Teacher's Gender Affects Learning: Too Many Variables to be Conclusive
DL Ennis
August 29, 2006
“For all the differences between the sexes, here's one that might stir up debate in the teacher's lounge: Boys learn more from men and girls learn more from women," says a study prepared by Thomas Dee, an associate professor of economics at Swarthmore College and visiting scholar at Stanford University.
However, I believe that there are far too many variables for this study to provide anything more than an awareness of simply another defect in our educational methods and institutions.
Vetted and approved by peer reviewers, Dee's research faces a fight for acceptance. Some leading education advocates dispute his conclusions and the way in which he reached them.”
But Dee says his research supports his point, that gender matters when it comes to learning. Specifically, as he describes it, having a teacher of the opposite sex hurts a student's academic progress.”
I do believe that in some ways gender does matter, but I also believe that Mr. Dee’s conclusions are too general to have any real merit. It should be noted that his study was conducted based on thirteen year olds or eighth graders. This age is difficult for most children and there are many things that can influence a child’s ability to learn.
For example, a child’s home life; if a young man does not get along with his father, for what ever reason, he is more likely to be intimidated by any male in an authoritative role. If it is his mother whom he cannot see eye to eye with, then perhaps he feels threatened by any woman old enough to be his mother.
Also, most boys are reaching—or have reached—puberty by this time and a female teacher may be the object of his daydreams thus affecting his learning performance.
On the other side of the coin, a young lady who has a bad relationship with her father, for what ever reason, (and I will not get into that) may feel the same way about male teachers. However if it is her mother she has problems with perhaps a male teacher would be more suitable.
I believe that there is another reason that girls, for the most part, of this age group would be more comfortable with a female teacher and that is that, some possibly feel intimidated by a male as they are more self-conscious about their bodies than ever before.
Suffice it to say that there are too many variables to be considered for children of this age for this study to show much promise.
I believe that our school systems need more and better trained counselors. I also believe that children, eleven – fourteen, should be interviewed by these counselors to decide if a child has special needs and would benefit from a gender based schedule. I think that it is imperative that we have highly trained counselors—and teachers for that matter—who can read children’s body language, eyes etc. and earn their trust allowing them to better know a child’s true needs within a learning environment.
Think back to when you were between the ages of eleven and fourteen and remember how difficult life was for you. I’m sure that even the most well adjusted of you had a lot of stress on you that could have been avoided with proper counseling and placement; after all a child spends more awakened hours in school than with their families.
This is not to say that some parents couldn’t do more to help and if it is discovered that a child’s home life is putting too much undue stress on a child then school counselors should be allowed to recommend family counseling.
I, in no way, claim to be an expert in the fields of child development, counseling, or education but I believe that a little applied commonsense would go a lot farther in improving our educational institutions and a child’s learning abilities than what appears, to me, to be such a bogus study as that performed by Mr. Dee.
Quotes from:
Discovery.com
Study: Teacher's Gender Affects Learning” http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2006/08/28/genderlearning_hum.html?category=human&guid=20060828120000&dcitc=w19-502-ak-0000
However, I believe that there are far too many variables for this study to provide anything more than an awareness of simply another defect in our educational methods and institutions.
Vetted and approved by peer reviewers, Dee's research faces a fight for acceptance. Some leading education advocates dispute his conclusions and the way in which he reached them.”
But Dee says his research supports his point, that gender matters when it comes to learning. Specifically, as he describes it, having a teacher of the opposite sex hurts a student's academic progress.”
I do believe that in some ways gender does matter, but I also believe that Mr. Dee’s conclusions are too general to have any real merit. It should be noted that his study was conducted based on thirteen year olds or eighth graders. This age is difficult for most children and there are many things that can influence a child’s ability to learn.
For example, a child’s home life; if a young man does not get along with his father, for what ever reason, he is more likely to be intimidated by any male in an authoritative role. If it is his mother whom he cannot see eye to eye with, then perhaps he feels threatened by any woman old enough to be his mother.
Also, most boys are reaching—or have reached—puberty by this time and a female teacher may be the object of his daydreams thus affecting his learning performance.
On the other side of the coin, a young lady who has a bad relationship with her father, for what ever reason, (and I will not get into that) may feel the same way about male teachers. However if it is her mother she has problems with perhaps a male teacher would be more suitable.
I believe that there is another reason that girls, for the most part, of this age group would be more comfortable with a female teacher and that is that, some possibly feel intimidated by a male as they are more self-conscious about their bodies than ever before.
Suffice it to say that there are too many variables to be considered for children of this age for this study to show much promise.
I believe that our school systems need more and better trained counselors. I also believe that children, eleven – fourteen, should be interviewed by these counselors to decide if a child has special needs and would benefit from a gender based schedule. I think that it is imperative that we have highly trained counselors—and teachers for that matter—who can read children’s body language, eyes etc. and earn their trust allowing them to better know a child’s true needs within a learning environment.
Think back to when you were between the ages of eleven and fourteen and remember how difficult life was for you. I’m sure that even the most well adjusted of you had a lot of stress on you that could have been avoided with proper counseling and placement; after all a child spends more awakened hours in school than with their families.
This is not to say that some parents couldn’t do more to help and if it is discovered that a child’s home life is putting too much undue stress on a child then school counselors should be allowed to recommend family counseling.
I, in no way, claim to be an expert in the fields of child development, counseling, or education but I believe that a little applied commonsense would go a lot farther in improving our educational institutions and a child’s learning abilities than what appears, to me, to be such a bogus study as that performed by Mr. Dee.
Quotes from:
Discovery.com
Study: Teacher's Gender Affects Learning” http://dsc.discovery.com/news/2006/08/28/genderlearning_hum.html?category=human&guid=20060828120000&dcitc=w19-502-ak-0000
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