Gender In Education: Deborah Tannen And Jesse J. Prinz

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Gender in Education Who is smarter, boys or girls? Most of society would say that boys are. People view males as the dominant gender. When it comes to gender, there are differences. Deborah Tannen and Jesse J. Prinz express their opinions on gender differences by teaching styles, cultural beliefs, and the problems they pose in education.
Gender can be an issue in education. Males and females tend to learn and communicate differently. Tannen, who wrote You Just Don’t Understand, has done several experiments to find out how females tend to communicate verses males. Boys tend to play in larger groups. They are competitive, and make friends from the activities they are involved in. On the other hand, girls tend to hang out in smaller groups. They prefer making friendships by opening up and sharing personal information. The tendencies apply in the classroom as well. For example, Tannen constructed an experiment.
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Problems arise when the differences are not taken into account. They have different learning styles, physical attributes, and stereotypes. Tannen and Prinz unmask the issues of gender in education. Most teachers do not expand their teaching styles to accommodate both male and females which can hinder their educational opportunities. A solution is to enforce teachers to teach a variety of learning styles. In a large classroom setting, dividing the students into smaller groups or even assigning individual work will enable all students to learn and participate. Besides the different learning styles male and females encounter, they often deal with stereotyping. Society tends to stereotype females negatively. The issue can be solved by exposing children at an early age to gender equality. Instead of only giving girls the option to play with a doll, give them the choice of Legos, blocks or trucks as well. This opens girls up to a wider variety of experiences and keeps them from being lead down a trail of negative

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