For decades, children have been students of the "subtle curriculum," where they've learned far more than reading, science and math.
Put differently, this is the inadvertent classroom process of conditioning boys and girls in how they are expected to behave. A pervasive message of this "subtle lesson" is that boys and girls possess diverse abilities and are therefore bound to achieve different things.It's a lesson that has lasting implications. Parents, society and teachers, unaware that they teach disparately, often end up treating boys and girls very differently - to the point that some say there are two educational systems in the country: one for girls and one for boys.
Much has been done in recent years to combat this discrepancy in the schools, including efforts to change textbooks and curriculums so they reflect activities and accomplishments of both males and females. Federal legislation also requires that all school activities and classes be open equally to boys and girls.
Despite these advances, Utah educators who are aware of the problems say that unless teachers are willing to examine their methods and make conscious changes where needed, gender inequity in classrooms will persist.
"Improvement has been so small that gender equity is still a big issue," said Shirley Leali, associate professor of teacher education at Weber State University.
Beginning in kindergarten, she said, boys tend to be selected for leadership roles and are called on in class more often than girls. "Maybe that's a way of subtly implying that the boys are smarter and better," she said.
In addition, said Davis County science teacher Brenda Smith, teachers tend to separate tasks for students according to gender. For instance, she said, a teacher might ask a boy to do the "physical work" of setting up the P.E. equipment, a girl the "domestic work" of watering the plants. (See teacher treatment chart for other distinctions.)
As Smith has been involved with equity inservice training and monitoring in the Davis County District, she said she's noticed several teaching trends. In particular, many teachers have higher expectations for male students in scientific and technical areas.
"It's like boys are pushed more in areas of math and science because that's supposedly going to help them in the future," Smith said. "Girls are expected to excel in social-type things, language arts-type things."
In Utah, gender differences show up in test scores. Despite a push over the past few years to get more girls to take math and science in the secondary grades, boys continue to outscore them on the statewide Stanford Achievement Test, said David E. Nelson, assessment specialist in the State Office of Education. (See 1993 test result chart.)
"Sex role stereotyping is a horrible problem," said Nelson. "If we don't pay attention to gender and minority issues, we'll continue to see women repressed in all fields of endeavor."
When the SAT was administered in 1993, fifth-grade girls actually outscored boys in math and were close behind them in science. By eighth grade, when students begin to have more choices about the classes they take, the girls began to lose ground and the 11th grade scores showed the boys well ahead in both categories.
While there is always talk of how girls fall short in math and science, there isn't enough attention to boys' problems with English skills, said Mary Petersen, an equity specialist with the state office. Boys aren't as encouraged to develop strong language skills, she said, and many are ill-equipped to communicate effectively.
Girls outscored their male counterparts at all three grade levels in language arts by substantial margins, and the Utah boys were well below national norms in each instance, Nelson said.
The Utah State Office of Education has taken serious note of the scores and begun a counteroffensive, he said. The same kind of attention that has been given to getting more girls into higher math and science classes will be brought to bear on the language arts disparity, he said.
The bias against strong language arts background for boys often shows up in their careers later on. "Women come to work better prepared in writing, editing and other language arts-related tasks. Many men, even in high level jobs, struggle," he said.
Yet another classroom problem is that teachers may punish students by emphasizing their gender differences, Smith said. Ever remember being told that if you didn't behave, the teacher would make you sit boy-girl, boy-girl? Smith says that's an example.
The teaching profession itself is a pattern for gender selectivity. The great majority of those who teach math and science are men. Women predominate in the language arts areas. The same subtle expectations that lead to classroom biases have an effect as prospective male and female teachers select their specialties based on their own past experiences, Nelson said.
In the elementary grades, where there is a significant majority of women teachers, students tend to get "the mother's model," he said. "They may or may not ever be exposed to the father's model" if they don't have contact with male teachers. More men teach in junior high and high school, but by then the gender misperceptions may be deeply implanted.
Educators feel these subtle nuances in the classroom are harmful, even if they're not intentional.
"I don't think any teacher goes out of his or her way to be inequitable, but they fall into these little habits of instruction," Smith said. "They just need to be aware of them."
Indeed, Smith and Leali each said that when they first began studying equity concerns, they were surprised to discover they too treated boys and girls differently.
The key, they said, is training teachers to recognize detrimental teaching styles.
A study by the American Association of University Women shows that girls' feelings about academic performance correlate strongly with teacher/student relationships. When teachers hold expectations and channel girls, the girls become conditioned to feel that they lack certain abilities. Their self-esteem progressively declines with more years in school.
Whereas 45 percent of girls in elementary school believe they are good at many things, only 23 percent believe the same in high school, according to the study. The figures for the boys are 55 percent in elementary school, 42 percent in high school.
Leali and Smith believe an effective way of eliminating teaching biases is to make teachers aware through inservice training. Smith is already involved with inservice in Davis County, which she says has been successful. And Leali, who has been selected as one of 60 professors nationwide to join the Teacher Education Equity Project next month, wants to apply that experience to training prospective teachers before they even enter the field.
Another tactic, Petersen said, is to encourage students to change their current course-taking patterns. This means encouraging more girls toward math and science and more boys toward communication-related classes, she said.
Parents must also steer clear of reinforcing gender stereotypes, she added.
Indeed, as Nelson believes, the best place to correct misperceptions about particular school subjects is at home. "If (proper perceptions) don't begin at home, it is mission impossible for the schools."
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ADDITIONAL INFORMATION
Ways boys and girls are treated differently in the classroom
- Teachers in general pay more attention to boys than girls, and will call on boys more often to give answers or to participate in activities.
- Teachers respond more to boys in science and math classes, and to girls in reading classes.
- Boys are selected more often as team leaders.
- Teachers give boys far more praise than they give girls.
- At the same time, boys receive more criticism and thus get more chances to improve and more opportunities to learn how to handle criticism.
- If a boy gives a wrong answer, he will be told to work harder. A girl will be told that she gave it a good enough try. Thus girls may not be encouraged to do their best.
- If a student needs help with an assignment or problem, teachers will give a boy detailed directions or walk him through it. Teachers will do the work for a girl.
- Girls who are gifted in mathematics are far less likely to be identified than are gifted boys.
- Girls who suffer from learning disabilities are less likely to be identified or to participate in special education programs than are learning disabled boys.
Source: compilation of national research reports
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Test scores
1993 Utah statewide test results show strengths, weaknesses, for boys and girls: (Scores are percentile ranks. 50 is the national median score.)
GRADE MALE FEMALE
Reading 5 51 55
8 53 57
11 58 58
Language/English 5 42 55
8 39 52
11 45 58
Mathematics 5 59 63
8 51 54
11 63 54
Science 5 56 52
8 58 53
11 66 54
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I'm good at a lot of things
Percent "Always True" by grade
BOYS GIRLS
Elementary 55% 45%
Middle 48% 29%
High School 42% 23%
Source: American Association of University Women, 1991