Introduction:
Gender differences in the learning of
mathematics have been a widely discussed topic among mathematicians, through professional
publications, the popular press and various other media. It is very important
for teachers of mathematics to ask if there is any gender difference in the learning
of mathematics. If the answer is 'Yes'
then we have ask ourselves more questions like, “Are females born with lesser
mathematical genes than males? Do females have lesser ability to perform
mathematics than males?” Is there a way to teach so that female students learn
more effectively?
In the Bhutanese context, Bhutan is
regarded as a relatively "gender balanced" country in the region. In
the social context Bhutanese women are regarded favourably. Women also enjoy a
dominant role in family, and equality in inheritance law and the legal system.
While women are involved and engaged in all spheres of economic, social and
political life, certain disparities do exist, especially in the positions that
require mathematical background, like Engineering, Information Technology,
Mathematics teaching, Accountancy, etc. This disparity leads us to question
ourselves. Are Bhutanese females weaker in mathematics than Bhutanese males? To
answer the above question I will try to reason out what might be the causes for
the weaker test results of mathematics by Bhutanese females.
Enrollment of girls in the schools:
When it comes to the education of the
children, Bhutanese parents traditionally give preference to the boys rather than
the girls. This is evident in the lower enrollment of girls in schools, which
might lead to fewer opportunities for girls to take jobs which are challenging
and need mathematical background. Historically and still today, there are fewer
girls in the entire education system, and the competition they feel for jobs is
negligible. The jobs available for girls are plenty, and these jobs don’t
required strong mathematical backing, like typing, office assistants, personal
assistant, nursing etc. Enrollment of fewer girls in school and easily
available plenty of jobs might have discouraged girls from doing the hard work
required in learning advanced mathematics. Anyone taking mathematics as major
subjects has to do lot of hard, abstract, theoretical work.
The table
below reveals some interesting statistics about the fact that a small
percentage of girls enrolled in schools at all levels, when compared to boys.
Enrollment
|
1990
|
2000
|
Girls in Primary School
(for every 100 boys)
Girls in Secondary School
(for every 100 boys)
Girls in Tertiary School
(for every 100 boys)
|
69
43
12
|
82
78
41
|
(Source of information: - Kuensel,
dated May 10, 2003 p. 8)
The enrollment of girls in Primary,
Secondary and Tertiary level from the table clearly shows that many girls drop out
of formal education beginning at the secondary level and accelerating at
tertiary levels.
Sherubtse College was upgraded to offer degree course
in early 1980's in three streams of science, commerce and arts. It has seen its
first female student graduate with a mathematics degree (i.e. Pure Science)
only in year 1993. For a decade, no women students took up mathematics as their
major subject for B.Sc. (Pure Science group, i.e. Physics, Chemistry and
Mathematics Combination). Hardly any female students qualified from XII for the
pure science; they tend to choose Bio- group (Biology, Chemistry and Physics)
as their option. Biology requires more of rote learning, where they do well.
My school, Gyelpozhing Higher
Secondary School, offers
options for Pure Science, Bio Science or
Bio-Math; students who want to continue higher secondary or tertiary education
in science, take any one of these options. We had 80 students taking science in
the year 2003. Out of 80, only 12 are girls and 68 are boys. Out of 12 girls,
only 4 girls have opted for mathematics i.e. Pure Science and Bio-math. This
option in taking mathematics by girls and boys, shows that our girls are weaker
and/or less interested than our boys in learning of mathematics at the higher
levels of study. When interviewed, some girls made comments such as these;
"We find Biology more useful and easy to learn"; "Mathematics is
too difficult in class XII, I am facing problems in solving the equations and
deriving the formulas and I am already thinking to drop it, as I am in
Bio-Math". Others taking biology as an option, said, "Biology is easy
as it requires only memorization, I hate thinking too hard; that's why I
dropped mathematics". The above comments give us an idea why girls are
less numerous in higher secondary math classes.
However, the enrollment pattern is opposite
for girls and boys where the demand of mathematics is less and other subjects
is more. For instance in the Royal Institutes of Health Science (RIHS) in year
2002, there were 17 girls getting trained for general nursing midwifery (GNM), where the major subject is biology and no
mathematics is needed. When interviewed, one of senior lecturers said, "We
have trained more girls than boys so far, and we have always observed during
interviews for enrollment, more girls comes forward to take up the course than
boys". For the GNM, courses Class X pass students were enrolled until last
year, where opportunities for girls and boys were the same.
In contrast for the same year, Royal Bhutan
Polytechnic had 13 girls compared to 80 boys taking engineering courses, which
required mathematical background and where Mathematics is a major subject.
"Only a few girls take the course and they do well. Many girls have to
re-sit the exam. Boys are doing better in the subject," says a lecturer at
the college. The evidence discussed above in the enrollment pattern in our
higher secondary level school and institutes, is more evidence that our girls
are neither enrolling nor performing at par with our boys at the higher level
in learning of mathematics as the major subject.
Performances in Mathematics at
different levels
The difference in mathematics learning
is seen as a great disparity between males and females in higher secondary
level. However, there is not much of difference in the learning of mathematics
at primary, lower secondary and secondary level in our schools. In fact at the primary
level, in general girls perform even better than boys. At the lower secondary
level, the performance of girls is at par with the boys. At Gyelposhing Higher
Secondary School, in one
class of 30 students (18 boys and 12 girls), only four girls and seven boys
failed mathematics. Their marks are similar. This shows that girls and boys
perform fairly at par in the lower secondary level.
From the sample I have taken from
Gyelpozhing HSS, of 30 students in class, 20 boys and 10 girls at the secondary
level, 30% of girls and 35% of boys have succeeded mathematics course. At the Higher Secondary level in the same
school, there are ten students taking mathematics, 2 girls and 8 boys. Only one
girl has passed with a minimum score of 40% as her highest mark. Out of 8 boys,
6 boys passed mathematics with 90% as the highest mark. In this small sample,
this performance at the higher secondary level shows that boys are doing better
than the girls. This trend of success in mathematics in Bhutanese education is similar
to trends highlighted in the study conducted staged by Kreinberg, Eccles and
Backer (1985), and that is also true in
the rest of world. In their study, they say "One has only to think about
number of females is any mathematics related career to recognize that females
do not participate in careers that require mathematics at near the same levels
as do males. For example, in 1980 only 9.7% of those who graduated with a degree
in engineering were females" (p. 407).
The possible causes of sex-related
differences in learning of mathematics
What
prohibits females from becoming better in mathematics or at par with male
students? So far no researches have found a totally satisfying answer. However various factors that might lead to
the causes are discussed in detail in relation to the development of
sex-related differences in learning of mathematics.
1) Biological Differences:
Are there any biological differences
to explain the learning of mathematics between males and females? Crockett and
Peterson (1984) reviewed the literature, and found that evidence supporting any
direct effect as an explanation of sex-related differences in intellectual
activities in largely inconclusive (p. 413). The most important effect that we
can consider here is, how do we as a society respond to the fact that a child
is a male or female? Do we give more attention to the baby girl or a boy? Still
when children are quite young, we respond to them differently especially
allowing them to play, mix with friends etc. The ways we talk to children of
different genders make them feel that they are different. By the time they go
to school, their mind is already set that girls should be going, playing,
eating, and staying with girls, and boys with the boys. In the Bhutanese
context, no school is separate for boys and girls; we have a co-educational
system. Generally this difference should not arise as they mix up with boys
from very early childhood. Also our society does not differentiate between boys
and girls; we give equal importance to boys as well as girls. But we observe
these differences in schools like girls are shy; hereby they do not come
forward to ask help for their problems. This is because we parents are very
cautious about the behaviour of girls and are more careful about their
upbringing than our boys. These influences affect the girls biologically that
they tend not to do risk taking things that boys do. This effect is perhaps carried
on to the learning of mathematics.
Cognitive Influences:
Crockett and Peterson (1984) say, “No difference exists
between males and females in general intelligence" (p. 413). However, Fennema (1975), Maccuby &
Jacklin, (1974) wrote,
One cognitive variable that many believe may help to
explain a sex-related difference in mathematics performance is spatial
visualization, a particular subset of spatial skills. Even though many
sex-related differences are being challenged, the evidence is still persuasive
that in many cultures male superiority on tasks that requires spatial
visualization is evident beginning during adolescence. (__).
Spatial visualization means being able
to imagine of the movements of objects in the mind; spatial visualization is
found to be better for the boys than girls.
Also, Scott Hodgetts (in Burton, 1986) offers some
explanation of the view that gender differences in learning mathematics may be
associated with differences in cognitive style. Her hypothesis is that people
who are inclined to adopt a serialist approach to learning are disadvantaged
when learning of mathematics and that great portion of girls than boys’ exhibit
serialist performances.
Socialization influences:
From early childhood, the experiences
which the world provides for girls and boys are totally different. They are
given different kinds of things to play with. Girls are not allowed freely to
go out of the house whereas boys can. Girls are usually taught to weave cloth
and work in the kitchen with their mothers and sisters. While working they are
reminded of breakages, danger of handling delicate things like the lightening
of gas, washing of plates etc. This leads girls to be careful even if they try
to do anything on their own. They get scared that they might spoil something if
they try, so better not to try if it is difficult. This effect will be carried
with them, will be developed within them, and discourges them from trying
difficult problems. On the other hand boys are allowed to go anywhere while
playing with their friends. They do not mind even trying with tough games like
Khuru, Degor, archery, football, volleyball etc. Even if they are hurt badly
they do not mind. The competition developed within the group of friends leads
to the development of risk taking, problem solving and the winning spirit. They
have developed a different concept: even if I might lose, I will try. This
strong concept of trying hard, developed in the brain, might be helping the
boys to solve difficult problems in higher level mathematics even if it's hard.
However, girls are not encouraged to be adventurous risk takers. They have the concept
that they should not go out to play, not to mix with the boys frequently, not
to trust everybody, not to go around alone. These might lead girls to develop
the inferiority complex in comparison with the boys. Girls are much more
cautious most of the time; this hesitance must have been developed because of
early childhood admonitions. This socializing might be hampering them in
handling hard problems.
Family socialization patterns are
seemingly reinforced by socialization patterns in school. When we open any
mathematics book, talk about mathematics, read mathematics etc., the subject is
presented as a male dominated subject. Hardly ever do we see any females' names
in the mathematics book; there are no role models. This might be discouraging to girls, that
women have not been able to do mathematics earlier and why should they try now.
I interviewed around twenty of the class 10 students to find out whether they
were taught by the male teachers or female teachers the subject mathematics. Eight
of the girls said that male teachers taught them from class III till ten. Two
of the girls said, their math teacher in class III was a female and in rest of
the classes they were males). This shows that our girls gets discouraged to do
well in mathematics as they find mathematics is a male dominated subject.
Classroom Influences:
Classroom influence deals with the
relation that exists between girls and boys, and the differentiated roles they
assume in the classroom. Boys and girls are assigned to the same classroom,
they are taught by the same teacher, they are awarded the same punishments and
awards, and they follow the same curriculum. This gives us the impression that
there should not be any difference between boys and girls in learning the
subject. But if we look at them closely, the difference between boys and girls
appears almost involuntarily. Boys and girls do not sit with one another in the
class, help one another, or talk with one another as frequently as they
interact with the same sex peers. Usually boys are dominant in the classroom.
They tend to be leaders, and there tends to be more opportunities for the boys
to interact with their teachers and friends. Also this idea of assuming
leadership helps them to do better in the classroom as they have to perform
well if they have come forward in future times as well. Girls as they do not
come forward to seek help; they get less attention from their teachers. This
might be helping the boys to learn better and try harder to impress their
teachers. They try harder to impress teachers' leads to have patience and practice,
which definitely helps them to learn mathematics better than girls.
Attitudinal Influences:
Having positive beliefs about
oneself in relation to mathematics is an important aspect in learning of
mathematics. The same beliefs influence the learning of mathematics by
influencing.
1) How hard we work with the problem.
2) How consistent are we in performing
the problems.
3) Do we work independently or always ask
for the help.
Our internal belief is that
mathematics is a male dominated subject. Osen (___) says that many women in our
present culture value mathematics, but it is not seen as an appropriate domain
for females. She perceives that teachers and peers have lowered expectations
for girls' mathematical success. Success is not valued by the girls even if
they do well as this is seen as an exceptional that should not have happened.
Attitudinal influence leads to an inferiority complex in females in comparison
to the males. This socially acquired complex leads to disliking the subject.
Conclusion
From the observations, discussions,
and research, there is a serious gender difference in learning of mathematics within
our Bhutanese schools, as there is outside Bhutan. It's of a serious concern
for each and every one of us as teachers to think how can we overcome these
differences and overcome all the problems that are hampering our girls to
perform at par with the boys in the higher level mathematics. We have to
consider factors where we have an influential role to play in bridging the gap,
such as attending to classroom influences. Other problems, like socialization
influences, might take years to overcome till the parents in all of our homes
are educated and do not see any difference between boys and girls in their
abilities and aspirations.
I am optimistic that we will be able
to overcome these problems in the long run. I am confident that with more of
our girls becoming educated, they will realize the value of mathematics in our day
to day life and its importance. Although the problem does not seem high priority
in Bhutanese society, it exists in the schools, and in the field of work. If we
want equal opportunity for females, we must work hard in performing at par with
the male counterparts overcoming all the influences that might be hampering the
learning of mathematics by girls.
References:
Thomas, R. (1998). Teaching Mathematics in grades K-8, Research based method. City of Publication:
Allyned Bacon Inc.
Acknowledgements:
I would sincerely like to thank Zane
de Noncourt, Writing coach to the Canada-Bhutan M.Ed Students, STFX University, Canada for the correction of the
grammar in my work apart from the correction of my assignments. Also I would
like to thank my colleagues of Gyelposhing
Higher Secondary
School for encouraging me during my initial phase
of the write up. Also I would like to thank my wife for being the source of
inspiration and support in my work.
