Who's to Blame for the Gender Gap in STEM? Start With Kindergarten Teachers Source/Author/Date: Fortune.com, Valentina Zarya posted October 27th 2016
Key Points: According to new research, while boys’ and girls’ enter school with similar math abilities, girls started to fall within the first year of schooling. This is contrary to the commonly-held nation that the gap in STEM skills starts to appear in middle school.
Teachers’ expectations may be one potential explanation for the fact that the gap starts to develop at such a young age. The study found that when students of both genders behaved and performed identically on tests, teachers rated girls’ math skills as worse than boys’.
While this new research didn’t provide reasons for teachers’ lowered expectations for girls’, another study suggests that early childhood teachers’ “math anxieties” affect students. Specifically, early elementary teachers’ math anxiety, who are almost all female, carry consequences for girls’ math achievement by influencing girls’ beliefs about who is good at math.
Relevance: It is very important that we take a look at the foundation that is being laid for interest in math early. It is vital for young children to develop confidence in their ability to understand and use mathematics. Gaining a better understanding of what causes these gaps are of great importance. I do believe that much greater attention must be given to early mathematics experience to ensure that students are having positive experience with using mathematics and teachers are working to develop curiosity, imagination, flexibly and inventiveness that will help contribute to the future success of their students.
Articles like these bring attention to major issues in our education system yet contribute to the underlying issue, fostering the belief that female teachers teaching math in younger grades are contributing to the gap in genders. How are we to break this mold for our female students’?
Kate,
ReplyDeleteWhat a very interesting article. I never would have thought that teachers gender can be linked to confidence in teaching subject matter. I want to believe that there are multiple factors that go into the ability of our STEM students however this is a very interesting variable. I personally believe that its the way teachers incorporate material and how they present it that ultimately will set the child up for success regardless of gender. I'd be curious to see how much you agree with the research and the information of the article. Well done!