Strategies for Teaching Boys and Girls -- Elementary Level

A Workbook for Educators

Michael Gurian, Kathy Stevens, Kelley King

• Publisher: Jossey-Bass
• Year: 2010
• ISBN:
  9781118041147
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education Teaching Methods

In his best-selling classic Boys and Girls Learn Differently, Michael Gurian explained the origin and nature of gender differences in the classroom. His important book explored the behavior teachers observed and the challenges they faced with both boys and girls in their classrooms. Taking the next step, Strategies for Teaching Boys?Elementary Level: A Workbook for Educators and Girls offers teachers a hands-on resource that draws on the Gurian Institute's research and training with elementary schools and school districts. The workbook presents practical strategies, lessons, and activities that have been field-tested in real classrooms and developed to harness boys' and girls' unique strengths.

The workbook is designed to help teachers build a solid foundation of learning and study habits that their students can use in the classroom and at home. It covers the key curricular areas and offers proven techniques to make learning, no matter what the subject, more engaging for all students.

The workbook is an essential resource for all teachers who want to improve their practice and get the most from all students?whatever their gender.

1
The Science of Boy-Girl Learning Differences

A primary concern for nearly every teacher is the difference we each intuit in the males and females we teach. We all know that there is immense overlap between the genders, and that each child is an inherently sacrosanct individual not to be limited by a gender stereotype, but we also know that boys and girls learn differently right before our eyes.

—Michael Gurian

IN the past couple of decades one question has taken on more and more significance when we consider how ready an individual child might be for entering school: Is the child a boy or a girl? Exciting and ongoing research into the living brains of boys and girls is showing us that not only are boys and girls different at the organic level, but how they learn is different in many, many ways from the day they are born.

In the early days of the Gurian Institute’s work with educators, we would ask the question, “How many of you took a course on how boys and girls learn differently during your teacher training in college?” Even in audiences of several hundred teachers, no hands would go up. When we ask that same question today, a few hands might go up. When questioned further, those who raise their hands generally report that they covered the topic of gender and learning briefly in an education class.

At the same time, when teachers take our course in how boys and girls learn differently they often ask, “Why isn’t this taught in college? Why aren’t schools of education teaching this?” Fortunately, more and more are every day. Many are catching up to the newest brain research in learning, development, and gender.

The book you are about to read is based on twenty years of in-school research and ten years of training teachers in the practical strategies that grow from teaching (and learning) that work. You’ll meet many teachers in this book, and your toolbox will be increased manifold.

You’ll also have a head start on the education course that will, we hope, be taught in every school of education in the future.

Boys and Girls Learn Differently!

This chapter will give you an overview of the latest information available on how boys and girls learn differently and how that difference can and should change the way you implement your curriculum to ensure that every child, male and female, will have the chance to succeed to his or her maximum potential. For many of you, this information will bring an “Aha!” that validates intuitions you’ve had for a long time. We hope it will confirm that you have been on the right path as you work with your students. We hope that, for many of you, this information will open the door to exciting new experiences as you implement what you learn.

Where and when does gender in the brain begin? Soon after conception, boys and girls are on diverging development paths. If a child receives an X chromosome from each parent, a female architectural plan goes into action. If a child received one X chromosome and one Y chromosome, a different plan is activated and a male system is designed. These plans result in not only different bodies, but different brains. Beginning at around six weeks, a male fetus triggers biological mechanisms toward the secretion of large amounts of testosterone in his fetal system. His genitals drop, producing the testosterone he needs. From that point until somewhere between five and six months of development, testosterone becomes the “chief engineer” of the developing male’s body and brain, giving him the capacity for a higher muscle mass than a female, different iron and calcium ratios, and different brain “formatting.” Developing female fetuses receive testosterone during the developmental period between six weeks and six months in utero, but not as much. They receive more estrogen-type hormones. This helps format their brains to be female. By six months in utero, boys and girls have been formatted with different brains.

Are these differences all that matter? Of course not. There are many similarities between girls and boys in utero and once they are born. There are also many differences among girls and among boys that indicate how powerfully individual personalities can trump gender in importance. Furthermore, the way a child is nurtured can affect how he manifests his maleness and she her femaleness.

Caveats aside, gender is a big deal—especially in learning. One can make the argument, if one wished to, that every boy could cry as much as every girl, or that every boy could talk about his feelings as much as every girl (it would be a tough argument, but social theories can make it); however, the brain research on gender difference is now so detailed, it is no longer possible to responsibly argue that boys and girls learn the same way.

What Are the Differences?

Although researchers are still discovering new areas of difference between the male and female brain, a number have already been identified that have implications for how boys and girls learn. Remember that we are 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. Remember also 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!

Structural Differences

Using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), positron emission tomography (PET) and single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) technologies, scientists can look at the living brain and watch it work. The most advanced technologies let researchers watch actual blood flow in the brain, see where the brain is working, and by looking at male and female brains in this way, can see that boys and girls are working in different areas when completing the same tasks.

Over the past couple of decades, technology has helped researchers focus on some specific areas of structural difference between the male and female brain. Following are some of the most significant differences and their potential impact on your classroom.

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 left and right hemispheres. The anterior 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.

And this means—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 others’ feelings and move 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 our brain. Our “fight or flight” responses come from the brain stem; when we’re threatened or in crisis this area of our brain takes over, telling the body how to respond.

Amen Scans of the Female Brain (top) and Male Brain (bottom) at rest. The areas you see that look like bubbles are areas of activity—while at rest!

SPECT scans used by permission of Dr. Daniel Amen

With the male brain’s greater amount of spinal fluid, messages tend to move more quickly from the brain to the body.

And this means—boys’ brains tend to be poised for fight or flight 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 behavior may be the result of an emotionally charged incident when the boy is not given enough time to process the emotional content.

Limbic System—This system is a collection of structures located under the corpus callosum and just above the brain stem, most of which are duplicated in each hemisphere of the brain. Within the limbic system are several structures that play a key role in how boys and girls learn and perform differently. Parts of the limbic system that process emotion and sensorial memory are, in general, more active in girls than in boys, resulting in increased emotional memory for females. Additionally, females tend to be better able to read emotional cues in others.

• • Hippocampus. A key player in converting information from working memory into long-term or permanent memory. This process is crucial for learning to have meaning and for retention. The hippocampus tends to be larger in females and the speed of neural transmissions is faster than in males, resulting in generally increased memory storage for the female brain.
• • Amygdala. A small, almond-shaped structure connected to one end of the hippocampus that plays a very important role in the processing of emotions, especially fear and anger. The amygdala tends to be larger in males. Some researchers believe that the close proximity of the amygdala to the hippocampus suggests that emotional content is “tagged” onto many long-term memories. Consequently, recalling a memory can recall an emotion as well.

And this means—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 detail to events and reme...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Table of Contents
• 1 The Science of Boy-Girl Learning Differences
• 2 Keep ’Em Moving
• 3 Make It Visual
• 4 Empower the Learner
• 5 Get Them Learning Together
• 6 Making It Matter
• 7 Art Smart
• 8 Connecting with Your Students
• 9 Building Character
• 10 The Home Stretch
• Epilogue
• Sources
• Index
• End User License Agreement