John
can deliver training or offer consultancy in your school either in the
UK or overseas at competitive prices.
Why send a teacher on a course when the trainer can come to you?
John can source INSET trainers and consultants for your school at very competitive prices. Get in touch: jmedlicott@hotmail.com
Why send a teacher on a course when the trainer can come to you?
John can source INSET trainers and consultants for your school at very competitive prices. Get in touch: jmedlicott@hotmail.com
A study finds 15-year-old girls outperform their male counterparts around the world – except in the US, Britain and Canada.
The Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development has released research, which found that 15-year-old girls around
the world outperform boys in science – except for in the United
States, Britain and Canada.
Once again the cause for poor performances is said
to be environmental. This is nothing new. The last round of math test results
from the Program for International Student Assessment (Pisa) had similar
results. In a number of countries 15-year-old girls matched or outnumbered
their male counterparts at the top. Genetically, the tests showed, girls are
extremely capable mathematicians. Researchers then found that “countries with
the poorest degrees of gender equality also have the widest gulfs
between male and female mathematical performance”.
The US Department of Education emphasizes that:
“improving girls’ beliefs about their abilities could alter their choices and
performance … particularly as they move out of elementary school and into
middle and high school.”
If it’s nurture not nature that affects a girl’s ability what can you
do as a teacher? Here are five strategies for teachers based on evidence that
is rated “low” to “moderate,” depending on the types of research supporting
each recommendation.
1. Help students gain more self-confidence by
explicitly teaching them that academic abilities are “expandable” and not fixed
at birth.
2. Provide students with informational feedback on
their performance
3. Expose girls to female role models
4. Foster girls’ interest in maths and science
through activities that connect math and science to careers in a
nonstereotypical way
5. Provide students with spatial skills training
Sources
• The Pogil project: a pilot high school scheme supported by both the National Science Foundation and the Department of Education
• Encouraging Girls in Math and Science – Department of Education
• Presentation by Dr Diane Halpern, professor of Psychology at Claremont McKenna College, (creator of Encouraging Girls in Math and Science)
• The Leaky Pipeline of Women in Science
• The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Pisa numbers
• Math anxiety
• Teaching the Female Brain: How Girls Learn Math and Science by Abigail Norfleet James.
• Failing at Fairness: How America's Schools Cheat Girls, Myra and David Sackler