GENDER DIFFERENCES

Luke EganJean Liew

Carolyn MascallDebbie Leonard

Group Rules:

1. One person speak at a time

2. Respect other students opinions and views

3. Can people please raise their hand and wait to be responded to before

speaking

Objectives -1. Group will understand gender differences focusing on the following differences:

Physical difference - males are physically stronger and faster than females, however females tend to excel in endurance related activities.Intellectual difference - strength and weakness in different areas - males tend to better at mathematical areas, females literacy areas.Emotional difference - respond to situations differently- males more aggressive tendencies. Will react differently to similar circumstances.

2. Group will develop skills to accommodate gender differences within a classroom.We need to utilise different teaching styles to accommodate both female & male strengths and weaknesses .People are different, therefore it is good practice to accommodate individual differences and to present information in a variety of ways. It is not recommended to categorise learners and prescribe methods of teaching styles to suit personality types but rather to be diverse in your teaching style to ensure both females and males are equally engaged in all activities.

Reflection questions (to think about during presentation)

Q: Can you think of other situations where a teacher must account for gender differences?

Q: As a teacher what would you do in this situation?

Q: Do you think that gender difference is a significant issue that needs to be addressed in our teaching styles?

According to Woolfolk and Margetts in Educational Psychology, “...gender differs from sex in that gender refers specifically to behaviour and attitudes constructed through social practice where as sex refers to biological differences. It is also suggested that gender identity can change over time or within context and culture.”

•Key point: The profound difference between females and males is not simply brain structure, but is actually in the sequence of development in the various brain regions - For example girls reach the inflection point or halfway point in brain development just before 11yrs old, boys however do not reach this point until about 15yrs old. This therefore would be a major factor influencing the way males and females think, feel and learn in our classrooms.

There are differences in the bullying experiences of males and females. It is more common for males to be involved in physical bullying. Females on the other hand are more likely than males to be involved in psychological bullying. However, for both, the most common type of bullying is verbal.

IS PHYSICAL BULLYING MORE OF A PROBLEM

THEN PSYCHOLOGICAL BULLYING??

QUESTION:

Males are more likely to be involved in physical bullying is unsurprising. However, we should not assume that because of this, bullying among males is more serious or damaging. It could be that the more obvious methods of bullying used by males makes it easier to spot - and to stop - than the subtlety of females bullying.It is also worth noting that many of the cases of suicide where bullying has been identified as a cause, have involved females who have not been physically bullied but 'only' subjected to name-calling and isolation.

BULLYING Research.........

Research has shown that boys get called on more in class. This may be that the males simply volunteer to answer more, which may be related to males more assertive or competition-valuing nature.

SO???????

Something to Consider:

Question:

Do males and females need to be educated in separate classes???

 

In some high schools females and males are taught separately until they're 14

Teachers should be encouraged to tailor classes to fit the needs of males, with more emphasis on "competitive" lessons and the reading of non-fiction books.

Males were achieving a level of performance that girls had reached seven years before.

Question:Are current teaching methods catering

more towards females???

Various stereotypes exist regarding gender differences: eg, girls are more sociable, more nurturing, more compliant and have lower self-esteem, are hard to sustain. One that definitely seems to have disappeared over the last two decades is that girls have less motivation to achieve.

• higher in communication• higher in support-validation• lower in withdrawal• friendships involve more intimacy• more likely to disclose thoughts and feelings•receive more support and understanding from friends• establish intimacy through discussion and self-disclosure• less conflict between friends•resolve conflict by clarifying feelings, changing the topic proposing a compromise or leaving the situation• recommend talking about the problem

Female Emotional Characteristics

• more conflict between friends• use physical force or threat to resolve conflicts• recommend forgetting about problems• avoid discussion•larger peer networks• establish intimacy through shared activities• recommend hostile or coercive strategies• recommend forgetting about the problem• use aggressive strategy• spend more time in coordinated group activity

Male Emotional Characteristics

When females are stressed, they are more likely to turn to other females for support and defend each other from perceived threats —the “tend-and-befriend” response

When males are stressed, they tend to seek out a safe place in action, moving toward a danger when stressed (fight), or running away from the danger (flight) — the fight or flight response

Women are more:

•emotionally expressive•emotionally responsive•empathetic•sensitive to others' feelings•obsessed with having children

Men:•are more obsessed with sex•are overwhelmed by women's expressions of emotion•express more anger•control their feelings•restrain from expressing their feelings•are stoic•show emotion to communicate dominance

Happiness

•Women claim to be far happier than men with their lives, and reported more often that they had made personal progress in the last five years.

•Women show greater concern about family and home life issues.

•Men express more concern about political issues. Men are happier with their family life and more optimistic about their personal future and that of their children.

Myers – Brigg

Extroversion (E) --- Introversion (I)

Intuition (N) --- Sensing (S)

Thinking (T) --- Feeling (F)

Judgement (J) --- Perception (P)

An intellectual is a person who uses intelligence (thought and reason) and analytical thinking, either in a professional or a personal capacity.

MALE STRENGTHS:

Estimate time

Judge speed of things

Carry out mental maths

Better visuo-spacial skills

Do better at more abstract maths

Mental rotation

Have a greater advantage in spatiotemporal tasks

Superior ability to visualize 3D objects

FEMALE STRENGTHS:

Greater Verbal skills

Tend to pick up auditory information better

Better perceptual speed

MALE WEAKNESSES:

Males are more likely to be diagnosed with stuttering and problems with hand-writing

Trouble with reading more evident when orally reading

Struggle in writing

FEMALE WEAKNESSES:

Mathematic areas involving abstract concepts of space, relationships and theory

Poor spatial and mental rotation skills

OCCUPATIONS FILLED BY MALES:Mathematicians, airplane pilots, bush guides, mechanical engineers, architects and race car drivers

FILLED BY FEMALES:Human relations, teachers, nurses, psychologists, event-coordinators, emotional and artistic expressiveness and aesthetic appreciation

In Males:Higher levels of Testosterone before birth stimulates the development of the right hemisphere of the brain.

• At the age of 3-6mnths boys have more responsiveness in right hemisphere

Larger Parietal cortex and amygdala responsible for spatial abilities and responding to emotionally arousing information

Parts of brain involved in mechanical skills or projectile estimations mature faster in boys

In Females:Girls have greater brain activity in areas involved in word meanings, sounds of words, and spelling of words and their visual identification

Frontal cortex and limbic cortex are larger in women; responsible for higher brain functions and emotional responses

Girls use both sides of brain, boys primarily use left side

Left Brain Right Brain

LogicalSequentialRational

Analytical

Objective

Looks at parts

RandomIntuitive

HolisticSynthesizing

Subjective

Looks at wholes

Reasons for Intellectual Differences

LEARNING:Boys language ability dominated by visual areas of the brain

Girls language abilities dominated by auditory/listening areas of the brain

Boys learn better when they can manipulate or view material

Most girls primarily learn with words

% of highly educated males capable in all 3 kinds of literacy has declined

% of females capable in 3rd kind has slightly increased and remained the same in the first two.

TEACHING AND INTELLECTUAL DIFFERENCES:Grammar, reading and language driven abilities are taught at a young age. However only girls have

brains sufficiently matured in these areas.

Majority of teachers are women… In the first years of school, 95% of boys and girls have female teachers.

Studies conducted in Australia, have shown that students educated in single-sex schools outperform those in co-ed schools.

• Boys performance in English and foreign languages much stronger

• While girls showed more success in math and science

In single-sex schools:

Girls more likely to study traditionally “male-based” subjects

Boys more likely to study foreign languages, art, music and drama

HOWEVER on the flip side…

Potentially harm development of social and verbal skills

School environment could promote gender-specific roles

SINGLE-SEX CLASSES… GOOD OR BAD?

WAYS TO CATER FOR INTELLECTUAL DIFFERENCES:

Boys should be educated through illustrations and the use of visual stimuli

Allowing boys to stand, move around for short intervals improves their performance.

Incorporating gender-specific techniques into teaching, which engage the matured areas of male

and female brains better learning.

Males have a more relaxed and visually exciting approach to education

Providing structure and bonding opportunities (group work) for women has been advantageous

In English assign stories that appeal to both boys and girls, or they become bored and uninterested

poor reading skills

Also providing them with competitions, which they crave, promotes learning e.g. dividing into

groups to find out who best understood the ideas conveyed.

Boys perform better when tested in same way as that which was used when learning the information

e.g. if a teacher verbally explains something, a boy would do better in a verbal than written test.

When teaching not only verbally explain concepts but use visual aids

Encourage boys to speak in class-room discussions

Help girls develop spatial skills by physical activities involving spatial knowledge

To promote perceptual speed in boys, implement find and identify tasks.

“If you teach the same subjects the same way to girls and boys—in other words, if you ignore gender, by the age of 13, you’re going to have girls who think they cant do geometry and boys who hate to read and write” – Sax

Males versus females Video Game

Gender differences are acknowledged and catered for in everything from computer

games, conflict resolution, sports and much more, therefore it is only logical that we do

so in the classroom in the ways we teach and assess students.

Males and females have different learning needs, and teachers need to take this into

account when creating learning environments.

boys vs girls