This paper aims to review an article that discusses gender biased in the classroom. Throughout the article there is a discussion about the biased and how sometimes teachers don’t even realize it is happening. Sometimes students even allow other people’s views and outspoken bias effect how they feel about their own work. This paper will not only discuss a review or a summary of the research and the paper but will also critique the article and the research as well. It is the goal of this paper to not only give a summary but to discuss information that was provided, how it was provided, and where it was collected from. This paper will discuss things that could have been done better when it comes to the discussion involving the biased that is unexpectedly experienced and witnessed in classroom settings.
The article in which chosen is titled Attributional Gender Bias: Teachers’ Ability and Effort Explanations for Student‘s Math Performance. The article discusses throughout the bias that is experienced by male and female students. There is a overall theme that, “the tendency to attribute boys’ successes in math to ability and girls’ successes to effort, but boys’ failures in math to a lack of effort and girls’ failures to a lack of ability” (Espinoza 106). This discussion is one that continues throughout the whole research, basically an idea that there are not only different “excuses” outlined for both male and females, but also one that outlines a completely opposite reasoning behind their successes. Male and female students are often viewed in this way without particular knowledge or intent by the teachers and parents, but it is an observation that does not go noticed by the students.
The issues presented in this research are important in this course because they show what is happening in the education world today. Throughout the country and the world it is important to realize that educators are unintentionally promoting a bias that is expressed in ways in which they may not realize. They are portraying an image that shows that different genders perform different in certain subjects and the reasoning is strongly because of the beliefs that both parents and teachers have on the young children and students.
The results showed that there must be a change in the way that teacher’s and parent’s approach their thought process about children in education, “Results of the study suggest that refined methods are needed to effectively modify biased attributions in a way that individuals will habitually provide equivalent effort-oriented explanations for boys’ and girls’ performance in math over time” (Espinoza 122). Throughout the paper there was much discussion about the bias being apparent and the tools that were used in order to determine and prove this bias. These tools helped show that there needs to be a change in the way that we approach the education of children, and this is not just meaning the teachers but the parents that all effect the minds of the students everyday. The study for the article was one that was qualitative as it looked at the quality of the teaching and of the feedback that was provided to the researchers about the students. There is also a quantitative approach when it came to the research as they were using a numbers system and a numbers tool to develop the quality of the teaching and the amount of the bias that was experienced.
This article is extremely well-written and thought through. The article read well and the authors and the scientists involved in this research represented themselves well and truly show that there needs to be some sort of change when it comes to the education of the children throughout the world. There is a bias that is present when discussing the education of our children and this is a bias that needs to be addressed and changed. The bias is not an easy one to change, however, because this article also shows that many times over it is a bias that is not represented and not known by the teacher, parent or other grown up. It is something that happens subconsciously and because of this there needs to be even a greater focus on what is occurring to our youth.
References
Espinoza, P., Areas De luz fones, A., & Arms-Chavez, C. (2013). Attributional gender bias: Teacher’s ability and effort explanations for students’ math performance. Social Psychology of Education Soc Pyschol Educ, 105-126.
