In the classroom
© Piyawan Wongwanitchareon,Thailand
Gender biases in the teaching and learning settings are numerous, due to the subject, the materials used or simply to teacher-pupils interactions. They are especially present in:
- the lesson core, through the curriculum, the textbooks or the examples used by the teachers,
- the questioning (questions asked by boys and girls, questions asked to boys or girls, level/type of questions asked to boys and girls – recall questions, open-ended questions - time allocated to boys and girls to answer a question, etc),
- the feedback given to boys and girls by the teacher (positive or negative, judgmental, neutral, or enabling),
- the tasks and responsibilities allocated to boys and girls,
- the discipline towards boys and girls,
- the language used by the teachers or the pupils (inclusive or not, free of gender biases or not),
- the utilization of materials and tools such as books, computers, calculators by boys and girls.
In subject areas
Most learning achievement studies from the Asian region show that boys perform better than girls in math and science and girls perform equally well, or sometimes better than boys, in languages and social sciences.
The most child-damaging gender disparities are in the maths and sciences. However, the performance of boys and girls, and the environmental conditions supporting good performance, also vary in other subject areas. The Gender and Science Digital Library is a good source of more information. It is a new online collection of "gender-fair resources" in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM).
The Third International Mathematics and Science Study, known as TIMSS, is the largest and most ambitious of the international comparative studies conducted by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA) since its inception in 1959. Students were tested in both mathematics and science at five different grades across primary, middle, and secondary school,totaling more than half a million students tested in 41 countries around the world.
A report with an in depth look at the TIMSS achievement results by gender is avaliable at http://isc.bc.edu/timss1995i/gender.html. Results show that much effort still is needed to achieve gender equity in mathematics and science achievement around the world.
Avaliable tools
In the GENIA Toolkit there are among other useful resources two tools specifically relevant to Gender issues in the classroom, if you have not looked through the toolkit yet we recommend you check out its full content in the link above.
General | Date | Source | File Type |
2004 | |||
2004 | |||
Policy Paper 1: Curriculum for Gender Equality and Quality Basic Education in Schools | 2003 | ||
2003 | |||
An Investigative Study of the Abuse of Girls in African Schools | August 2003 | ||
Preliminary Investigation of the Abuse of Girls in Zimbabwean Junior Secondary Schools | 2000 | HTML | |
1998 | HTML |
In subject areas | Date | Source | File Type |
Gender Differences in Achievement, IEA’s Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) | 2000 | IEA | Web page with PDF |
How to Make Science More Friendly, Particularly to Girls, within the Framework of STL | August 2002 | UNICEF India/UNESCO New Delhi/Delhi University | Zip File |
1999 | HTML | ||
Barriers to ICTs in Education Based on Gender Differences' Regional Expert Meeting Report | November 1998 | ||
Round Table on Enhancing Access of Girls and Women to Science and Technology Education (arabic) | 1997 | HTML | |
n/a | HTML |
