Emma A. Fleming
October 17th, 2022
Dear Math Educators: Do You
Believe in Your Girls as Much as
Your Boys?
Recent research reveals that K-8 math teachers may hold explicit
and implicit biases in their classrooms.
Even though a majority of educators are females themselves, we still see gender bias in math class. [Image credit.]
Wait, What?!
Educators: when you clicked on this post, you might have been thinking to yourself, “This
is insane! I believe in ALL of my students equally, no matter what, and I’m going to read
this post to prove that to myself.” If you did find yourself having that internal dialogue, I
can just about guarantee that you were not alone; many educators across the country
think that they have the same exact expectations of and attitudes towards all of their
students, no matter their gender identity. And it’s not that they are wrong, per say, it’s
just that they genuinely don’t realize their biases, meaning that they are implicit. Some
teachers, however, are the opposite: they are aware of the biases that they hold,
making them explicit. Either way, you are reading this post now, meaning you want to
learn more. Well, you’ve come to the right place! We are going to dive further into
professional research on teachers’ belief on whether math is an innate ability (meaning
you have it or you don’t) or a malleable ability (meaning you can build upon it with
practice and effort). Furthermore, we are also going to look at the relationship between
teachers’ belief in a student in the subject and their gender.
It is a big commitment of time and energy to conduct a study of this level of importance and size. [Image Credit.]
The Study
In 2020, scholars Yasemin Copur-Gencturk and David Quinn from the University of
Southern California and Ian Thacker from the University of Texas at San Antonio came
together to perform research on math teachers’ gender-specific beliefs related to
student ability, and if/how teachers’ background influenced these beliefs. A group of
382 K-8 math teachers in one of the largest school districts in the United States
participated in the study, which consisted of them sending in answers to a survey sent
out by the authors in collaboration with the Consortium for Policy Research in
Education. In the survey, the participants rated their agreement with written statements
that broached topics such as innate mathematical ability, malleable mathematical
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ability, and gender-specific mathematical ability. The scale was 1 to 7, 1 being strongly
disagree, and 7 being strongly agree. The teachers were also asked to report specifics
about their background, including their gender, the grade level they are teaching, the
number of years they have been teaching, and if they taught English language learners
(ELLs) or special education students.
The authors spent a lot of time analyzing the data they found in this study. [Image Credit.]
The Results
When reading the results, I was delightfully surprised. In a similar study that had been
conducted years prior (in 1990 to be exact), it was found that teachers attributed
healthy competitive behavior, logical thinking, the enjoyment of mathematics more,
independent behavior, and answering questions more often to their male students
versus their female students. However, that study did not look at the specific attitude of
teachers towards the ability of both genders in the subject of mathematics, so the
present study was a necessary one.
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From the total pool of teachers surveyed, 95% selected a 3 or less on the statement that
boys are innately better at math. Again, 1 is strongly disagree, while 7 is strongly agree.
This means that a majority of teachers do not believe that mathematical brilliance is
something that you are born with, So, this means that a majority of teachers believe
that math is a malleable subject, meaning that students can learn it, and with the
appropriate amount of effort and practice, become successful at it. Whether or not
their actions in the classroom align with their thoughts and opinions, we do not know, as
there was no observation component to this study. The authors themselves say that
teachers may reveal implicit stereotypical beliefs in their interactions in the classroom
and planning their instruction.
For the small population of teachers that did believe that math is an innate ability, it
was found that those teachers also believed that boys were naturally better at the
subject than girls; meaning, they are born with that innate ability, and girls are not. This
aligns with another previous study done in Germany in 2000, where researchers
concluded that teachers thought of math as less difficult for boys than girls, and that
boys were simply more logical thinkers. When failure did arise from both genders,
teachers attributed girls’ failure to low ability, but attributed boys’ failure to low effort.
Something quite unexpected that was found in the study was the difference between
the beliefs of K-2 teachers versus middle school teachers. It was discovered that middle
school math teachers, although still disagreeing with the statement that math requires
innate ability, disagreed less strongly with the statement than K-2 teachers. The thought
process of the researchers’ is that because math becomes increasingly difficult in
middle school, teachers tend to blame failure on lack of ability. They also suggest that
because elementary school teachers are able to spend more time with their students,
middle school teachers may not see enough of their students’ lives and abilities to
accurately make that claim.
One of the most interesting components of this study, in my opinion, are the findings
from educators who work with English language learners and special education
students. The majority of ELL teachers strongly believed in students being high achievers
in math if they worked hard. However, special education teachers held the opposite
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belief: a students’ success in math was not dependent on their efforts. Special
education teachers across the pool came together in the disagreement that success is
firstly dependent on motivation and effort, and secondly dependent on raw ability.
Let’s continue decreasing our explicit and implicit gender biases in the classroom to give all our students the equal, equitable
education they deserve . [Image Credit.]
So… What Now?
Whew… that’s a lot, right? Like I stated earlier, it was a delight to find out that there has
been a steady decrease in gender bias in mathematics classrooms across the country.
Still, there is that small population that admittingly holds explicit bias against females in
the mathematics field. If the trend continues, however, the numbers will decrease, and
we will reach a point where we do not discriminate on the ability of our students in
mathematics based on gender or ability. In order to reach that stage, here is what we
can do/continue doing:
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•
Be honest with yourself. The first step to realizing bias, explicit or implicit, is to have
a conversation with yourself and accept that you are experiencing bias, and
that it needs to be reprimanded. Our authors share that students’ self-concept is
heavily influenced by their teachers and what belief they show in them, so it is
essential that you discover this bias and check it.
•
Truly get to know your students. Like was suggested for middle school teachers, a
possible reason that teachers hold the belief of innate ability versus malleable
ability is that teachers don’t really know their students. They don’t know that they
perform better when given written directions along with verbal ones, or that using
counting cubes while learning a new concept helps them to visualize it, thus
understanding it better. If we do all that we can to know our students and their
needs/strengths, then will concurrently get rid of preconceived beliefs that we
hold regarding their ability.
•
Check your fellow teachers. In listening to your coworkers give their lessons and
seeing how they respond to their class, you have the opportunity to make the
whole school community a place where you help each other out and support
your journey to a bias-free environment.
If we work these practices into our life as educators, then we will be on the road to a
right and justful education. So, let me ask you again: do you believe in your boys as
much as your girls? If so, yay! Continue to follow through with that belief with your
actions in the classroom. If not, you now know the research behind the issue, and can
get started in making it right.
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Source:
Copur-Gencturk, Y., Thacker, I., & Quinn, D. (2021). K-8 Teachers’ Overall and GenderSpecific Beliefs about Mathematical Aptitude. International Journal of Science and
Mathematics Education, 19(6), 1251–1269. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10763-020-10104-7
Reflective Analysis
Audience: Because the original audience was for academic audiences, I wanted to
translate the research for K-8 math teachers. A lot of educators that I know are really
good at keeping up with current education issues and making sure that they are
doing everything they can to provide an appropriate education. However, they just do
not have the time to research scholarly articles and interpret them. So, by providing a
translation that is easier to read, I hope that it will help them to continue on their
journey of keeping informed.
Genre: I chose to do a blog post because I know that blogs are a popular form of media
among the education community, so I think it would gain a lot of traction. Plus, blog
posts are usually fun and to the point, which is what teachers want given their usual
crazy schedule.
Structure: I tried to make the structure of the blog something that is not long and totally
boring, while also including the necessary summed up information. I think I partially
succeed with that through the pictures with captions and neat title page, but there
could be improvements.
Language: I used a lot of second point of view in this blog because I wanted it to feel like I
was talking to the reader and having a conversation with them. Plus, teacher blogs
are ran by teachers themselves, so there is really no power difference and we can all
relate to each other and feel like we are all on the same level and learning together.
Reference Conventions: The scholarly article that I referenced, K-8 Teachers’ Overall and
Gender-Specific Beliefs About Mathematics Aptitude, comes from a journal entitled
International Journal of Science and Mathematics Education, which was published only
last year, in 2021. Because the journal is specific in both that it is about education and
mathematics education, I felt that I could trust the relevance of the matters discussed
within the article. The article itself was very organized and informative; there was
plenty of relevant information that was easily accessible, so I feel like I always had
something to pull from.
Purpose: I wanted the new purpose of this blog to be both to inform math teachers of
ability beliefs within their subject, and to make sure that they are heading in the
correct direction with their education and not holding any biases.
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