The Harvard Extension School’s Project, which has concluded, during its proceeding under Education E-104 (spring 2008-09) as TawaTaylor-Gr1 on “Encouraging women into STEM professions” used the article of Dr. Lalit Kishore [1] "Do men and women learn differently?" published in merinews.com as course offering in the form of a discussion paper.
According to the group coordinator Tawa Taylor, “The simple fact is that women learn differently. Men and women are supposed to be equal, but they are not the same and do not have to be the same. If teaching methods are not suitable for a large sector of the human race, then methods to alter teaching styles should be adopted. It might become a very costly venture, but will be well worth it in the future when there is a better representation of both genders in STEM fields, as can be the case. Awareness of this issue is growing, and while there are numerous ongoing efforts to correct it, results are quite minimal mainly because technology improvements and discoveries, heavily intertwined in all STEM fields, have been moving at incredible speeds.”
Since both the portals of the project and merinews have closed down, the article done this blogger currently working with Jaipur based Disha Foundation, is being reproduced here as a summary.
The last decade saw a spurt in research activities related to gender and education. Gender sensitivity and gender equity in education have become the key concern for many well-being educators and neuroscientists.
On the basis of past lived experiences of men and women during their evolutionary periods, Pease & Pease (2003) explain the difference between men and women as follows:
"Men and women are different: Not better or worse – different. Just about the only thing they have in common is that they belong to the same species. They live in different worlds, with different values and different set of rules
They say, "… Women criticize men for being insensitive, uncaring, not listening, not being warm and compassionate, not talking … Men think they are the most sensible sex. … Men and women have evolved differently because they had to. Men hunted, women gathered. Men protected, women nurtured. As a result, their bodies and brains evolved completely different ways … Over millions of years, the brain structures of men and women thus continued to change in different ways. Now, we know the sexes process information differently. They think differently. They believe different things. They have different perceptions, priorities and behaviours … Men and women should be equal in terms of their opportunities to exercise their full potential, but they are not identical in their innate abilities. Whether men and women are equal is a political or moral question, but whether they are identical is a scientific one."
Due to these differences high-lighted by Pease & Pease, the following conclusions are made:
1. Women have wider peripheral vision while men have tunnel vision;
2. Women have a better ability to predict outcomes of relationships;
3. Women are more touchy and feely;
4. Women have higher perceptiveness to concrete experiences, verbal, vocal and body language aspects.
In the last three decade, a lot of progress has been made in neuroscience-based understanding of human brain. With the new and sensitive brain scanning equipment and devices, neuroscientists have found which part and region and the brain handles which task
Currently, the brain-scanning instrument can show the activities of the brain on a television or computer screen using the techniques of Positron Emission Topography (PET) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Using these techniques, Shaywit & Bennett (1995) have found that there are different centres in the brain for seeing, hearing, generating and speaking words. And, men use mainly their left brain for these language tasks while women use both left and right. Thus, the brains of men and women operate differently.
Implications for Teaching – Learning Process
The emotionally charged and non-competitive learning environment along with use of cooperative learning (Slavin, 1980) and multiple–intelligence (Gardner, 1999) techniques of learning can be helpful for teaching subjects like mathematics and science so that both the brains get connected to appeal to women for learning these subjects well. It has been rightly said that what is good for women is also good in fore men but reverse may not be equally true. To project science and mathematics as abstract subjects and emphasize teaching techniques with linear logical thinking or left brain activities may be good for men but not for women.
Link
[1] Kishore, Lalit. (2008), Do Men and Women Learn Differently? Meri News (August 28). http://www. merinews
References
1. Gardner, H. (1999). Intelligence reframed: Multiple intelligences for the 21st century, New York: Basic Books.
2. Gorski, R. A. (1987). In Reinsch, J. M. et al (eds), Masculinity and femininity, Oxford University Press.
3. Pease, B. & Pease, A. (2003). Why men don't listen and women can't read maps, New Delhi: India Book House.
4. Shaywitz, S. and Bennett (1995). How is the brain formed ? Nature, 373.
5. Slavin, R. E. (1980). Cooperative learning. Review of Educational Research, 50 (2), 315.
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