Boys and Girls Learn Differently

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Boys and Girls Learn Differently!

• Heath Elementary School
• Presented by Christopher Thornton

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Questions

• When you were being trained to be a teacher, how
  many of you were offered a class in the actual
  development of the students brain?
• How many of you were offered a class in the
  developmental differences between the way a boys
  brain works and a girls brain?

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Objectives

• Differences between boys and girls
• Strategies to achieving the ultimate elementary
  classroom

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Developmental Comparisons

• Girls 1-3
• Read better and sooner
• Superior at seeing in low light and hearing
• Better verbal ability
• Better at grammar and vocabulary
• Fewer speech problems
• Less able to separate emotion from reason
• Better at tests requiring listening to the
  questions being read
• Less bound by arbitrary rules
• Hypothalamus functions to fluctuate hormone
  levels

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Developmental Comparisons

• Boys 1-3
• Takes longer to attain reading mastery
• Better at tests requiring circling of answers
• Better at general math
• Better at three dimensional reasoning
• 95 of Hyperactive children
• More Rule bound than girls
• Better able to separate emotion from reason
• Superior at certain visual tasks in bright light
• Hypothalamus functions to keep hormone levels even

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Developmental Comparisons

• Boys 4-6
• Hormones begin to increase at age 10
• Primarily focused on action, exploration, and
  things
• More likely to use aggression to resolve
  differences
• Better at reading maps and deciphering directions
• More likely to need remedial reading
• Solves math problems without talking
• Channel surfs on TV

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Developmental Comparisons

• Girls 4-6
• Affected by hormonal changes earlier than boys
• Primarily focused on relationships and
  communication
• Unlikely to settle differences with hitting
• Better at fine motor skills and coordination for
  fine tasks
• Better at learning a foreign language
• More likely to sing in tune
• Solves math problems with language help
• Watches one program for longer period

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How Did We Get Here?

• Scientists believe that the divergence of gender
  roles was necessary in order for the human
  species to survive.
• Millions of years of human history are inherited
  in the neural systems of male and female
  children.

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Where We Are Today

• Advantages for Boys, Disadvantages for Girls
• Athletics only 37 of high school athletes are
  girls, the rest are boys.
• Classroom Behavior Boys tend to be louder, more
  physically aggressive, and more prone to
  attention getting devices.

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Where We Are Today (Contd)

• Specific Academic Areas- Boys are approx. 2-4
  points ahead of girls in math and science scores
  tracked by the U.S. D.O.E. (Mainly seen at the
  highest levels of calculus, chemistry and
  physics.
• Test Scores Boys score slightly higher than
  girls on SAT and other college entrance exams.

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Other Advantages

• Psychological Disorders for every one boy who
  attempts suicide, four girls do.
• Sexual Abuse Girls are more common victim of
  sexual abuse at the hands of teachers, parents,
  coaches, or other students, or other school
  staff.
• Cultural Gender Bias Good old boy networks
  still exist in some school establishing that boys
  are more privileged in access to employment
  networks.

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Disadvantages for Boys

• Extracurricular activities Girls make up the
  majority of student government officials, after
  school club leaders, and school community
  liaisons.
• Academic Performance- Girls receive approximately
  60 of the As, and boys receive approximately
  70 of the Ds and Fs.

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Disadvantages for Boys

• Specific academic performance girls are one and
  a half years ahead of boys in reading and writing
  competency in all grade levels.
• Learning and behavioral disorders boys are more
  likely to experience a learning, psychiatric, or
  behavioral disorder.
• Boys make up two-thirds of the learning disabled
  and 90 of the behaviorally disabled.
• Girls only make-up approximately 20 of ADHD and
  ADD diagnoses.

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Disadvantages for Boys

• Boys are 90 of the discipline problems in school
  as well as 80 of the dropouts in high school.
• The education system and individual classroom is
  not as well designed for the male brain
  development as for the female.
• Less kinesthetic learning, un-mentored learning,
  and less disciplined educational strategies than
  many boys need combined with a high number of
  female teachers equals disadvantages for boys.

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Strategies for Boys

• Support teacher training in male-brain
  development and the male learning pace.
• Use boy only groups when needed.
• Encourage close bonding between teacher and
  student.
• Enjoy and navigate normal Huck Finn male energy
  toward academic focus and good character.

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Strategies for Boys

• Pay more attention to the more sensitive, less
  competitive or aggressive males in the classroom.
• Allow Physical movement, as well as engaging in
  physical activity, from hugs and touch when
  appropriate to getting down and dirty at recess
  once in a while.

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Strategies for Boys

• Be sure there are men in the boys educational
  life, especially from fifth grade onward.
• Before third grade, never allow chairs to be kept
  in a row or nailed down, and always make
  available as much space as possible.

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Strategies for Boys

• Offer lots of storytelling and myth making in the
  classroom to help the male brain develop its
  imaginative and verbal skills through story
  making.
• Give boys lots of things to touch and otherwise
  sense, especially when reading and writing are
  being taught.

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Strategies for Girls

• Teach early elementary math by manipulatives and
  objects teach higher levels of math not just on
  the blackboard, which requires abstraction and
  favors male brains, but also through graphs,
  charts, and written material on paper.

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Strategies for Girls

• Provide concrete manipulatives to touch and
  otherwise sense, especially when science is being
  taught.
• Tell stories and use images of girls and women
  who are competent, and who model varieties of
  mature female behavior.

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Strategies for Girls

• Give special access to technology, computers, and
  the Internet and a little extra encouragement to
  use technology, master it, and lead with it
  (beginning around third grade, keeping in mind
  that intense computer use before about age nine
  may be hazardous to brain development).

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Strategies for Girls

• Match math and science lessons with journal
  writing expression so that girls can use their
  writing strengths to help them process math
  calculations and science data.

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Strategies for Girls

• Encourage healthy competitive learning as well so
  that girls do not end up disadvantaged compared
  to boys.
• Provide healthy and constant feedback, so that
  girls get encouragement and have high
  expectations from teachers.

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Conclusion

• The ultimate classroom for both boys and girls is
  a gentle place during elementary school, but
  intense as well, and infused with the challenge
  to teach not children but boys and girls.

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Resources

• Boys and Girls Learn Differently!
• A Guide for Teachers and Parents
• By
• Michael Gurian