How Elementary School Teachers' Biases Can Discourage Girls From Math and Science - 0 views
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jbccegg on 15 Apr 15The Upshot appears in the NYTimes website. Claire C. Miller writes about the rift between women/girls and science and mathematics. The audience for this article is aimed at elementary teachers. It states that biases can unintentionally affect young women into believing that their math skills are below average or not expected. Historically, science breakthroughs and mathematical theories have been postulated by predominately men. Young women are said to not be encouraged to pursue mathematics and science as a career from a young age. Statistically, Information Technology companies hire upwards of 80% of their workforce from males. Women are severely unrepresented. The article ignores past cultural norms that perpetuated this stigma, yet focuses on encouragement to help lead young women into science and technology. The article places most of the effective encouragement on the teacher, not the parents. The article sites a study from 2002 where teachers graded anonymous papers and the results were such that the girls outscored the boys. When the identities were known by the grader, the results favored the males. I would like to understand more on this experiment. While I agree that young women should be encouraged to enter the math and science world, I am not convinced that grading favors males. The article brings up some good areas of focus and I agree that encouragement is important.