Gender Differences

1. Gender Differences Part II

2. Potential Causes for Gender Differences in Mathematical Problem Solving Cognitive Style male advantage in visuospatial skills; diff. Types of psychometric tests of spatial ability, such as: three-dimensional rotation of images; judging relative distance and relative velocity of moving objects most pronounced during adolescence but also found early in the elementary school years

3. Due to Biological factors ind. Diff. On spatial tests: moderately to highly heritable; prenatal exposure to androgens, or male hormones: increase girls� spatial skills with adrenal hyperplasia Due to Sociocultural and Experiential Influences: parents reinforce sex-type behavior participation in drafting, engineering,...

4. Relationship between spatial skills and mathematical performance Girls with low spatial skills but good verbal skills showed a decline in mathematics achievement as compared with girls with a high spatial skills and low verbal ability When solving word problems, if important relationships are diagrammed, errors can be avoided -- abilities in solving word problems related to spatial abilities.

5. Why Males are Better Males more likely to resort to spatial-related strategies in problem-solving solutions, eg, use dynamic 3-dim representations teaching girls to use spatial-related strategies improve their performance for solving word problems and some calculus problems.

6. Potential Causes for Gender Differences in Mathematical Problem Solving (2) Psychological Factors What influence the level of participation in mathematics, e.g., the spontaneous use of spatial strategies in problem-solving situations three general psychological influences Historical trends perceived usefulness and competence of mathematics classroom experiences

7. Historical trends Magnitude of the gender difference in mathematical performance has declined over the last several decades -- mathematical skills is responsive to social change 17 -year-old girls from 8 nations had higher mean mathematics achievement scores than the mean of boys in the US -- motivated and able girls should be able to develop the mathematical skills necessary to succeed in the mathematical and physical sciences.

8. Perceived Usefulness and Competence of Mathematics Attitudes have on participation in mathematics courses girls take fewer advanced mathematics course in high school mathematics achievement in 12th grade related to: basic mathematical ability (in 9th grade) number of mathematics courses taken

9. Why women participate in mathematical courses less frequently Perceived usefulness of mathematics not consistent for 1st grades to 4th grades during high school years, male students consistently perceive mathematics as being a useful skill appears to be related to long-term career goals -- women were much less likely to enter mathematics-intensive professions

10. Many girls do not believe that work in these areas will be especially interesting appears to be related to a gender difference in the relative orientation toward people and human relationships -- people oriented rather than object oriented most mathematics-intensive areas are male dominated dissuade some women from pursuing careers in these areas

11. Perceived mathematical competence 2 factors: one�s performance in relation to peers -- better performance, higher perceived competence intraindividuality: the skill that is relatively better among oneself will be perceived more competent, disregard of the level compared with others Male feel better about their mathematical competence (adolescent and elementary school boys, US, Taiwan, Japan)

12. Most of the children thought boys and girls are equally skilled boys have better perception -- intraindividual comparisons -- girls prefer reading while boys prefer mathematics high school boys tended to increase their efforts after failure whereas girls tended to show less effort (Kloosterman,1990)

13. Perceived mathematical ability affects performance, performance again affects perceived ability.

14. Classroom Experiences More individual time in reading instruction with girls and more mathematics instruction time with boys (Leinhardt, Seewald, & Engel, 1979)? Study by Perterson & Fennema, 1985 36 4th grade classrooms were recorded during the mathematics instruction for at least 15 days no gender diff. in the amount of time spent

15. no overall gender diff. in the change of math. achievement across-class differences: frequency engaged in cooperative or competitive classroom competitive: negative impact on achievements of girls cooperative: negative impact on boys

16. Biological Factors Biological primary skills: sensitivity to numerosity, understanding of basic number concepts, understanding of the effects of addition and subtraction on quantity Consistent finding of no gender difference on these primary skills -- gender difference in mathematical problem solving is NOT biologically primary unlikely there is anything like a �male math gene� gender difference due to the reproductive strategies or the associated division of labor.