Gender Differences in Learning Mathematics and What That Means for Teaching Mathematics

Some intriguing findings about how girls and boys process mathematical concepts relate to the way mathematics is taught and why so few women pursue advanced careers in mathematics, science, technology and engineering.  In What’s Math Got to Do With It? (2008) Jo Boaler summarizes years of research and presents a compelling case for the need to respond effectively to the deeply connected way that girls learn.

In study after study, most boys report a preference for learning mathematical procedures and a tolerance for omitting discussions about why the concepts make sense.  Girls, however, consistently report the desire to understand the meaning of mathematical concepts and why procedures work.  The same type of gender difference has been found in the way students learn physics.¹

Brain-imaging studies have allowed scientists to study brain functioning in astonishingly new ways.  Researchers have found that men and women use different brain areas to solve problems, even when they score exactly the same on tests.  Women use the cerebral cortex for many tasks, including mathematical work, while men use more “primitive” areas such as the globus pallidus, the amygdale or the hippocampus, which is ideally suited for spatial navigation.² Males and females have the same number of brain cells, but the cells are packed more densely in female brains. Testosterone surges beginning in the 8th week of pregnancy kill cells in the communication centers in the developing brains of males, grow more cells in the sex and aggression centers, and create a more compartmentalized organization than is found in female brains. 

Men use about seven thousand words a day, while women use about twenty thousand words a day.³  When men have a stroke involving the left hemisphere of the brain, they typically drop about 20 percent in verbal IQ scores.  Men who suffer strokes involving the right hemisphere do not drop any verbal IQ points.  However, women who suffer a stroke involving the left hemisphere, drop verbal IQ scores by about 9 percent, while women who have a stroke involving the right

hemisphere drop verbal IQ scores by about 11 percent.  Scientists conclude that women use both hemispheres for language and men do not.⁴

Boaler makes the case that changes in teaching can address these gender differences and can help increase the achievement and participation in mathematics and address the critical shortage of math and science graduates.  Girls, as well as many boys, need mathematics to be taught in ways that use higher cognitive functions and foster cooperative learning through discussion of mathematical concepts and the exploration of why procedures make sense.  Boaler contends that teachers are the most important part of integrating instruction for skill/procedure acquisition with a problem solving approach.   She recommends:

• Engaging students with rich problem solving tasks
• Taking small, but persistent steps to change instruction gradually, even if only doing problem solving once a week
• Using cooperative learning strategies
• Observing teachers that use a problem solving approach
• Encouraging:
  • Flexible thinking (composing and decomposing numbers)
  • Use of multiple representations
  • Development of multiple strategies for solving problems
  • Reasoning and sharing reasoning
• Participating in effective professional development opportunities
• Involving parents to help them understand the value of problem solving

In the current blog entry on the Teacher to Teacher Publications website, Jackie Cooke describes an example of fostering student discourse and communal problem solving that she recently saw in a video clip that Jo Boaler presented at the NCTM Regional Conference in Boston.  Jackie also shares a number of ways that she encourages meaningful discussions of mathematical work.

Contact Us | Site Map

Teacher to Teacher Publications is a provider of math problem solving supplementary curriculum for grades K-8 and professional development in math problem solving. We are teacher owned and operated.

Copyright© 1998 - 2010, by Teacher To Teacher Publications, Inc.