What is Retrospectacle? This series of posts are a kind of Thomas Dolby-inspired ‘retrospectacle’ of earlier popular entries from my site, which will fill in during the time that I am away from this site for about a week. Even though this blog post is from an earlier time — enjoy, feel free to comment and see you later!
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A lot of attention has been given to the recent win of Shivani Sud, a young woman of Indian heritage who took first prize in the Intel Science Talent Search (formerly the Westinghouse Science Talent Search). It led me to reflect upon an article by Freakonomics in the NY Times, which touches upon some recent research into the ‘gender gap in education’:
Girls have a built-in neurological advantage over boys when it comes to language skills, according to new research from Northwestern University and the University of Haifa. The researchers found that while girls can easily process language in the abstract, boys depend more on their senses. The upshot is that boys may need to be taught both visually and verbally, while girls can learn equally well through either means and presumably have an easier time with learning because of it.
…. Women now decisively outnumber men on the nation’s college campuses, and they graduate at a higher rate than men do. Becker thinks the reduced pressure on women to marry and have children young, matched with the increased pressure on them to compete in the labor force, partly explains why women have closed the gender gap. But why have they hurtled past men in college enrollment and graduation? What else accounts for the new gender gap, and what should be done to address it?
This has also been reflected in stats coming from Australia:
Figures released today by the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations reveal that the number of students studying in the first half of 2007 rose 5.5 per cent on the year before, to 899,021.
More than half, or 56.7 per cent, of all students starting in the first half of 2007 were female.
And the latest report from Wales – girls do better than boys in 85% of all secondary schools in Wales – across the board, not just in language-based subjects.
The neurological and developmental differences between the genders has garnered significant media focus over the past few years. The notion that there could be a brain-difference that greatly divides how well a boy or a girl performs in the classroom appears to garner extreme reactions at times, with many stakeholders becoming concerned that it will create division and prejudice – rather than proactive strategies to improve education regardless.
Dr Tim Hawkes writes of how despite the political expediency of distributing resources on the basis of need not gender, it does not help with openly acknowledging what problems seem to specifically exist with young men and thus making it less encouraging for people to suggest strategies knowing they will be heard (Hawkes, 2001). Although biological discoveries about differences between the genders are just a part of studies into how to encourage educational success, it could be proposed that in focusing on boys we can also uncover more about the overarching effect of boy’s problems upon both genders, from youth to adulthood.
What appears to be the strongest implication for the education of boys is that if there are indeed more differences amongst genders than between them, then learning strategies should be encouraged for all students and become more inclusive of children’s differences.
When reflecting upon what would produce the greatest implications in terms of teaching and learning, we also have to consider a number of factors such as the school and home environments, diet, age, socio-cultural background and the presence or absence of any particular learning disability, et al. Although the emotional and social aspects of a child will always have grounding in what is discovered through human biology, when studying the research into boys learning, the question is raised whether education is currently helping solve any problems with supposed ‘gender gaps’ or working towards dealing with a ‘crisis for boys’. Could study into boys and their education and how to help struggling boys – also deal with what appears to be greater problems for both genders?
The implication of brain learning differences in boys for teaching and learning cannot be ignored and is one of the more useful starting points in analysing what can be done to improve learning, not only for boys but for all students. For example, the Freakonomics mention of the Northwestern University and the University of Haifa research that was printed in the Scientific American -
Researchers report in the journal Neuropsychologia that the answer lies in the way words are processed: Girls completing a linguistic abilities task showed greater activity in brain areas implicated specifically in language encoding, which decipher information abstractly. Boys, on the other hand, showed a lot of activity in regions tied to visual and auditory functions, depending on the way the words were presented during the exercise.
…Burman says that his team now plans to research whether girls’ edge decreases with age, noting that some previous research suggests that the male sensory “bottleneck” may disappear as boys develop into adults.
Dr Simon Baron-Cohen of Cambridge University (2005) proposed that from birth male brains are hardwired for systemising or understanding and building systems, hence the diverse preference for toys, and that this systemising is also common amongst autistic children and adults who are particularly bad at empathising.
Willingham and Cole studies into assessment performance by gender at the 4th, 8th and 12th grade year levels, as reported by Andrew S. Latham (1988), demonstrated that there are probably ‘a complex web of factors… [including] biological differences, such as the hormonal changes… culturally defined sex role expectations‘ and that boys are more motivated to succeed and are more successful in subject areas “when they regard achievement in those subjects as consistent with their own sex role.”
Despite these assertions, Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli (1995) suggests that
‘A sole focus on biological determinism may lead to homogenising practices, such as “all boys”, “all cultures”, whereby only the differences between boys and girls are emphasised and the differences between boys are ignored…dismiss[ing] the significance of individual and group agency, negotiation and resistance, in shaping attitudes and action.’
This indicated again how acknowledgement of cultural, societal and environmental factors should be addressed and used to further clarify and make valid any approaches to helping boys in education. In a similar vein, Elizabeth Ryan (1999) criticises what she sees as the message from Steven Biddulph’s popular text ‘Manhood’ on the needs of boys as similarly ‘too simplistic’, saying that Biddulph wishes to speak of boys as ‘if they were all the same… extensive research has actually shown that there is more emotional and intellectual differences within the sexes than between them.’
Which raises the question that if boys are in a crisis situation, if this drop in young men entering tertiary institutions is a concern – what exactly is making more problems for them – the differences that they have and how educational institutions and society as a whole are not addressing them well?
It’s been a long time in the works, it seems – not only reflected in the research I stated at the start. In Peter Smolowitz’s article ‘Best in School? In 2006, Girls Rule’, he discussed how people are starting to notice a trend in girls graduating as the high school valedictorians and the shift in college applications towards more women applying, with a statement from the Washington-based American Association of Collegiate Registrars on how ‘more of the most qualified applicants are girls.’
Other articles I have found criticise researchers and writers who tend towards viewing school issues as a whole through ‘gender-lenses’, as they tend to encourage a ‘one-size fits all attitude’; Ann Hulbert (2006) sums up in the online article ‘Will Boys Be Boys?‘ the arguments from Whitmire in The New Republic and Christina Hoff Sommer’s The War Against Boys and concludes that she finds the idea of a ‘crisis’ in boys’ education is more about socioeconomic inequality – “The marked contrasts in educational performance and college attendance,” she argues, “show up between races and social classes; minority and poor males lag furthest behind, especially in college attendance.”
In comparison, Hawkes’ Boy Oh Boy mentions a growing concern for boy’s literacy, where
…research has indicated that a student’s low-socioeconomic ranking has an influence on literacy, with those from a low socio-economic background being more likely to suffer lower literacy levels… girls outperform boys at all socio-economic levels, but the amount by which girls outperform boys actually increases with growing affluence… [in a 1996 finding] twice as many boys as girls were represented in the lowest ability groups in literacy… no respite socio-economically from the dismal news that boys are not performing well in literacy.
Inclusive education involves two key principles. The first is that students with diverse abilities should be able to participate in all aspects of education. This involves teachers and schools collectively and individually adapting and changing to meet the needs of all students. The second is providing appropriate instruction for students with diverse support needs in regular classrooms (Hawkes, 2001).
Dr Peter West (2000) in ‘Helping Boys Achieve’ talks of many strategies that can encourage the general all round-situation for boys that could deal with the ‘very different world’ to that their fathers grew up in and acknowledge the strengths that young men have. Such ideas like ‘keeping track of awards, expanding our methods of teaching emotional literacy, researching on how boys learn and seeking more research on how to improve boys’ achievement.’ This is summarized as ‘Recognition, rewards and role models’ in his article ‘Three R’s in Education’‘ (West, 2003).
‘Final Report – Improving the Educational Outcome for Boys‘ by Dr Andrew J Martin (2002), supports the notion of ‘a range of personal and public strategies to acknowledge and validate achievement.’ He writes of the need to understand school as a significant place to learn about what it means to be a boy and a man and therefore
‘…an ideal context in which to celebrate diversities of masculinity in a way that validates the breath of positive and healthy masculinities existing in the student body and staff… unhelpful constructions of gender and their concomitants can be targeted… ‘cool to be a fool’ constructions, fear of failure, homophobia and aggression.’
Schools are therefore a challenge how modern society downplays the necessity of emotional responses in young men, as suggested by John Bednall (1998 ) in ‘Good Schooling for Boys’, where he suggest that a ‘boy-sensitive’ school will lead to specific strategies to guide boys to an understanding to gender issues. I argue that this is valuable for young women in today’s world too, as they should also be allowed to explore their own understanding of gender issues, since they are also a part of and may relate to young men who risk-take, find classrooms unchallenging and problematic and seek to interact in a positive way with their brothers, fellow classmates, future co-workers and possibly even partners.
Whatever summation one makes of a ‘crisis’ in boys education, it still appears that schools are and always have been a stakeholder in dealing with the needs of all children and should cater regardless of gender differences. Of course, another factor – as demonstrated in recent news and opinion articles on the education system in Australia (and criticism about the disparity between public and private schools as printed in today’s Australian) – just how well-staffed and well-prepared schools are to help support all children. Whether the rise of 5.5 per cent of students entering the tertiary system is going to be maintained in the current climate of primary and secondary teachers leaving the profession is another question:
About 55.5 per cent said they would leave their jobs in public schools to work in another industry, despite 49.5 per cent saying they had changed careers to become a teacher.
About 48 per cent believe they will not be teaching in a public school in 10 years, including 46 per cent of teachers in their first year on the job.
While numerous government reports at state and federal level over the past decade have recommended programs to support teachers starting in the job, the survey suggests little effective has been done.
This again leads me to reflect upon what the Science Blogger “Abel Pharmboy” of Terra Sigillata wrote about the win by Shivani Sud:
I sure hope there’s a bright future in the US for brilliant young minds like Ms Sud.
Indeed.
References:
Ashman, A and Elkins, J (eds). (2005) Educating Children with Diverse Needs, Frenches Forrest: Pearson.
Baron-Cohen, Simon. (2005) “Sex Differences in the Brain: Implications for Explaining Autism, in Science, vol. 310.
Bednall, J. (1998) ‘Good Schooling for Boys’ Independence, Winter 1998.
Choate, J.S (ed.) (1997) Successful Inclusive Teaching: Proven Ways to Detect and Correct Special Needs, Boston : Allyn and Bacon.
Hawkes, Tim. (2001) Boy Oh Boy, Frenches Forrest: Pearson 2001.
Hulbert, Ann. (2006) “Will Boys Be Boys? – Why the Gender Lens May Not Shed Light on the Latest Educational Crisis”, http://www.slate.com/toolbar.aspx?action=print&id=2135243, accessed 10/3/2008.
Latham, A. (1998) “Gender and Assessments”, Independence, Winter 1998.
Martin, A.J. (2002). Final Report to ACT Department of Education, Youth and Family Services, p.38.
Pallotta-Chiarolli, Maria. (1995) ‘We Want to Address Boys Education But…’ in Point and Counterpoint, pps 65-69.
Ryan, Elizabeth. (1999) ‘Boy’s Education – Handle with Care’, The Practicing Administrator 4.
Smolowitz, Peter. ‘Best in School? In 2006, Girls Rule – Valedictorian Disparity Mirrors National Trend’, [online], http://www.charlotte.com/mld/charlotte/living/education/14873687.htm, accessed 13/3/2008, 22nd June, 2006.
West, Peter. (2000) ‘Helping Boys Achieve’ in The Practicing Administrator, 1.
West, Peter (2003) ‘Three R’s in Boy’s Education – Recognition, Rewards and Role Models’, EQ Australia – From the Classroom.
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