Elementary Education and Gender: Do Boys and Girls Learn Differently?

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Introduction Boys and girls learn differently, this is something everyone is an elementary school classroom and everyone who plans on teaching knows that. Teachers strive to help their students in any way possible and current research indicates that this should include accommodating for the gender of your student. According to Ponitz et al. (2009), “…the first 2 years of elementary school have been characterized as a ‘critical period’ in early development.” The first few years of elementary school is when children start developing ideas of what school is, that is why this paper focuses on gender differences in elementary school children. This paper will be broken into several sections general learning, physical/cognitive, social, reading, math, and science, each section will discuss the journal articles written since 2009 in that field. General Learning Logan et al. (2009) claims that it is likely that girls feel more positively about the entire school experience due to the fact that the education system has been feminized, leading to an unintentional bias in favor of girls. Watson et al. (2010) says that, boys and girls have a certain set of fixed characteristics that determine who they are and their natural interests and behaviors. These qualities are what define boys and girls as masculine and feminine, and are understood to be important, in fact, likelihood for education success rests on the acknowledgement and accommodation for these qualities. (Watson, Kehler, & Martino, 2010) Logan et al. (2009) points out, the rules and restrictions in place in a school setting are not conducive the nature of boys; good students are meant to listen, sit still and quiet, watch the teacher/presenter for extended periods of time, and be good ... ... middle of paper ... ...nces in reading. Educational Review, 175-187. Ponitz, C. C., Rimm-Kaufman, S. E., Brock, L. L., & Nathanson, L. (2009). Early adjustment, gender differences, and classroom organizatinal climate in first grade. The Elementary School Journal, 143-162. Ricks, D. (2011, June). Educating boys for success: Are today's classrooms biased against boys? Retrieved from National Education Association: http://www.nea.org/home/44609.htm Sun, Y., Zhang, J., & Scardamalia, M. (2010). Developing deep understanding and literacy whilde addressing a gender-based literacy gap. Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology. Sutter, M., & Rutzler, D. (2010). Gender differences in competition emerge early in life. Econstor, 1-33. Watson, A., Kehler, M., & Martino, W. (2010). The Problem of Boys' Literacy Underachivement: Raising Some Questions. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 356-361.

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