Encouraging Girls in Math and Science
An ideal classroom in an elementary school would allow both boys and girls to
learn fairly, equally, and also be encouraged to be involved in the classroom. The
teacher would expect the same effort from the boys as well as the girls. The teacher
would implement a respectful atmosphere where the teacher as well as the students
would respect one another. The reality is that girls quickly become discouraged to
pursue math and/or science related careers. Girls lose their self-esteem from
experiencing negative attitudes from their teachers as well as from the boys in their
class. Girls are not encouraged to participate in math and science, and they feel that
they are not capable of doing well in these subjects. The low self-esteem is reflected
on girls’ actions and choices. Girls become at risk for dropping out of high school,
experiencing gender bias in the classroom and on their assessment tests, not enrolling
in math and/or science classes, teen pregnancy, and possibly experiencing sexual
harassment at school. Therefore, I believe that it is extremely important that teachers
realize these risks and try to find solutions in their teaching methods and assessments.
Even though drop-out rates are higher among boys than girls, the number of
girls who do not return to school or get their GED is higher than boys. Many reasons
that girls drop out of school reflect: “a sense of alienation from school: a lack of
individual success and/or that school is not worthwhile”. (MAEC, 1993) Reasons
include: “having a large number of siblings, mother’s educational level, and belief in
traditional gender-role stereotypes”. (MAEC, 1993) Girls who don’...
... middle of paper ...
...esearch Matters - to the Science Teacher. Retrieved
on March 20, 2001 from the World Wide Web. http://narst.org/research/class.htm
Kahle, Jane Butler. (1985) Encouraging Girls in Science Courses and Careers.
Retrieved on March 3, 2001 from the World Wide Web.
http://narst.org/research/encourage/htm
Kahle, Jane Butler and Arta Damnjanovic. (1997) How Research Helps Address
Gender Equity. Retrieved on March 3, 2001 from the World Wide Web.
http://narst.org/research/gender2.htm
The Mid-Atlantic Equity Center. (1993) Beyond Title IX: Gender Equity Issues in
Schools. Retrieved on March 17, 2001 from the World Wide Web.
http://www.maec.org/beyond.html
NEA. (2001) Be an advocate for gender equity in your classroom, school, and
district. Retrieved on March 18, 2001 from the World Wide Web.
http://www.nea.org/bt/1-students/1-3-q-b.html
--- "Girls Just Want to Go to School." New York Times [New York] 9 11 2011, n. pag. Web. 20
Adolescents is a time of significant life transitions in which young adults learn to cope with changes that are brought about by physical and emotional maturation (Sands and Howard-Hamilton, 1994). During this time girls begin to become more aware of themselves as females, and learn to identify society’s signals to conform appropriately for their gender (Sands and Howard-Hamilton, 1994). The highschool girls that are present in this writers program are starting to unders...
Breslow, Jason M. "By the Numbers: Dropping out of High School." pbs.org. PBS, 21 Sept.
This book is trying to show the struggle that many young girls experience and the reasons to why the adolescence years to prove to be such a period of, underachievement, anger, and pain in the lives of girls who can be bright and talented girls. A few of Mary Piphers points that she stresses throughout the book are, girls today are much more distressed, anxious, and uncomfortable than before. The society in which they are coming of age is more dangerous, sexualized, and media saturated, the culture is indeed a girl poisoning one.
less well in school and are more likely to drop out of school. Often, the reason for dropping out
Sending a child to a gender based school, is a very big decision to make. The decision is so big, that looking at what research has to say about the topic could alter one’s decision to send their child to a gender based school. “Educators must apply different approaches in teaching make, and female students” (Gurian). This is said by Gurian, because he also believes that boys and girls learn differently. “Social pressures can be gentler and your child can learn at his own pace” (Kennedy).
High school is the beginning of a new chapter for every student. It is the start of a right passage for young adults. It not only marks a big achievement to finish high school, but it is a greater stepping stone to higher education and career opportunities. It is through hard work that students make it to the end and hopefully are able to continue higher education. Many students make it through easily but many struggle during the process and decide or are even forced to leave their education. But why do students lose their interest in school? It may be that when students notice they are not successful they lose their drive and motivation and would rather do something else with their life that they think is productive. Without success students lose incentives to go to school. Consequently, they have no attachment to their school. Personal problems affecting students seem to be the main cause for students to drop out of high school. Pregnancy is a main factor that affects female students. As stated, “lack of parental and educational support and becoming a parent are two of the most common reasons younger Americans drop out of high school, according to data re...
"High School Student Dropouts." High School Student Dropouts RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Feb. 2014. .
Because of adolescence, they may think that school is “nothing”, it is just a waste of time. Also, facts have been saying that more and more students are being independent related to the school. A good reason that they are independent is that they want to have their own money. However, when we don’t know how to say no and face whatever problems may cause, we often use to drop out of college to avoid difficulties.
Same sex classes make it possible for teachers to cater to student needs in a more efficient way. In general boys benefit from hands on learning, but girls benefit from calm discussions (Mullins 3). Girls tend to doubt themselves while boys think they can do anything. Boys need to be brought down from the clouds while girls need to be dug out of a hole (Mullins 3). David Chadwell says, "Structure and connection are two key concepts when examining gender in the classroom. All students certainly need both, but it seems that teachers need to consider the issue of structure more with boys and the issue of connection more with girls" (7), and Kristen Stanberry’s research has shown, "Some research indicates that girls learn better when classroom temperature is warm, while boys perform better in cooler classrooms. If that's true, then the temperature in a single-sex classroom could be set to optimize the learning of either male or female students" (1). These observations further support the idea that same sex classrooms can cater to student’s...
Adolescents is a time of significant life transitions in which young adults learn to cope with changes that are brought about by physical and emotional maturation (Sands and Howard-Hamilton, 1994). During this time girls begin to become more aware of themselves as females, and learn to identify society’s signals to conform appropriately to their gender (Sands and Howard-Hamilton, 1994). The high school girls that are present in this writers program are starting to understand that they can use their bodies to get attention from boys therefore making them value their individual beauty. Some girls have identified that the “boys” that they like do not value them for their brains, but for their beauty and therefore this is where high school becomes a popularity contest, and academically their grades begin to suffer.
Every 26 seconds one of our kids drops out of high school, that's 1.3 million students each year. The main reason for dropping out, the failure to succeed. Society puts an insurmountable amount of pressure on these kids to succeed, however this can actually be extremely detrimental to the students and children.
The students make bad decisions. They are not involved in any extra-curricular actives; therefore, they get involved with gangs, drugs, and alcohol. They get pregnant and commit crimes. Numerous of teens that dropout have a poor school attitude and becomes bored by school. Being bored day in and day out can get frustrating, often so frustrating that a teen will simply stop going to school. According to the American Academy of Pediatrics’ HealthyChildren.org, teens who are offered alternate learning opportunities, such a...
Have you ever wondered why there are so many teens in the United States dropping out of high school, even though they are United States citizens and have weigh more opportunities than immigrants? Well in the beginning before I started researching I thought that students would drop out because they were careless and lazy. Well my opinion changed at the end of my research because not everyone drops out of high school because they are lazy or careless but because they have reasons for which they need to drop out. What caused me to change my opinion about high school dropouts are their important and meaningful reasons. Several of the following examples came from the previous research that I accomplished the last a couple of months. The research will back up that the cause of students dropping out because of important reasons and not just people being lazy or careless.
Girls are seen as caring, nurturing, quiet, and helpful. They place other’s needs above their own. Girls get ahead by hard work, not by being naturally gifted. Boys are seen as lazy, but girls are seen as not capable. In class, teacher will call on boys more than they call on girls. Boys are seen as better at math and science; while girls are better at reading and art. This bias is still at work even out of the classroom. There are more males employed at computer firms than women. The ratio of male to female workers in STEM fields is 3-1. In college, more women major in the humanities than in the sciences. In education, women are often seen as lesser than; even though 65% of all college degrees are earned by women. Women are still often seen as needing to be more decorative than intellectual, as represented by the Barbie who included the phrase, “Math is hard!” and the shirt that JC Penneys sold that said, “I’m too pretty to do homework, so my brother has to do it for me.” While there was a backlash on both items, it points out that there is a great deal of work to do on the educational gender bias to be