are educated certainly shapes society. Students carry what they learn in primary school with them their entire life, and that includes the taught biases and gender roles. And the gender roles do exist. According to a study done by Victor Lavy and Edith Sand begging in 2002, teachers were more likely to score girls higher on on math and science exams when they didn’t know the gender or name of the student completing the exam