Educating Girls by Leder Gilah C.;Sampson Shirley N.; & Shirley N. Sampson

Author:Leder, Gilah C.;Sampson, Shirley N.; & Shirley N. Sampson [Leder, Gilah C. & Sampson, Shirley N.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2017-04-29T00:00:00+00:00

7

GILAH C.LEDER

Do girls count in mathematics?

The Victorian Government will consider recommendations for pay increases for science and mathematics teachers and for all girl classes in co-educational schools.

In a plan to increase student numbers in maths, science and technology subjects, there is also a call for a shake-up in teacher training…

Girls [are described] as a ‘largely untapped reservoir of scientific talent’.

(BUTTON, 1987, P.3)

Gender difference in relation to achievement and participation in mathematics continues to attract much attention, from the research community as well as from government bodies. While few consistent differences in performance in mathematics are reported at the early primary school level, there is a substantial body of evidence to suggest that at the beginning of secondary schooling boys’ superiority in mathematics starts to manifest itself. The differences are particularly marked when above average performance is considered (Benbow & Stanley, 1983; Bondi, 1987; Kissane, 1986; Leder, 1980).

A variety of explanations, interrelated rather than self-contained, have been put forward to account for gender differences in mathematics learning. A number of these, teacher as well as learner-related, were examined in the study reported here through a careful monitoring of Grade 7 mathematics lessons. Of particular interest were teacher-student interactions, students’ perceptions of their own mathematical ability, and students’ attitudes to mathematics and self-rating of ability.

PREVIOUS RESEARCH

Teacher-student interactions

Interaction between teachers and boys and girls has been examined in a variety of ways. Monitoring dyadic interactions—between teachers and single students—(Brophy and Good, 1970) and noting time intervals spent by teachers waiting for and engaging with students (Rowe, 1974a; 1974b) are two observation schedules that have been widely used. Both approaches have identified differences in the ways girls and boys in the same classroom are treated by their teachers.

Boys are typically found to have more interactions than girls with their teachers, both teacher and student initiated. Boys often receive more direct questions, more discipline, and are praised more often than girls for correct answers. Furthermore, high-achieving boys have been reported as having more teacher interactions than high-achieving girls. Such findings have been reported from a diversity of settings. Among American data are those of Good, Sikes and Brophy (1973), Brophy and Good (1974), and Fennema and Peterson (1985), as well as Becker (1981), Eccles and Blumenfeld (1985) and Reyes (1984), who focused on mathematics classes at the secondary school level. Differences in favour of boys have also been reported by Galton, Simon and Croll (1980), and Spender (1982), working in English schools, and by Moore and Smith (1980) in Papua New Guinea. Yet, according to Day (1987) in a recent review of literature, Australian studies in this area are rare.

Much of the work on waiting for and engaging with students has been carried out in science and language arts classes (Tobin, 1987) and has focused on the effects on student achievement of manipulating wait time in particular. In these studies gender differences have usually not been a variable of interest. However, Gore and Roumagoux (1983) reported that Grades 4 and 5 teachers had a longer wait time for boys than girls in mathematics lessons.

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