Girls May Learn Math Anxiety From Female Teachers ( thanks to the reader who sent this in).
posted by Helen at 1:53 PM
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Contributors
Previous Posts
- Men don't exist/ Women do
- Would you dump a woman for using a coupon?
- Youth, self-esteem and the recession
- Andrew Breitbart: Practicing offensive conservatis...
- Dr. Wes on Swiss call girls who offer full cardiac...
- Targeting sexism in the most effective way
- This is kind of interesting: America's Most Danger...
- Gee, what a surprise...
- John Hawkins interviews Thomas Sowell on his new b...
- Taking tweeting too far?
7 Comments:
This doesn't surprise me. Over 25 years ago when I was studying to be a high school math teacher*, I asked some of my education class classmates about their math background. I remember one future elementary school teacher in particular. "Oh, I hate math. I take the absolute minimum required."
I knew then she was going to be bad for her students. No matter how much she smiled when she announced it was time to work on math, the kids were going to pick up on the fact that she didn't like it.
*I lasted a year as a teacher. While my military experience had made me used to poverty, I found I no longer enjoyed it and went on to better things.
Maybe that indicates that women should not be allowed to teach math to the younger students. This indicates that they are telegraphing defeatism to the girls, and that is a disservice to the students.
Actually, no one should be teaching a subject they are less than competent in themselves. This should be self evident a priori. To have any teacher trying to teach a subject in which they are less than adequate is simply a recipe for disaster, both for the students and for the teacher. But then, to postulate competent teachers, when we have unionized teachers, that is a fundamental contradiction right there!
Maybe that indicates that women should not be allowed to teach math to the younger students.
No, what it could indicate is that anxious women should not teach math. For the female teachers who were not anxious there was no issue apparently.
I agree with your second point:
Actually, no one should be teaching a subject they are less than competent in themselves.
Though it's also interesting to consider that anxiousness is not necessarily a sign of incompetence. I know very competent people who still worry about their performance. You can be skillful but still have too much self-doubt.
Another interesting point in the article:
"Beilock did note that not all of the girls in classrooms with math-anxious teachers fell prey to the stereotype"
That could be an informative line of study - when you say 'on average', not everyone will behave this way. What makes those other people different?
For the female teachers who were not anxious there was no issue apparently.
Just to clarify, I'm specifically talking about math-anxiousness, which is the article's focus.
Remember, teachers who major in education are favored over teachers who major in a field and then get certified. I've not only been told this by teachers, but have witnessed the contempt some education major teachers have for their better educated peers.
An education major is one of centerpieces of America's education system problems. The degree shouldn't even exist (and neither should the hollow certification programs.)
What Joe said.
Again.
Trey
This might be a good starting place, but the study is flawed. The article states: "Ninety percent of U.S. elementary school teachers are women, as were all of those in this study."
How can they know if it is female teachers that are passing along a math anxiety? They didn't bother to see if the girls performed better when they had a male teacher, they didn't even bother WITH a male teacher.
Also, this is first and second grade math. Seriously. There isn't anything to be anxious about in first or second grade math. One doesn't even need to take off the shoes and socks to be able to count/add the numbers together that they are dealing with.
This is just another case of ending up with a PC result to bring in funding for further "research"
Post a Comment
<< Home