Elementary Students’ Views on the Gendering of Mathematics (original) (raw)
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Gendered beliefs about mathematics among Australian and Israeli grade 9 students
In English-speaking, Western countries, mathematics has traditionally been viewed as a "male domain", a discipline more suited to males than to females. Using two instruments tapping students' beliefs about the gendering of mathematics, recent data from Australian and American students appeared to challenge the traditional gender-stereotyped view of the discipline. Whether the patterns of beliefs were similar or different among students from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds were of interest in the study reported here. The two instruments were translated into Hebrew and Arabic and administered to a large sample of grade 9 students attending Jewish and Arab schools in northern Israel. Data from only one of the two instruments, "Mathematics as a gendered domain" are reported in this paper. When compared, the Israeli and Australian students held similar views, although the Israelis' beliefs less strongly challenged the masculine image of mathematics. Whether cultural differences could be identified was explored by comparing the data from Jewish and Arab students. The Israeli Jewish students' views were found to be very closely aligned with those of the Australian students. That is, mathematics was considered a neutral domain, and neither a male or a female domain. The Israeli Arabs students' beliefs, however, suggested that they considered mathematics to be either a neutral or a female domain and were unsure if it was a male domain. Gender differences among the Israeli Arab students revealed interesting patterns that were not easily explained.
Teacher's Gender-Related Beliefs about Mathematics
Research in Mathematical Education
Mathematics has been stereotyped as a male-dominated subject, and there is considerable evidence to support this belief. There has been much research in the past three decades on gender-related differences in elementary and secondary school mathematics. The research found that teachers possess different beliefs about male and female students that influence their teaching behaviour, which then directly or indirectly impact their students' behaviours, beliefs, and achievements in mathematics. Based on data collected from teacher questionnaire surveys in the Chinese Mainland and Hong Kong, this study examines teachers' beliefs about the achievements of boys and girls in mathematics. The study also compares the findings in the two regions surveyed. Results showed that teachers gave more attention to boys than girls, regardless of the teacher's gender. Not only are teachers more likely to recall more boys than girls, but also more boys than girls with average academic standards.
Gender equity in mathematics: Beliefs of students, parents, and teachers
School Science and …, 2003
The attitudes about mathematics held by girls and boys participating in a regional mathematics contest, their parents, teachers, and mathematics coaches were investigated. Quantitative data regarding mathematics as a male domain, perception of importance of mathematics, confidence in learning mathematics, effectance motivation, and usefulness of mathematics were obtained. It was found that the traditional gender-based differences in the beliefs regarding mathematics persist even in these mathematically talented students. Furthermore, parents' responses to the questions regarding the role of mathematics revealed that mothers, more than fathers, focused on the computational aspects of mathematics, while fathers more than mothers mentioned the role of mathematics in science or as a language. Boys, fathers, and certain mathematics teachers admitted to a low level of gender stereotyping, as evidenced by their scores on the Mathematics as a Male Domain subscale. However, the girls, mothers, and mathematics coaches did not endorse this stereotyping. Unsolicited responses of girls and mothers, in fact, emphatically denied that gender stereotyping exists. These findings are discussed in terms of the need to resolve the essential conflicts between students', parents', and teachers' deeply held beliefs regarding the nature of mathematics, gender differences in mathematical abilities, and the desire for equity within mathematics education.
Gender differences in boys' and girls' perception of teaching and learning mathematics
Gender differences between boys and girls in the perception of the classroom setting, and their relationship to achievement in mathematics and aspects of self-regulated learning skills are the focus for this article. Throughout the component analysis of answers from 6758 Swedish students we found some differences in how boys and girls perceive their classroom setting and some differences in boys’ and girls’ relationship to mathematics. According to the classroom setting, we found that boys feel that they use group work more than the girls do. Boys also feel that they have an influence over the content and are more involved during the lesson than girls. With respect to students’ relations to mathematics we found that boys perceive mathematics to be more important than girls do. One implication for teachers from the study points out how different aspects of a perceived learning environment affect students’, boys’ and girls’, achievement in mathematics.
In the early 1970s, gender differences in mathematics learning outcomes favouring males were identified. Research efforts revealed that learner-related cognitive and affective variables, as well as school-related and societal factors were implicated. Policy changes and funded intervention programs followed and had mixed effects. Both government and research attention have since turned elsewhere. In this paper, I present recent findings on gendered patterns in mathematics achievement and participation rates, and on the effects of technology on mathematics learning outcomes. The data indicate that any narrowing of the gender gap in the past decade now appears to be reversing. While there is a growing tendency to focus on smaller scale, qualitative studies, I argue that there is also the need to continue examining large scale data sources to monitor trends over time. I use three navigational metaphors to challenge thinking on the direction of future Australasian research on gender issues in mathematics education.
Gender Stereotypes, Performance and Identification with Math
Procedia - Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2015
Previous research has showed that school achievements depend on students´ motivation and identification (Zimmerman, 2000). There are some differences between girls and boys beliefs about mathematics (Gallagher & Kaufman, 2005). We still do not have enough information about relations between identification and gender beliefs and about the impact of those two areas on real knowledge. The paper presents new research on academic achievements and attitudes of girls and boys in mathematics. The basic aim is to test whether there is a correlation between mathematical knowledge/performance, identification with mathematics and gender schemas. The study involved 436 boys and girls who were divided into two age groups-10 or 11 years old and 14 or 15 years old. Data were collected using a questionnaire focusing both on identification with math, and on gender schemas. The second source of data was a didactic test with 10 or 12 math items from TIMSS. In all three areas (identification with math, gender schemas, didactic test), average scores were calculated. Correlations between scores were identified. Differences concerning gender and age were examined. Results show that boys and girls reach similar test scores and have similar identification with math. Gender beliefs about mathematics were pretty strong and got stronger for boys and the older group. As children get older, differences between boys and girls increase as does heterogeneity within each group. However, the relationship between performance, beliefs and identification is low, except for the group of older boys. The paper discusses some more results and recommendations for math schooling from psychological perspective.
Innovations in “gender issues” research in mathematics education
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Gender issues have long been a focus of mathematics education research. Landmark research was conducted over four decades ago by Fennema and Sherman (1977, 1978). The focus of early research was typically gender differences in students' achievement in, participation in, and attitudes toward mathematics (Leder, 2019; Leyva, 2017). Since that time, interest in researching this topic has fluctuated. Gender issues were a key focus of mathematics education research in the 1980s and 1990s. However, in recent decades, there has been less focus on this topic. For instance, in more recent editions of the Research in Mathematics Education in Australasia (RiMEA) 4-year reviews (
Educators’ Beliefs on the Gender Difference in Mathematics Performance of their Students
Asian Journal of Education and Social Studies, 2021
Boys outperformed girls in mathematics test scores as per the recently conducted PISA-D test in Bhutan. Further, as of 2017 from a total of 28,070 STEM-related jobs, 34.3% are female and 64.7% are male. Since educators’ teaching practices are associated with their beliefs, this study aims to investigate some of the specific beliefs held by mathematics educators on the gender difference in the mathematics performance of their students. It employed an explanatory sequential mix-method design. Three districts of Bhutan namely Tashigang, Samdrup Jongkhar, and Samtse were covered, from July 2019 to July 2020. From three districts, a sample of 33 mathematics teachers was selected from 18 schools (6 primary schools, 6 middle secondary schools, and 6 higher secondary schools) and 3 colleges. To investigate educators' beliefs a semi-structured survey questionnaire which is the adaptation of Tiedemann [1] was employed. This was followed by interviewing 8 participants from 33 participants....
Two New Instruments To Probe Attitudes about Gender and Mathematics
2002
Two forms of a new instrument, "Mathematics as a Gendered Domain" and "Who and Mathematics," were developed to replace one of the scales of the Fennema-Sherman Mathematics Attitudes Scales. The aim of both instruments is to measure the extent to which students stereotype mathematics as a gendered domain. For "Mathematics as a Gendered Domain," a Likert-type scoring format is used. The other instrument uses an innovative*response format that asks students to indicate whether girls or boys are more likely to match the wording of the item. The instruments were developed with the cooperation of mathematics teachers and a dozen volunteer secondary school students. The developed scales were pilot tested with about 400 students in grades 7 through 10 in Australia, and modified versions were then administered to approximately 1,600 students in grades 7 through 10. Data show that a majority of students perceived mathematics as a gender-neutral domain, but among ...