Gender Differences in Teaching and Learning: A Study of Single-Sex Schools

UNIVERSIDAD TECNOLÓGICA NACIONAL
INSTITUTO NACIONAL SUPERIOR DEL PROFESORADO TÉCNICO
En convenio académico con la Facultad Regional Villa María
LICENCIATURA EN LENGUA INGLESA
Tesis de Licenciatura
HOW FAR DO GENDER DIFFERENCES AFFECT THE TEACHING-LEARNING PROCESS?
Tesista
PROFESORA MARIA GABRIELA MARTINO
Director de la Tesis
DOCTOR OMAR VILLARREAL
2010

UNIVERSIDAD TECNOLÓGICA NACIONAL
LICENCIATURA EN LENGUA INGLESA
Dissertation
HOW FAR DO GENDER DIFFERENCES AFFECT THE TEACHING-LEARNING PROCESS?
Candidate
PROFESORA MARIA GABRIELA MARTINO
Tutor
DOCTOR OMAR VILLARREAL
2010

Universidad Tecnológica Nacional
Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa
How Far Do Gender Differences Influence the Teaching-Learning Process?
Prof. María Gabriela Martino 2010
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Dedication
To my beloved husband who has always encouraged and supported me in every step I have taken, both in my personal and professional life.
To my children, María, Santiago, María Virginia and María Mercedes, the love of my life, who have given sense to my existence.

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Acknolowledgements
I am extremely grateful to my parents who always taught me to improve myself.
I am greatly indebted to my admirable tutor, Dr. Omar Villarreal. His dedication, patience, insights and support have been invaluable.
I should also thank all my teachers at the Licenciatura en Lengua Inglesa from Universidad Tecnológica Nacional (Buenos Aires) whose knowledge has helped me to become a more professional teacher.

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Abstract
Recent scientific studies into how gender differences affect learning has shed some light on successful classroom practices in a variety of TEFL contexts. It is the primary purpose of this paper to address teacher response to gender differences in an attempt to determine to what extent these differences influence the teaching learning process. The secondary focus is to explore what methods, techniques, procedures and strategies teachers put into practice to cater for the particular needs of boys and girls learning English as a foreign language in single-sex schools. In this particular case, a group of thirty nine teachers were presented with an open questionnaire, experts in the field of gender and education were interviewed, and a total of twelve lessons in single-sex schools were observed. In all cases, the study focused on three basic queries: (a) whether primary school teachers of English used different methods, techniques, procedures and strategies to teach boys and girls; (b) whether teachers had a repertoire of methods, techniques, procedures and strategies to cater for the particular needs of boys and girls learning English as a foreign language; (c) whether teachers were aware that boys and girls might learn differently. The results obtained showed that even though teachers were aware of the fact that their female and male students were different, they lacked the pedagogical tools to fulfill the needs of boys and girls.
Key words: gender, single-sex schools, methods, techniques, procedures, strategies.

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Resumen
Estudios científicos recientes sobre como las diferencias de género afectan el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje están abriendo nuevos horizontes en las prácticas docentes en diversos contextos de la enseñanza del inglés como lengua extranjera. El principal propósito de este estudio es determinar el conocimiento que los docentes poseen sobre las diferencias de género como factor determinante de influencia en el proceso de enseñanza-aprendizaje. El propósito secundario es explorar los métodos, técnicas, procedimientos y estrategias que los docentes utilizan para alcanzar los objetivos particulares de las niñas y niños que aprenden inglés como una segunda lengua en colegios de educación diferenciada. En este estudio en particular, se presentó un cuestionario escrito a un grupo de treinta y nueve maestros (mujeres y varones), se entrevistaron expertos en el área de educación de mujeres y varones y se observaron doce clases en colegios de educación diferenciada. En todos los casos, el estudio se basó en tres cuestiones en particular: a) si los maestros y maestras de Inglés utilizan diferentes métodos, técnicas, procedimientos y estrategias para enseñar a varones y mujeres; b) si los maestros poseen un repertorio de métodos, técnicas, procedimientos y estrategias para alcanzar los objetivos particulares de varones y mujeres en la enseñanza del inglés como segunda lengua; c) si los maestros y maestras son conscientes de que las niñas y los niños pueden aprender en forma distinta. Los resultados obtenidos demuestran que si bien los maestros y maestras son conscientes de que sus alumnos y alumnas aprenden en forma diferente, no poseen las herramientas pedagógicas necesarias para satisfacer las necesidades de los varones y de las mujeres.
Palabras clave: género, colegios de educación diferenciada, métodos, técnicas, procedimientos, estrategias.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION --------------------------------------------------------------------- 1
CHAPTER 1
Literature review --------------------------------------------------------------------- 5
What do experts say ---------------------------------------------------------------- 6
What happens at schools? -------------------------------------------------------- 8
Boys and girls: same, but different? -------------------------------------------- 8
Theoretical perspectives on gender development -------------------------- 9
Socio cognitive differences -------------------------------------------------------- 10
Biological determinants of gender development ---------------------------- 11
Structural differences --------------------------------------------------------------- 12
Corpus callosum -------------------------------------------------------------- 14
Brain stem ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 14
Limbic system ------------------------------------------------------------------ 15
Cerebral cortex ---------------------------------------------------------------- 16
Cerebellum --------------------------------------------------------------------- 16
Brain function ------------------------------------------------------------------ 17
Hearing -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 17
Sight ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 18
The two hemispheres --------------------------------------------------------------- 22
Brain development ------------------------------------------------------------------ 23
Looking at the male-female brain spectrum ---------------------------------- 24
Psychological, learning and behavioural disorders ------------------------- 25
Girls draw nouns, boys draw verbs --------------------------------------------- 26
Feelings -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 26
Threat and confrontation ----------------------------------------------------------- 28

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Social determinants of gender development --------------------------------- 29
Daily practices at school ----------------------------------------------------------- 30
Teacher-student interaction ------------------------------------------------------- 32
Student-teacher relationship ------------------------------------------------------ 36
Student – student relationship ---------------------------------------------------- 41
Motivational factors ------------------------------------------------------------------ 43
Teaching techniques and activities --------------------------------------------- 44
Gender differences in reading ---------------------------------------------------- 47
Gender differences in writing ----------------------------------------------------- 52
Textbooks ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 56
CHAPTER 2
The study ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 60
Research design and methodology --------------------------------------------- 60
Questionnaires ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 60
Questionnaire 1 --------------------------------------------------------------- 61
Analysis of questionnaire 1 ------------------------------------------------- 61
Questionnaire 2 --------------------------------------------------------------- 64
Analysis of questionnaire 2 ------------------------------------------------- 64
Interviews to specialists in single-sex schooling ---------------------- 69
Class observation ------------------------------------------------------------- 70
CHAPTER 3
Data analysis ------------------------------------------------------------------------- 71
Questionnaire 1: teachers who work in schools for girls (School A) --- 71
Questionnaire 2: teachers who work in schools for girls (School B) --- 75
Questionnaire 1: teachers who work in schools for boys (School B) -- 88
Questionnaire 2: teachers who work in schools for boys (School B) -- 92
Data from the questionnaires compared and contrasted ----------------- 104

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Compared and contrasted data among the two groups of
respondents -------------------------------------------------------------------------- 104
Questionnaire 1 ---------------------------------------------------------------- 104
Questionnaire 2 --------------------------------------------------------------- 111
Interviews to specialists in single-sex schooling ---------------------------- 127
Interview 1 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 127
Interview 2 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 134
Summary of interview 2 ---------------------------------------------------- 137
Class observation ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 138
Class observation in school A --------------------------------------------- 139
Class observation in school B --------------------------------------------- 141
Class observation checklist in school A – Class 1 ------------------- 145
Class observation checklist in school B – Class 1 ------------------- 151
CHAPTER 4
Summary of the study -------------------------------------------------------------- 157
Girls and boys: the same, but different? -------------------------------- 157
Teaching practices ----------------------------------------------------------- 158

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Conclusions --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 161
Implications for future reseach -------------------------------------------------- 162
WORKS CITED ---------------------------------------------------------------------- 163
APPENDICES
Appendix 1 – Questionnaire 1 for teachers who work in schools for
girls -------------------------------------------------------------------- 167
girls -------------------------------------------------------------------- 170
boys ------------------------------------------------------------------- 175
Appendix 4 - Questionnaire 2 for teachers who work in schools for
boys ------------------------------------------------------------------ 178

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INDEX OF TABLES AND GRAPHS
TABLES
Table 1- Summary of differences between M cells and P cells -------- 21
Table 2 – Comparison of girls´ and boys´ friendships values
and dynamics ----------------------------------------------------------- 38
Table 3 – Topics favoured by girls and boys --------------------------------- 55
Table 4 – Subjects enjoyed the most by girls -------------------------------- 81
Table 5 – Games played by girls and boys ----------------------------------- 84
Table 6 – Topics enjoyed the most by boys ---------------------------------- 96
Table 7 – Subjects enjoyed by boys -------------------------------------------- 98
Table 8 – Games played by boys ----------------------------------------------- 100
Table 9 – Activities that teachers found more effective to work with
girls and with boys ----------------------------------------------------- 107
Table 10 – Topics found more appealing by girls and boys -------------- 114
Table 11 – Subjects enjoyed the mosy by girls and boys ----------------- 116
Table 12 – Books chosen by girls and boys for extensive reading or
reading for pleasure -------------------------------------------------- 117
Table 13 – Games played by girls and boys --------------------------------- 120
Table 14 – Class observation in school A (Schools for girls) ------------ 140
Table 15 - Class observation in school B (Schools for boys) ----------- 142
GRAPHS
Graph 1- Differences between M cells and P cells ------------------------ 20
Graph 2 - Activities that teachers found more effective to work with
girls ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 73
Graph 3 – Activities that teachers found more effective to work with
boys ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 90
Graph 4 – Activities enjoyed the most by boys ------------------------------ 95

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Graph 5 – Teacherséxperience with girls and boys ----------------------- 105
Graph 6 – Teaching techniques preferred by girls and boys ------------- 106
Graph 7 – Activities that teachers found more effective to work with
girls and with boys ---------------------------------------------------- 107
Graph 8 – Effectiveness of teachers´ tone of voice ------------------------ 108
Graph 9 – Effectiveness of teachers´ interest in students´ feelings
and emotions ---------------------------------------------------------- 109
Graph 10 – Teachersáttitude in class ----------------------------------------- 109
Graph 11 – Lessons and curricula characteristics -------------------------- 110
Graph 12 – Girls´ and boys´ concern about academic performance --- 111
Graph 13 – Activities enjoyed by girls ------------------------------------------ 112
Graph 14 – Activities enjoyed by boys ----------------------------------------- 112
Graph 15 – Effectiveness of teachers´ tone of voice when
reprimanding students --------------------------------------------- 113
Graph 16 – Students´ sensitivity to teachers´ tone of voice -------------- 113
Graph 17 – Topics found more appealing by girls and boys ------------- 115
Graph 18 – Subjects enjoyed the most by girls and boys ---------------- 116
Graph 19 – Books chosen by girls and boys --------------------------------- 118
Graph 20 – Books chosen for extensive reading or for pleasure ------- 119
Graph 21 – Games played by girls and boys -------------------------------- 121
Graph 22 – Students´ reaction to stress --------------------------------------- 122
Graph 23 – Girls´ and boys´ behaviour ---------------------------------------- 123
Graph 24 – Colours used by girls and boys in drawing and colouring
activities --------------------------------------------------------------- 124
Graph 25 – Girlsánd boys´ use of mother tongue -------------------------- 125
Graph 26 – Girls´ and boys´ use of English as a foreign language ---- 125
Graph 27 – Boys´ and girls´ use of English in written activities --------- 126

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Introduction
One of the often-repeated complaints made by teachers nowadays is that, in spite of endless efforts, girls tend to perform better than boys both in coed- and single-sex classrooms. Teachers have started to compare boys and girls as regards their distractions in class, their apparent capacity and predisposition to comprehend certain areas of study or their behaviour and reaction styles. The scarcity of information about the influence of gender in education in Argentina might prove the need to inquire into this topic, as a first step to provide answers to some of the queries in question, and to others that migth arise in connection to this issue.
Researchers (Baron-Cohen, 2005) on gender and education are extremely cautious about not perpetuating past beliefs that would claim that gender differences migth imply that one sex is inferior to the other. According to Baron-Cohen (2005)
Las diferencias de sexo son casi siempre fundadas, aunque hay algunos terrenos en que los hombres superan a las mujeres y viceversa. La inteligencia en general no es mejor en un sexo que en otro, pero los perfiles (que reflejan las capacidades relativas en áreas específicas), sí que son diferentes.1
In past decades the thought of pyschological differences between the sexes would have been highly critized. Baron-Cohen (2005) claims that
Las décadas de los sesenta y los setenta fueron testigos de una ideología que negaba las diferencias psicológicas de sexo como algo mítico, o, en caso de que
1 ¨The differences between the sexes are almost always based on proven evidence, although there are some areas in which men surpass women and viceversa. Generally speaking, inteligence is not better in one sex than in the other, but the profiles (which reflect relative capacity in specific areas), really are.¨ (Baron-Cohen, 2005) [all translations in this dissertation are mine]

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fuera real, no esencial – es decir, no como un reflejo de diferencias profundas entre sexos per se sino como un reflejo de diferentes fuerzas culturales que actuaban sobre los sexos-2.
Reducing gender differences to socio-cultural influence alone seems to be rather simplistic. However, neither should biological differences alone be considered to influence gender.
Although researchers are still discovering new areas of difference between the male and the female brain, a number have already been identified that have implications for how boys and girls learn. In this paper we shall be generalizing based on relevant research. There will be exceptions to each generalization, as every child is an individual, and male and female brain difference ranges both between boys and girls and among boys and girls. It is important to mention that difference means only that – one is not better than the other. Both are equally capable of learning and succeeding, but they do so in ways that we must understand if we are to create an educational environment that meets the needs of both.
The research model chosen is informed by the spirit of action research, which advocates that assuming responsibility for researching should be an integral part of a teacher´s professionalism. White (1988) stated that:
…the focus of research is on the identification of problems by teachers rather than on those defined by an outsider consultant.
2 ¨The 60´s and the 70´s witnessed an ideology that denied the psychological differences between the sexes as something mythical, or, in case they were real, as not essential – that is to say, they were not seen as profound differences between the sexes per se but as a consequence of the different cultural forces that influenced the sexes.¨ (Baron-Cohen, 2005) [all translations in this dissertation are mine]

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To get a glimpse of the state of this issue today, I will resort to few articles of the popular domain published in newspapers.
The purpose of the present study is to explore whether gender differences affect the teaching-learning process. In doing so, the second focus of this study is to determine whether Primary School teachers of English in the nothern district of Greater Buenos Aires use different methods, techniques, procedures and strategies to teach boys and girls in single sex schools.
This study is informed by the following research question:
-To what extent do primary school teachers of English use different methods, techniques, procedures and strategies to teach boys and girls in single sex schools?
This question has given rise to the following hypotheses:
1. Primary school teachers of English do not use different methods, techniques, procedures and strategies to teach boys and girls in single sex schools.
2. Primary school teachers of English lack a repertoire of methods, techniques, procedures and strategies to cater for the particular needs of boys and girls learning English as a foreign language in single sex schools.
3. Primary school teachers of English are not aware that boys and girls might learn differently.

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The instruments chosen for this study were twelve class observations, two questionnaires, which a group of thirty six teachers were invited to complete, and formal interviews with specialists in the field of single-sex schooling. The questionnaires and the interviews included questions or statements based on the biological, socio-cultural and cognitive differences between girls and boys, as described in the Literature Review below.
After collecting the data, data matrixes were constructed and the results processed and compared. The results of this survey were made known to teachers and raised at staff meetings discussions, with the purpose of encouraging reflection on the present teaching practice, in order to help teachers improve their practice as EFL teachers.

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Chapter 1
Literature review
Over the past few years, research has proved that there is a marked tendency for girls to do better than boys at school. Recent studies done in Spain and reported in the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) report3 reveal surprising facts.
El desastre del elevado fracaso educativo español (30,8% en 2006) y el abandono escolar temprano son un asunto esencialmente masculino.4
According to this report, more than 80% of the conflictive students tend to be boys, 36% of young boys drop out school before they finish secondary school, girls continue to prove reticent to choose scientific studies, of all the children who annually do not promote their courses and have to reattend again, 49% are boys and 26% are girls.
Studies in Argentina5 have shown that this same tendency can be observed with students at school and university. Statistic data shows that women outstand boys in academic performance. In 2003, 60% of the graduates from public universities in Argentina were women. According to María Victoria Gomez de Erice (2006), president of Universidad Nacional de Cuyo, women are academically more systematic than men, they are more organized and willing to outstand.
At the same time, the Academic Secretary to the School of Medicine of Universidad Buenos Aires, Raúl de los Santos (2006), stated that even though
EL PAÍS newspaper (2009) ¨El fracaso escolar, ¿cuestión de sexo?¨ by José Luis Barbería - (Madrid)
4 ¨The disaster of the high failure of the educational system in Spain (30,80% in 2006) and school early abandonment is an essentially masculine matter¨ (José Luis Barbería – 2009). [all translations in this dissertation are mine]
5 Article from ¨La Nación¨ newspaper (March 15th, 2006)

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generalizations are often arbitrary, ¨there must be some common factor that socially conditions women in Argentina, Spain, England and the United States to occupy the two thirds of the world of Medicine. In the School of Medicine of Universidad de Buenos Aires, in which there are six courses of study, there are
17,013 women students against 6,607 men students. Women are also a majority in post graduate studies, such as masters y doctorates.
In this same article, the General Head of High Education of the Secretariat of Education of the City of Buenos Aires, Graciela Morgade (2006), considers that
[...] muchas creencias culturales que hacen a la virilidad, como desafiar las normas, ponerse en riesgo, la posesión de una inteligencia innata, constituyen un estereotipo que estaría influyendo en el peor rendimiento de los varones. El estereotipo masculino estaría conformado, así, por valores que la escuela no valora. En cambio, las mujeres estarían educadas para esforzarse, ser voluntariosas, prolijas, tener un buen comportamiento, características ponderadas por la escuela6.
What do experts say?
Over the past years, many English as a Foreign Language (ELT) experts have tried to find explanations for pupils’ differential success. There are also calls for learning opportunities to be differentiated in the classroom, to match the pupils´ needs (Hart, 1996; Jameson et al., 1995). Experts on education and gender claim that the reasons for students´ differential success lie in factors which go beyond
6 ¨there are certain cultural beliefs associated with virility, such as defying norms, taking risks or possessing an innate inteligence that constitute stereotypes which might be responsible for poor academic performance in boys. Thus, the masculine stereotype would have characteristics that school does not value. In contrast, women would be educated to have a strong sense of willingness and responsibility, which are factors very much appreciated in schools in general.¨ (Morgade, 2006) [all translations in this dissertation are mine]

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notions of static intelligences and learning readiness (Sotto, 1994; Stones, 1992), and state that students´ success is influenced by ¨innate¨ and ¨socio-cultural¨ gender differences. As Sunderland (1998) stresses,
¨As regards second and foreign language classrooms, I suggest that such diverse phenomena as literacy practices, language tests, performance on those tests, self- esteem, and language learning styles and strategies are all gendered - in the sense that male and female students tend to behave, perform or feel differently on all of them.¨
Authors on gender and education speak of discrepances in the way that girls and boys perform at school (Sadker & Sadker, 1982; Thorne, 1979; Hall and Sandler, 1982, et all) and firmly believe that in order to decrease these discrepances, educators need to examine and modify their classroom practices. In this respect, research tends to evince that most instructors are unaware that they treat men and women in a different way in the classroom and, it seems that when they become aware of the problem, they are able to change their behaviour.
In this light, Leonard Sax (2005) points out that
¨The failure to recognize and respect sex differences in child development has done substantial harm over the past thirty years.¨
According to Michael Gurian (2003), schools and educators at the moment are struggling to teach all that they need to teach, maintain discipline, build character, and provide for the safety of the children in their care. However, he argues that
[….] few educators understand the differences between how boys´ and girls´ brains work, how they differ, and what they need in order to learn.

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What happens at schools?
From the beginning of the social interaction that comes with full-time schooling, boys and girls in the same classroom have been shown to create quite different educational experiences for themselves (Arnot and Weiner, 1987; Walkerdiner, 1989; Delamont, 1990) Research data reported in the past 20 years have shown that boys ocassion more discipline problems for their teachers (Clarricoats, 1978; Brophy, 1985; Swan and Graddol, 1988) and that attempts by teachers to give girls an equal share of classroom attention are actively opposed by boys (Goodenough 1987,D´Arcy 1991, Jordan 1995) In mixed group settings for example, it has been shown that boys claim more teacher time, even when teachers are making a conscious effort to be even handed (Clarricoats, 1978) Boys learn at an early age to control both the women who teach them and the girls in their class by adopting a ¨male¨discourse which emphasizes negative aspects of female sexuality, and embodies ¨direct sexual insult¨. Boys act as if the very fact of working with girls will demean them. Rosen (cited in Sax :2005) reports
[....] a group of eight-year- olds follow me into a room. Three boys, three girls. ¨Let´s move the table,¨ I say. We all move the table.¨Who is going behind the table?¨I say¨Me,¨ says one boy- ¨Get away from the girls,¨ he says. After eight years alive in this world we have taught them to be at war with half the people in the world.
Boys and girls: same, but different?
Back in the 1980s most studies in psychology revealed that the differences observed between girls and boys were socially constructed – that is to say, that these differences were the product of the way a child was raised.

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Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, research demonstrated the existence of sex differences in cognitive function and language skills. In the past ten years or so, due to technological progress, research has began to demonstrate the existence of innate noncognitive sex differences between girls and boys. Sex biological differences in the organization of the retina and the automatic nervous system, for example, might prove to account for the differences between girls´ and boys´ behaviour.
Theoretical Perspectives on Gender Development
Over the past decades gender development has been approached by several major theories. These theories differ on several important dimensions. One dimension is related to the emphasis placed on psychological, biological, and sociocultural determinants. According to Freud as cited in Bandura (1986) and Kohlberg (1966), defenders of the psychologically-oriented theories, gender development is governed by intrapsychic processes. In contrast, sociologists (Berger, Rosenholtz, & Zelditch, 1980; Eagly, 1987a; Epstein, 1988) tend to emphasize sociostructural determinants of gender-role development and functioning. Supporters of the biologically-oriented theories (Sax, 2005; Gurian 2003), on the other hand, state that gender differences arise from the differential biological structure of the female and male brain. As Sax (2005) points out,
There is increasing evidence to suggest that the brain is a sexual organ, that brain sex (i.e., the sex of the brain) is paramount in determining human gender identity.
A more integrated approach to gender development is sustained by supporters of the social cognitive theory. Defenders of this theory (Lorber, 1994; Bandura 1986,1997; Riordan, 1990) state that gender development and functioning result from

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the integration of psychological and sociostructural determinants. In this perspective, biological, social, affective and motivational processes are all accorded prominence.
Socio cognitive differences
The social cognitive theory of gender-role development and functioning integrates psychological and sociostructural determinants in a unified conceptual framework. In this perspective, Bandura (1986; 1997) claims that gender conceptions and role behaviour are the products of a complex system of social influences that operate both familially and in the societal systems encountered in everyday life. Thus, this theory favours a multifaceted social transmission model in which schools play a relevant role as agents of human development. According to this model, behaviour, cognition and other personal factors, and environmental influences all merge and interact.
Thus, as Bandura (1986), Bower (1975) and Neisser (1976) explain, human behaviour is affected by what people think, believe and feel and, at the same time, the extrinsic effects of their actions determine their thinking and emotional reactions. The personal factor also encompasses biologically determined properties, for physical structure and sensory and neural systems,
the authors purport, affect our behaviour.
Within this framework, social factors seem to influence cognitive development. At the same time, maturational factors and exploratory experiences would contribute to cognitive growth, but the most valuable influence for human development seems to come from the social environment.

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Biological determinants of gender development
Defenders of the biological influence in gender development (Sax, 2005, 2006; Gurian, 2003) claim that the reasons why boys and girls learn in a different way lie deep in the biologically programmed differences there are between them. Although they acknowledge the importance of socio cultural influences, they firmly believe that ¨social constructivism¨ alone is not enough to account for the different academic performance of boys and girls
As Sax (2005) points out
......Still, many educators and policy makers stubbornly cling to the dogma of ¨social constructivism,¨ the belief that differences between girls and boys derive exclusively from social expectations with no input from biology. Stuck in a mentality that refuses to recognize innate, biologically programmed differences between girls and boys, many administrators and teachers don´t fully appreciate that girls and boys enter the classroom with different needs, different abilities and different goals.
According to Sax (2005), today we know that innate differences between girls and boys are profound. Of course not all girls are alike and not all boys are alike. But girls and boys do differ from one another in systematic ways that should be understood and made use of, not covered up or ignored.
Girls and boys play differently. They learn differently. They see the world differently. They hear differently. In the 1980s, most psychologists insisted that those differences came about because parents raised girls and boys in different ways. In contrast, Sax (2005) says,

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[....] the truth is the other way round: ¨parents raise girls and boys differently because girls and boys are so different from birth. Girls and boys behave differently because their brains are wired differently.¨
Following this same line of thought, Gurian (2004) argues that
Aunque la sociedad, la influencia cultural y lo que llamamos ¨crianza¨ tienen mucho que ver con los ropajes psicológicos que lucen los hombres y las mujeres, el cerebro masculino y el cerebro femenino son «masculino» y «femenino», independientemente de la cultura o el continente en el que se crien los hombres y las mujeres. La cultura es importante, pero la biología es mucho más importante de lo que imaginábamos7.
Structural Differences
The modern era of research in gender differences may be said to have begun in 1964, when Herbert Lansdell reported the existence of anatomic sex differences in the organization of female and male brains. By the mid-1980s it was clear that the hemispheric compartimentalization of function that is so obvious in men´s brains – left brain verbal, right brain spatial – applies less well or not at all to female brains. At that time most scientists believed that these differences in the brain derived from hormonal differences. In 2004 a team of fourteen neuroscientists from the University of California, the University of Michigan, and Stanford University published their findings demonstrating that there is a dramatically different expression of proteins
7 ¨Though society, cultural influence and what we call ¨bringing up¨ has much to do with the psychological roles performed by men and women, the masculine brain and the female brain are «masculine» and «female», independently from the culture or continent where men and women are brougth up. Culture is important, but biology is much more important than we have imagined ¨ (Gurian, 2004) [all translations in this dissertation are mine]

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derived from the X chromosome and the Y chromosome in human female and male brains. In men, many areas of the brain are rich in proteins that are coded directly by the Y chromosome. Those proteins are absent in women´s brain tissue. Conversely, women´s brain tissue is rich in material coded directly by the X chromosome; these particular transcripts of the X chromosome are absent from men´s brain tissue. These sex differences, then, are said to be genetically programmed, not mediated by hormonal differences. Female brain tissue and male brain tissue are intrinsically different. According to these specialists, these differences are genetically programmed; they are present as from birth. Sax (2005) also refers to these differences as distinct traits that make boys and girls biologically different.
Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) technologies, scientists can see the living brain and watch it work. The most advanced technologies allow to watch actual blood flow in the brain, see where and how the mind is working, and ¨by looking at the male and female brains in this way, [researchers] can see that boys and girls are working in different areas when completing the same tasks¨ (Gurian, 2008).
Studies in the past couple of decades, have helped to focus on some specific areas of structural difference between the male and the female brain. The following are some of the most significant differences and their possible impact on the classroom.

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 Corpus Callosum
This dense bundle of nerves connects the two hemispheres of the brain. In females, this bundle of nerves tends to be denser and larger than in males, resulting in increased cross-talk between the rigth and the left hemispheres. The anteriour commisure, a tiny additional connection between the unconscious areas of the hemispheres attached to the end of the corpus callosum, is also larger in females. In this light, Gurian (2008) states that this might be the reason why
Girls are generally better at multitasking than boys, including watching and listening and making notes at the same time. It also may explain why girls tend to tune into their own and other´s feelings and move more emotional content more quickly into thought and verbal processes. Girls can tell you how they feel as they are feeling - boys often need time to process before they can explain feelings.
 Brain Stem
This is the most primitive part of the brain. Our ¨flight or fight responses¨ come from the brain stem (Gurian, 2008); when we are threatened or in crisis this area of our brain takes over, telling the body how to respond. As the male brain allows a greater amount of spinal fluid to flow, messages tend to move more quickly from the brain to the body. Gurian (2008) claims that
Boys brains tend to be poised for figth or fligth and for a physical response when they feel threatened or emotionally charged. Boys in your class may slam a book, kick a chair, use an expletive, or engage in some other kind of physical display when challenged. This behaviour may be the result of an

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emotionally charged incident when the boy is not given enough time to process the emotional content.
 Limbic System
Within the limbic system there are several structures that play an important role in how girls and boys learn and perform differently. Parts of this system that process emotion and sensorial memory are, in general, more active in girls than in boys. Besides, females tend to be better able to read emotional cues in others.
Hippocampus. The hippocampus converts information from working memory into long-term or permanent memory. This is a key process for learning to have meaning and for retention. The hippocampus tends to be larger in females and neural transmissions tend to be faster than in males. As a result, the female brain has got a greater memory storage capacity.
Amygdala. A small, almond-shaped structure connected to one end of the hippocampus that plays a key role in the processing of emotions, especially fear and anger. The amygdala tends to be lager in males.
According to Gurian (2008)
Boys often display increased aggressive or impulsive responses – they tend to be sent to the principal a lot more than girls! Girls attach more emotional and sensory details to events and remember them longer. They can hold grudges a long time. Writing stories will tend, on average, to be easier for girls when words are the only medium of inspiration used to help set up the paper.

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 Cerebral Cortex
This is the part of the brain where the neural connections occur. It is the area in which the serious intellectual functions of the brain take place. ¨Thinking, speaking and recalling – all things that need to happen in a classroom – are controlled in the cerebral cortex¨ (Gurian, 2008) The female brain tends to have more connections in the cerebral cortex. Together with the geater neural connectivity between hemispheres, this adds more potential for information to move quickly between the areas of the brain.
In this respect, Gurian (2008) says that
The increased speed of their neural connections may help girls process and respond to classroom information faster than boys, help them make transitions faster, help them multitask, and help them access needed verbal resources (reading, writing, complex speech early in life) better than the average boy as they engage in learning.
 Cerebellum
Gurian (2008) describes it as the ¨doing center¨ of the brain. It is larger in the male. It allows about 15% more spinal fluid into the male neural system. As a result, messages between the brain and body can move more quickly (and with less impulse control) in the male body. For Gurian (2008) this means that
Boys often learn better when their bodies are in motion. Sitting still can frustrate the male system, causing him to exibit behaviour that can appear disruptive or impulsive, and sometimes land him in the principal´s office because ¨he can´t sit still, can´t stop touching things, is distracting his classmates¨ when he is really responding to his biological needs.

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Brain function
Sax (2005) questions:
Sex differences in brain anatomy are well and good, but do they matter? Do those sex differences in brain anatomy mean that there are sex differences in brain function? Are there significant differences in how girls and boys hear, or how they see, or how they learn? And if so, are those differences present at birth? Or not?
Hearing
There is good evidence now that newborn baby girls do hear better than newborn baby boys. Pediatric audiologists Barbara Cone-Wesson, Glendy Ramírez, and Yvonne Sininger in Sax (2006) report to have done careful studies of the hearing of newborn babies. For a 1,500 Hz tone played to the right ear, they found that the average baby girl had an acoustic brain response 8o percent greater than the response of the average baby boy. (the range of sounds around 1,500 Hz is especially important, because that range of sound is critical for understanding speech).
The fact that newborn baby girls hear differently from boys, specially at higher frequencies was recently confirmed by Cassidy (2001) a professor at Louisiana State University, cited in Sax (2005). Cassidy (2001) used a different technique than Cone- Wesson, Sininger and Ramírez had used to evaluate hearing in newborns: specifically, professor Cassidy used a technique known as transient evoked

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otoacoustic emissions.8 Cassidy, studying 350 newborn baby girls and boys, found that the girls´hearing was substantially more sensitive than the boys´, especially in the 1,000- to 4,000- Hz range, which is so important for sound discrimination.
These built-in gender differences in hearing have really important consequences. They have, for example, major implications on the way we should talk to children. When a man talks to a girl, that girl is going to experience his voice as being ten times louder than what the man is hearing. This difference in hearing also suggests different strategies for the classroom. More than thirty years ago, psychologist Colin Elliot (1971) in Sax (2005) demonstrated that eleven-year-old girls were distracted by noise levels about ten times softer than noise levels that boys found distracting. ¨That boy who is tap-tap-tapping his fingers on the desk might not be bothering the other boys, but he is bothering the girls - as well as the (female) teacher¨ (Sax, 2005). One reason for that difference, of course, is that eleven-year-old girls hear better. Girls do not learn as well in a loud, noisy classroom. A female teacher who speaks in a tone of voice which seems normal to the teacher, may not attract the attention of some of the boys at the back of the classroom, in part because they may not hear as well as the girls.
Sight
According to studies in the field (Baltimore, 1985; McClure, 2000), most girls and women interpret facial expressions better than most boys and men can. Researchers at Cambridge University studied whether female superiority in understanding facial
8 We humans, like animals, hear because little ¨hairs¨ on cells in our inner ear are very sensitIve to sound. Those ¨hair cells¨ wiggle when they detect a sound. That wiggling generates a subtle acoustic response, which is the transient evoked otoacoustic amission.

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expressions was innate or whether it developed as a result of social factors. These researchers studied newborn babies on the day they were born. The researchers concluded that they had proven ¨beyond reasonable doubt ¨ that sex differences in social interest ¨are, in part, biological in origin¨ (Connellan, Baron-Cohen and associates, 2000)
Results suggested that girls are born prewired to be interested in faces while boys are prewired to be more interested in moving objects. The reason for the difference has to do with sex differences in the anatomy of the eye.
The retina is that part of the eye that converts light into a neurological signal. The retina is divided into two layers. One layer contains the photoreceptors, the rods and the cones. Rods are sensitive to black and white; they are colour-blind. Cones are sensitive to colour.
The rods and cones send their signals to the next layer, the ganglion cells. Scientists have known for may decades that some ganglion cells are very large (magnocellular), while others are small (parvocellular). Most papers on this topic just refer to them as M and P ganglion cells.
As stated by Kaplan and Bernardete (2001) and Meissirel and associates (1997), P cells and M cells have very different jobs. M cells are wired primarily to rods with little input from cones; they are essentially simple motion detectors. M cells are distributed all across the retina, so they can track objects everywhere in the visual field. The P cells send information via their own special division of the thalamus to a particular region of the cerebral cortex that appears to be specialized for analysis of texture and colour; the M cells compile

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information about movement and direction. The M cells send their information via a separate pathway to a different region of the cerebral cortex, a region that is specialized for analysis of special relationships and object motion. ¨Every step in the pathway, from the retina to the cerebral cortex, is different in females and males¨ (Horvath and Wickler, 1999).
The real surprises have come from microscopic analyses of the eye performed in the past years. Using recently developed techniques, scientists (Wickman et. al, 2000) have discovered that the human retina is full of receptors for sex hormones. Lephart et al. cited in Sax (2005) have found that the male retina is substantially thicker than the female retina. That is because the male retina has mostly the larger, thicker M cells while the female retina has predominantly the smaller, thinner P ganglion cells. (see graph 1)
Graph 1. Differences between M cells and P cells . Sax (2005, p. 21)

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According to Sax (2005), these are not small differences between the sexes, with lots of overlap. On the contrary, these are large differences between the sexes, with no overlap at all.
Studies of young children (Iijima, Arisaka, Minamoto, and Arai, 2001) have demonstrated that girls will prefer colours red, orange, green and beige, because those are the colours that P cells are prewired to be most sensitive to. In contrast, boys prefer colours such as black, gray, silver, and blue because that is the way the M cells are wired..
Table 1. Sax (2005, p. 22)
Girls are also said to be better at tasks that involve discrimination of objects. Girls tend to be more prone to answer the question ¨What is it?¨, whereas boys tend to be better at tasks involving location of objects. According to Sax (2005), this might shed light on the analysis of preferences for toys made by girls and boys. A richly

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textured doll will be more appealing than a moving truck according to whether the eye system favours the P or the M cells. ¨We shouldn´t be surprised that young females prefer dolls over trucks, while young males, prefer trucks over dolls¨ (Alexander and Hines, 2002)
The Two Hemispheres
Hormones, processing and structural elements exist trhoughout the brain, and especially in the two hemispheres. ¨Quite interestingly – and this has an impact on learning – the male and female brains ¨do¨ their hemispheres somewhat differently¨ (Gurian, 2008). Left-hemisphere preference is more common in girls. The left brain
 Is connected to the rigth side of the body
 Processes information sequentially and analytically
 Generates spoken language
 Recognizes words and numbers, when numbers are spoken as words
 Respond more sensually to external stimuli
 Constructs memories (including hyperbolic memories)
 Does aritmethic functions
 Seeks explanations for occurance of events
Right-hemisphere preference is more common in boys. The rigth brain
 Is connected to the rigth side of the body
 Processes information abstractly and holistically
 Interprets langauge non-verbally
 Recognizes places, faces, objects, music

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 Fantazises abstractions (such as science fiction and video game scenarios)
 Is less detailed and more concrete in recall
 Does relational and mathematical functions
 Organizes occurences into spatial patterns
Gurian, 2008
The rigth- and left-hemisphere preference of boys and girls would have important implications when we analyse the way schools are designed. Schools tend to be designed to be more left-hemisphere friendly: they are structured environments with time periods and ringing bells, are organized based on facts and rules, rely primarily on verbal processing, limit access to free space and movement, and require lots of multitasking. Gurian (2008) argues that
Because this left-hemisphere-friendly environment naturally favours left-hemisphere preferences, girls are going to find school, in general, more comfortable than will many boys. Not surprinsingly, schools report that 80 to 90 percent of their discipline problems are created by boys. Boys are not biochemically more prone to ¨make a fuss¨ than girls but also quite often chafing against an environment that doesn´t fit their rigth-hemisphere preference as learners.
Brain Development
The different regions of the brain seem to develop in a different sequence in girls compared with boys. Giedd (2007) claims that ¨there is no overlap in the trajectories of brain development in girls and boys.¨

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Hanlon, Thatcher and Cline (1999) demonstrated striking and cosistent sex differences in the speed with which the brain matures. These researchers found that while the areas of the brain involved in language and fine motor skills mature almost six years earlier in girls than in boys, the areas of the brain involved in targeting and spatial memory mature about four years earlier in boys than in girls. Hanlon, Thatcher and Cline (1999) concluded that
The areas of the brain involved in language, in spatial memory, in motor coordination, and in getting along with other people, develop in a ¨different order, time and rate¨ in girls compared with boys.
Looking at The Male-Female Brain Spectrum
Although most scholarly literature on gender agrees that male and female brains are different, it is important to mention that one male brain is also different from another male brain; the same is true of female brains. Both females and males fall somewhere on the ¨male-female brain spectrum,¨a continuum from the ¨most male¨ to the ¨most female.¨ (Gurian, 2008). Some female brains are more like the average male brains, and some male brains are more like the average female brains. Researchers (Baron-Cohen, 2003) have identified what Gurian (2008) labels ¨brigde brains,¨ brains that fall in the middle of that spectrum. A female bridge brain, might have a brain system inclined to process more like a male brain. Women who choose careers that are very competitive and highly spatial, and that require a high degree of risk-tolerance – such as criminal law or engineering – migth be likely to be bridge brains. A male bridge brain, on the other hand, might be a man who enjoys a career that requires more verbal and emotional sensitivity and processing – such as a male kindergarten teacher.

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Psychological, Learning, and Behavioural Disorders
Males and females typically experience different disorders, primarily for hormonal and neurological reasons. More gilrs than boys are reported to experience depression and eating disorders in their teen years. The etilogy of eating disorders is related to hormonal and brain chemestry, although stimulation of the disorder is often cultural (Gurian, 2003).
However, females are less likely to experience a learning, psychiatric, or behavioural disorder. Girls´brains, which emphazise left-hemisphere development, do not suffer as many attention problems. The female brain uses more cortical areas for more learning functions. The female brain also secretes more serotonin than the male brain, so girls are less inclined to hyperactive disorder.
The male brain tends to lateralize its activity – compartimentalizing it in smaller areas of the brain – and, therefore, suffers more learning disorders. Gurian and Ballew (2003) report that
Two thirds of the learning disabled and 90 percent of the behaviourally disabled are boys. They are nearly 100 percent of the most seriously disabled. Girls constitute only 20 percent of ADHD and ADD diagnoses and 30 percent of serious drug and alcohol problems...
Because the male brain lateralizes, a defect in one area of the brain might affect the only area in which a learning function in particular is taking place. Special education and alternative education are dominated by
boys for this reason (Gurian & Ballew, 2003). Many boys are wrongly diagnosed as having ADHD, ADD, and learning disorders because educators have not understood their brains or created classrooms that help them deal with their natural

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impulsiveness, lateralization of brain activity, left-hemisphere disadvantage, and learning styles.
Girls Draw Nouns, Boys Draw Verbs
Researchers who have studied pictures drawn by young girls and young boys, have found that girls typically draw pictures of people (or pets, or flowers or trees), arranged quite symmetrically, facing the viewer. They usually use ten or more colours in their pictures, and are more likely to choose the colours that Arai (2001) in Sax (2005) calls ¨warm¨ colours – red, green, beige and white. Boys typically draw action: a rocket hitting its target, an alien about to eat somebody, a car about to hit another car. Boys tend to use at most six colours and they prefer what Arai calls ¨cold¨ colours, such as blue, gray, silver, and black. Boyatzis and Eades (2001) in Sax (2005) add that boys are also more likely to employ a third-person perspective, looking at the action from a remote vantage point rather than from a perspective facing the vehicle or the animal actually doing the action. Tuman (1999) cited in Sax (2005) summarizes the difference this way: ¨girls draw nouns, boys draw verbs¨.
Feelings
Serotinin is a neurotransmitter known as the ¨feel good¨ chemical. (Gurian, 2008). It affects mood, anxiety and helps us to relax during conlict. Girls´ levels of serotonine tend to be around 30 percent higher, what makes them less apt to rely on a figth response when in conflict. Perry (2003) in Gurian (2008) reported that neurotransmitters are responsive to environmental stimuli and claimed that ¨kindness can be physically calming¨ helping to increase serotonin levels. Once a boy has

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become angry, he has less access to serotonin to help him manage his anger. According to Gurian (2008)
Boys will have less serotonin in their system to help them calm down and to de- escalate volatile situations. A calm, kind, supportive adult intervention will be more helpful than an adult who engages in a power struggle, escalating the boy´s fight response.
Yurgelum-Todd et al. cited in Sax (2005) have used sophisticated magnetic resonance images to examine how emotion is processed in the brains of children from the ages of seven through seventeen. In young children, these researchers found that negative emotional activity in response to unpleasant or disturbing visual images seems to be localized in the amygdala. In adolescence, a larger fraction of the brain activity associated with negative emotion moves up to the cerebral cortex. That is the same division of the brain associated with our higher cognitive functions – reflection, reasoning and language. ¨But, that change occurs only in girls. In boys, the locus of brain activity associated with negative emotion remains stuck in the amygdala¨ (Killgore, Oki and Yurgelum-Todd, 2001). In this respect, Wagger and
associates (2003) claim that emotions – both positive and negative – are processed differently in girls´brains than in boys.´
According to Gurian (2003) and Sax (2005), this difference in the way that emotions are processed has got serious implications for education. In boys, they claim, the part of the brain where emotions happen is not well connected to the part of the brain where verbal processing and speech happens –this situation is totally different in girls. In this light, Gurian (2004) states

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[...]Esto es crucial, porque el cerebro masculino produce el lenguaje en el hemisferio izquierdo, mientras que las mujeres utilizan seis o siete áreas corticales para desarrollar el lenguaje en ambos hemisferios. Por lo tanto, a los hombres les cuesta más que a las mujeres producir lenguaje a partir de la experiencia. Por regla general, emplean aproximadamente la mitad de palabras que ellas.9
In recent years, there has been much talk about the need to increase the ¨emotional literacy¨ of boys and, most scholarly literature has argued that boys would be better off if encouraged to talk more about their feelings. Sax (2005) argues that
That sort of talk betrays (in my judgement) a lack of awareness of basic sex differences in the underlying wiring of the brain. Asking a teenage boy to talk about how he feels is a question guaranteed to make boys uncomfortable. You are asking him to make connections between two parts of his brain that do not normally communicate.
Threat and confrontation
Boys and girls tend to respond differently to threat and confrontation. ¨Male testorerone is the male sex and aggression hormone, reponsible for the architecture of the male system before birth, and for increased male aggression, competitiveness, self-assertion, and self reliance throughout life¨ (Gurian, 2008) male testosterone levels rise when males ¨win¨and decline when males ¨lose.¨ female testosterone levels, which are always lower, remain basically constant and are not subject to fluctuations brought about by winning or losing.
9 ¨This is crucial, as while the masculine brain produces language in the left hemisphere, women use six or seven cortical areas to develop language in both hemispheres. Thus men find it harder than women to produce language as from experience. As a general rule, men use half the number of words women use¨. [all translations in this dissertation are mine]

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Shors et all. (2001) demonstrated that stress improves learning in males while it impairs learning in females. According to Shores (2001) ¨exposure to stress enhances the growth of neural connections in the male hippocampus, while it inhibits growth of connections in the female hippocampus.¨ Reports of this kind would prove that there are innate differences in how males and females respond to stress. Many young boys are energized by confrontation and by time-constrained tasks. Few young girls will flourish when exposed to high-pressure. Shores et all. (2001) claim that this has got important applications for the class. Using tactics such as tick timing, would prove useful for boys, but not for girls. Gurian (2008) claims that
Healthy competition in the classroom will help motivate boys. Research has shown that boys tend to score better on tests at times when testosterone levels are high, and levels rise during competition. Using games that provide all students a chance to succeed, even if they are competing against themselves and ¨beating¨ themselves at a task, can be very productive.
Social determinants of gender development
Some other gender theorists, however, rely more on the way on which social interaction shapes individual and group expectations of what men and women should be like. They favour ¨gender identity¨ - socially constructed maleness or femaleness - as opposed to biological sex determined by genetic predisposition. Gender studies with a sociological perspective, then, pursue cultural distinctions to explain the differences between the sexes. One of the clearest explanations of how boys and girls interests begin to separate, each from the other, in early schooling, lays in the concept of sex-role stereotyping. The social learning theory states that children tend

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to shape their behaviour in response to the ways in which significant others in their intimate circle expect them to behave. According to Marland (1983) cited in Bandura (1989), schools, which naturally embody society´s values, reinforce the models associated to male and female roles by the subject choices they offer and the career paths they recommend each sex to follow.
Daily practices at school
As regards classroom practices, Dickman (1993) claims that teachers treat men and women differently. This assumption is backed up by the opinion of several experts:
Teachers may communicate limiting preconceptions about appropriate and expected behaviour, abilities, career directions and personal goals which are based on sex rather than on individual interest and ability. (Hall and Sandler, 1982)
Teachers of both sexes may ask questions and look at men students only for response. (Thorne, 1979)
Some teachers tend to ask women lower order factual questions while reserving higher order critical thinking questions for men. (Sadker & Sadker, 1982)
Some teachers interrupt women students more often than men students or allow women to be easily interrupted by others during class discussions. (Hall & Sandler, 1982) while praising female students for being polite and waiting their turn. (Ecles & Jacobs, 1986).

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¨Las conversaciones, los contenidos y el desarrollo curricular tienen un marcado carácter masculino, alrededor del ámbito público y productivo10 (Flecha y Nuñez, 2001)
Ën las relaciones entre sexos en la escuela suele darse liderazgo y dominio del lado de los varones.¨11 (Riordan, 1990)
Ën la adolescencia los chicos no pierden confianza en ellos mismos, mientras que las chicas pierden más fácilmente su autoestima, con frecuencia por cuestiones de imagen personal.¨12 (Gilligan, 1993; Sadker and Sadker, 1995)
Discriminatory teacher behaviour tends to begin in the classroom since early schooling. As Ebbeck (1984) points out, the pattern begins in preschool with teachers confering more attention, more time and hugs to male students. Several authors (Brophy and Good 1974, Jones 1989, Lockheed 1984, Lockheed and Harris 1989, Sadker & Sadker 1986b, Spaulding 1963) as cited in Dickman (1993) claim that research from the past twenty years consistently reveals that boys receive more teacher attention than girls do. Teachers might listen to boysćomments eigth times more often than females in the elementary school. Sadker & Sadker (1985) claim that teachers are more likely to request responses from boys, even when they do not proffer the answers. In this light, Myra and Sadker (1994) say
10 ¨The talks, the contents and the curricula have a strong male character, both in public and productive fields.¨ (Flecha y Nuñez, 2001) [all translations in this dissertations are mine]
11 ¨The relationship between members of the two sexes are often led and dominated by boys.¨ (Riordan, 1990) [all translations in this dissertation are mine]
12 ¨During adolescence, boys do not lose confidence in themselves, while girls lose their self-esteem more easily, often due to self image problems.¨ (Gilligan, 1993; Sadker and Sadker, 1995) [all translations in this dissertation are mine]

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Girls don´t receive their fair share of education. Teachers of good intention respond to boys and teach them more actively, but…while the teachers are spending time with boys, the girls are being ignored and shortchanged.
Teacher-student interaction
Most studies on the interaction between teachers and students show that the quality of teacher contact also seems to vary between the genders. Sadker & Sadker (1896a) say that boys receive more comments of praise, criticism and remediation. Moreover, some other authors tend to be stronger in their beliefs and consider that teachers often act in ¨disinviting ways¨ to female students. According to Purkey ( 1992) few teachers are intentionally disinviting to female students, but many others are unintentionally disinviting. In this light, Purkey (1992) considers that
[...] people functioning at this level lack consistency in direction and purpose and so behave in disinviting ways. Those of us who function at this level need to evaluate our behaviour and change it so that we reach out to our students with a summons to grow and develop all their talents physically, intelectually and emotionally.
Swann and Graddol (1998) in Maccoby (1999) would refer Purkey´s ¨unintentional disivinviting teacher´s attitude¨ as 'differential teacher treatment by gender' as opposed to 'discrimination', for the reason that it is unlikely to be intentional, but rather a sort of unconscious collaborative process between teacher and students. Spender (1982), who was aware of the phenomenon and hated the idea that it might happen in her classrooms carried research in her own lessons, noting that:
... sometimes I have ... thought I have gone too far and have spent more time with the girls than the boys. But the tapes have proved otherwise. Out of ten taped lessons ...

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the maximum time I spent interacting with girls was 42% and on average 38%, and the minimum time with boys 58% .... It is nothing short of a substantial shock to appreciate the discrepancy between what I thought I was doing and what I actually was doing.
Spender's findings have in fact been widely echoed elsewhere. On a meta- analysis of 81 studies, Kelly (1988) writes:
It is now beyond dispute that girls receive less of the teacher's attention in class.... It applies in all age groups ... in several countries, in various
socioeconomic groupings, across all subjects in the curriculum, and with both male and female teachers ....
A recent study sponsored by the American Association of University Women also reported gender inequities in the classroom. According to this research:
 Teachers call on boys more than girls
 Boys who provide answers without being recognized are generally not penalized, while girls tend to be reprimanded for the same behaviour.
 Boys generally receive more praise for the content of their work, whereas girls receive praise for being neat.
However, Gurian (2003) believes that ¨boys are the most gender-biased disadvantage in our schools.¨ He claims that
In kindergarten through sixth grade, almost 90 percent of teachers are women, and female learning and teaching styles dominate. Teachers have not received training in male development and performance. Most systems rely less on kinesthetic and less disciplined educational strategies than many boys need.

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Gurian (2003) attributes gender bias in this respect to the lack of biological foundation of previous studies on gender and education, which claimed that girls were the primary targets of bias in our schools. ¨The lack of biological foundation [of prevoius studies] may have been coupled with a desire to deal with anti-female bias in the workplace by ¨proving¨ similar bias in the schools¨ (Gurian, 2003). Although boys are called more than girls in class, much of the attention they get is punitive, not rewarding, and girls who are not called on usually outperform the boys.
Of course, Gurian (2003) admits there are some gender disadvantages to girls as well. In this ligth, Gurian (2003) claims that
In some classrooms, boys dominate discussions, and the voices of girls are lost. Role modelling in literature is often more often male than female, and male heroes dominate.
A crucial influence in the way that teachers and students interact seems to be the teachers´ own gender stereotypes. According to Rodgers (1987) and Sadker & Sadker (1990), teachers tend to be guided by their own gender stereotypes in their interaction with students. Thus teachers would take for granted that boys should excel in science and maths, while girls should do better in English and literature. Eccles & Miggley (1990) would enlarge this view and say that
As a result, boys and girls would receive differential encouragement. This can have a restrictive influence on students, who may not try hard in fields in which they receive little encouragement.
Encouragement in typically stereotyped educational fields at school, then, would prove to deprive students from the possibility of developing all their natural

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talents. Riordan (1999) in Datnow and Hubbard (2002) makes reference to this issue by citing other authors
Students hold relatively clear expectations for each other as to academic competence at various tasks (Cohen, 1994, 2000; Rosenholtz, 1985; Tammivaara, 1982). Furthermore, research demonstrates that group members who assume and are accorded high status in one area of expertise, such as reading, are expected to be more competent and influential in other non-related tasks as well, academic and non-academic.
These findings would indicate that teachers might tend to perpetuate
stereotyping in their classroom interaction with their students. Rosenholtz (1985) claims that students who do well in specific tasks such as reading, are also accorded high status in most other tasks as well, however irrelevant they may be to reading. Specifically, it means that females may be accorded higher status on all academic skills based on their reading ability or that males might be accorded higher status based on their mathematical ability. In this light, Olafsdóttir (1996) states
Both sexes seek tasks they know. They select behaviour they know and consider appropriete for their sex. In mixed schools, each sex monopolises its stereotyped tasks and behaviour so the sex that really needs to practice new things never gets the opportunity. Thus, mixed-sex schools support and increase the old traditional roles.
According to the American Phsychological Association (2007), schools should foster
Educación que potencie en los varones esas pautas más frecuentes en las chicas: cooperación, empatía, diálogo, actitud proacadémica, la desaparición

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de las normas de grupo que conducen al sexismo...Y, de otra parte, cómo puede facilitar a las chicas la participación en clase, el liderazgo, la opción por profesiones típicamente masculinas, el desprenderse de estereotipos sobre su propia imágen, la desaparición del miedo y la intolerancia personal al fracaso escolar, la no dependencia de la alabanza para la autoestima....13
In the case of boys, social norms tend to indicate that masculinity is intrinsically linked to the absence of femininity. This implies a stronger same-gender- group pressure to avoid attitudes that migth be associated to female attitudes. One of the risks is that boys seem to be forced to demonstrate worse academic performance at school, just not to evince a ¨feminine attittude.¨ Girls, on the contrary, seem to have more freedom in this respect. ¨Claramente, un esencial elemento para ser masculino es ser no femenino, mientras que las chicas pueden ser femeninas sin necesidad de demostrar que no son masculinas¨14 (Maccoby, 2003)
Student – teacher relationship
Girls and boys are said to have different educational styles and different expectations as regards their relationship with their teachers. Because teachers are usually unaware of those differences, male teachers especially, often misunderstand and misinterpret the behaviour of their female students.
Sax (2005) bases the analysis of the relationship between teachers and students by referring to friendship between boys and girls. According to Sax (2005)
13 ¨Education that fosters men to acquire those characteristics mostly seen in girls: cooperation, empathy, dialogue, pro-academic attittude, the absence of norms that lead to sexism that are implicitly stated by the group of peers of a same sax...And, besides, education that facilitates girls´participation in class, leadership, the option to choose typically masculine professions, the possibility to do away with stereotypes about their own personal image and with the fear and personal intolerance to academic failure, the fact that girls can avoid dependance on praise to foster their self-esteem.....¨ [all translations in this dissertation are mine]
14 ¨Clearly enough, an essential element to be masculine is to be non-feminine, while girls can be feminine without needing to show that they are not masculine¨ [all translations in this dissertation are mine]

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friendships between girls are different from friendships between boys. Girl´s friendships are about being together, spending time together, going places together. Friendships between boys, on the other hand, usually develop out of a shared interest in a game or activity.
Conversation is central to girls´ friendship at any age. Self-disclosure is the most precious badge of friendship between females. Boys are different. Most boys do not really want to hear each other´s innermost secrets. With boys the focus is on the activity, not on the conversation.
Girls´ friendships then are more intimate and more personal than most boys´ friendships. That has advantages and disadvantages. The advantage is that each girl derives strength from the intimacy of the friendship. In this respect, Belle (1989) says
When a girl is under stress, she looks to other girls for support and comfort. When boys are under stress, they usually just want to be left alone.

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Table 2. Sax, 2005, p. 84
Gurian (2008) refers to oxyticin, which can be defined as the ¨tend and befriend¨ hormone, and states that this hormone is related to social recognition and bonding. Oxyticin is said to be involved in the formation of trust between people, and females have got higher levels of oxyticin in their systems than males throughout life. In this ligth, Gurian (2008) claims that
Girls will be motivated by their chemical system to establish and maintain relationships with teachers and peers, and will behave in ways meant to meet that need, including pleasing the teacher. Boys are less chemically driven to establish and maintain these relationshiphs prima facie, and may not see their behaviour as having as much direct connection to their relationshiph with the teacher and peers.

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These differences seem to be relevant to education for several reasons, the main reason is that girls and boys relate to teachers differently. Most girls will naturally seek to affiliate with the teacher (male or female). They expect the teacher to be on their side, to be their ally. Most girls will not hesitate to ask the teacher for help when they need it. In contrast, boys will consult the teacher for help only as a last resource, after all other options have been exhausted.
Educational researchers (Bishop & Bishop, Gelbwasser, Green and Zuckerman, 2003) cited in Sax (2005) have consintently found that girls are more concerned than boys are with pleasing the teacher and more likely than boys to follow the teacher´s example. According to Sax (2003), a girl student may actually raise her status in the eyes of her friends if she has a close relationship with a teacher – especially if the teacher is young, ¨cool¨, and female. With boys it is different. A boy who holds a close relationship with the teacher does not thereby raise his status in the eyes of his peers. On the contrary, being friends with the teacher can lower a boy´s status in the eyes of other boys. In this light, Bishop (2003) writes
In the eyes of most students, the nerds exemplify the ¨I trust my teachers to help me learn¨ attitude [...] the dominant middle school crowd is telling them that trusting teachers is baby stuff. It is ¨us¨ [the boys] versus ¨them¨ [the teachers]. Friendship with teachers make you a target of harassment by peers.....Boys are not supposed to suck up to teachers. You avoid being perceived as a suck-up by avoiding eye contact with teachers, not raising one´s hands in class too frequently, and [by] talking or passing notes to friends during class.

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Sax (2005) believes that these differences in attitude and behaviour in boys and girls even affect the dynamics of a lesson. When working with girls, he says, teachers must smile and look at them in their eyes (face-to-face). This will give them nonverbal reassurance. When teachers work with boys, they would better sit next to them and spread out the materials they are working with in front of them, so they are both looking at the materials shoulder-to-shoulder. He recommends that teachers should avoid eye-to-eye stare with a boy, unless while reprimanding or disciplining him.
Another application of these differences would be that small group learning is a good strategy for girls, but seldom for boys. One reason for this is that girls are more confortable asking the teacher for help when they need it. When a group of four girls are given a group assingment the teacher can be confident that if they get stuck, at least one of the girls will come up to her and ask for help. This is not the case with boys. If four boys get stuck, there is no guarantee that any of them will ask the teacher for help. If the boys get stuck, they may just adopt a disrupting attitude or get rowdy instead of asking for help.
A second reason why small-group self directed learning works for girls but not for boys is that boys can raise their status in the eyes of other boys by disrupting the teacher´s programme. If the teacher breaks the class into small groups and two boys in a group of four start being disruptive, those boys raise their status in the eyes of at least some of the other boys in the room, no matter how puerile their behaviour. According to Burkitt (2001) in Sax (2005) this attitude disintegrates the class into

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¨total anarchy¨. And it is apparently usually a girl who seeks to come to the rescue of the beleaguered teacher. In this ligth Burkitt (2001) states that
Every once in a while, when the class deteriorated into total anarchy, some girl
would take pity on [the teacher] and let loose a timid ¨Come on, guys.¨
¨More impulsive and less mature¨ than the female brain, the male brain gets a boy into far more trouble in class and in school. Gurian (2003) argues that
Boys cause 90 percent of the discipline problems in school, constitute 80 percent of the dropouts, garner the majority of school punishment for immature behaviour, and leave school at a higher rate than girls do.
The kind of classroom discipline that works for girls – often inconsistent, at times friendly, and lacking profound authority – does not work so well for many boys in middle school and early high school. Male hormones are flooding, and many boys mature through elder dominance systems in which intense bonding and authority best manage them until they learn to manage themselves.
Student – student relationship
According to Maccoby (1999), even when children are simply playing together in situations in which both sexes are present, children are usually found in closer proximity to other children of the same sex and relatively few of their social acts are directed towards children of the other sex. The same sex preferences are especially pronounced when the children present are of a similar age.
On school playgrounds, the same author claims, most games are segregated, and there are certain places where each sex customarily plays. Boys usually choose the largest, more central spaces, while girls have more peripheral spaces for jump- rope or hopscotch.

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In classrooms where teachers, rather than students, have the major role
in establishing structure, there tends to be much less segregation than on the playgrounds. But, in instances in which teachers allow a free choice of seats, segregation does emerge. As Schoflield (1981) reports
The chairs in Mr Socker´s room are arranged in the shape of wide shallow U. As the first few kids come into the room, Harry says to John, who is starting to sit down in an empty section the room along one side of the U, ¨Don´t sit there, that´s where all the girls sit.¨ Harry and John sit elsewhere.
Lockheed (1984) claims that in classrooms where children have assigned seats, the preferential orientation to their own sex is less explicit, but appears to be lurking beneath the surface.
When children are asked to nominate classmates whom they would be willing to work with on a classroom project, same sex nominations strongly outweigh other sex nominations.
In many classrooms it is common for children to offer help to each other with classroom assignments, but almost all such helping occurs between children of the same sex. Damico (1975) states that instances of a grade-school child spontaneously helping a child of the other sex with school work are extremely rare. After making repeated observations through most of a school year in six mixed first grade classrooms, Grant (1985) says:
¨Peer interaction...... constituted a quasi-autonomous component of classroom life, not directly regulated (and sometimes not even fully observable) by teachers¨

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and she found that this peer component of classroom life was substantially different for boys and girls.
Sometimes teachers tend to make explicit efforts to increase the amount of cross-sex interaction, but such efforts do not seem to be effective. Lockheed et al. (1984) have found that giving grade school children year-long experiences in working on school projects in small mixed sex groups slightly increased the amount of cross- sex interaction seen in the classroom. However, if new groups were to be formed, same sex preferences remained strong and girls exhibited even stronger negative stereotypes about boys after extensive experience working with them.
Motivational factors
Sex differences in how students relate to their teacher seem to give rise to sex differences in motivation to study and in the weight the students give to their teacher´s opinions. As a result, according to Pomerantz (2002), girls are at a greater risk of being harmed by a negative assessment from a teacher:
Girls generalize the meaning of their failures because they interpret them as indicating that they have disappointed adults, and thus they are of little worth. Boys, in contrast, appear to see their failures as relevant only to the specific subject area in which they have failed; this may be due to their relative lack of concern with pleasing adults. In addition, because girls view evaluative feedback as diagnostic of their abilities, failure may lead them to incorporate this information into their more general view of themselves. Boys, in contrast, may be relatively protected from such generalization because they see such feedback as limited in its diagnosticity.
Pomerantz, Altermatt & Saxon (2002) claim that

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Because girls do better in school (as measured by report card grades), one might imagine that girls would be more self-confident about their academic abilities and have higher academic self-esteem. But that´s not the case. Paradoxically, girls are more likely to be excessively critical in evaluating their own academic performance. Conversely, boys tend to have unrealistic high estimates of their own academic abilities and accomplishments.
Thus experts arrived at one of the most robust paradoxes teachers tend to face: ¨the girl who gets straight A´s but thinks she´s stupid and feels discouraged; the boy who is barely getting B´s but thinks he´s brilliant.¨ Pomerantz, Altermatt & Saxon (2002), state, as a consequence, that the most basic difference in teaching style for girls vs. boys seems to be that girls should be encouraged, while boys must be given a ¨reality check¨: that is to say, boys must be told that they are not as brilliant as they think they are, and must be challenged to do better.
Girls are more likely to do their homework even if the particular assignment does not interest them. Girls want teachers to think well of them. Boys on the other hand will be less motivated to study unless they find the material intrinsically interesting.
Teaching techniques and activities
Studies by Fennema and & Peterson (1987) have demonstrated that ever since preschool, the activities chosen by teachers tend to appeal to boys´ interests and the presentation format selected are those in which boys excel or are encouraged more than girls. Science teaching from kindergarten to secondary levels,

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is dominated by textbooks, teachers lectures, workbook exercises and writing answers. These strategies tend to focus on dealing with knowledge and skills in isolation, rather than in the context of real-life problem-solving. This has proved to be a disadvantage for women for its abstract character of instruction. As Oakes (1990) stressed
Women tend to have a greater interest in people than in things and respond more positively to ideas in context (field dependence) than in isolation (field independence) and would, therefore, respond more negatively than white males to the typical type of instruction found in science classrooms.
Providing Various Learning Modalities
Boys tend to find one learning mode they like and stick with it. In contrast, girls seem to like to move from one mode to another – probably as a reflection of of the multitasking female brain. According to Gurian (2005), ¨although some boys also enjoy a variety of learning modes, girls usually shine when provided with numerous ways of learning.¨
 Storytelling: lots of storytelling and myth creation in the classroom help the male brain develop its imaginative and verbal skills.
 Acting: most children, especially girls, enjoy acting out a poem, story or play.
 Role-playing: role playing can be used in teaching most subjects. This activity provides movement that appeals to boys´brains and conversation that appeals to girls.´

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 Multisensory Stimulation: providing activities that apply to the senses, such as music, lights or sounds might help, especially boys, to get motivated to write more detailed stories.
 Tutoring Others: especially female students enjoy tutoring other students, male or female, the same age or younger.
 Cooperative Groups: cooperative groups help the girls to be more creative and confident.
 Separate-Sex Learning: girls tend to benefit from separate-sex learning. It seems to help the girls to concentrate as they become more focused. Especially in middle school, separate-sex learning has the potential to decrease discipline problems. ¨Both boys and girls tend to accomplish more when they are not showing off or distracted by the presence of the other sex.¨ (Gurian, 2005)
Techniques to Encourage Learning
 Waiting for an Answer: some students, especially boys with less -developed verbal skills, seem to need extra time to formulate thougths. Using extra wait time with boys when asking a question migth help to get better responses from them.
 Extra Encouragment for Girls: Gurian (2005) claims that
girls tend not to believe in themselves until they receive encouragement, and they need more positive feedback than they typically receive. Rather than risk failure, girls tend to stand back if they don´t think they can do something. It is crucial that teachers realize how personally girls can take perceived failure – in a relationship or in academic performance.
 Female Role models and Nonbiased Materials: paired conversation, one-on-one encouragement and role models seem to be extremelly important for girls.

Gender Differences in Teaching and Learning: A Study of Single-Sex Schools

Gender Differences in Teaching and Learning: A Study of Single-Sex Schools

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