Students could learn better from professors of same gender

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Tweet According to a gender study performed by a visiting professor at Stanford, boys learn better from men and girls learn better from women.

The study shows gender is a determining factor in a student's success in the classroom, and his findings could stimulate more research to look for a direct correlation between the two variables.

While working as an associate professor of economics and the director of public policy at Swarthmore College, Thomas Dee studied the effect a teacher's gender had on his or her students.

"What I view as the main result is that this research demonstrates that gender within classrooms matters," Dee said. "Why they matter is unclear, and we need more research as to why."

The information driving Dee's research was extracted from a nationwide survey of eighth-graders generated by the U.S. Department of Education in 1988. His research showed that girls who had female teachers performed better in the subjects of science, social studies and English. The study also showed boys with male teachers performed better than girls with male teachers in the same subjects.

Dee said he is not suggesting schools resort to same-sex classes, but instead says the study should inspire more research.

"I don't view this as arguing for single-sex education, but rather indicating that there is something about these gender dynamics in the classroom that are relevant," Dee said. "I want to be very clear to say that we don't know why this matters. A lot of people reacted very strongly because they thought that I was recommending something that I hadn't."

The research was an ongoing project for about two years, Dee said.

Edward Smith works with the College of Education at MSU and looks at the patterns of students in the subject of science. However, he has not looked at the matter of gender in the classroom at the college level.

"We could look if there seems to be gender differences in (the teachers') practices and see if those are related," Smith said. "But I have not done those gender-based studies. I've worked with small numbers of teachers, and you need a significant number of teachers to be able to make such interpretations."

Integrative social sciences professor Tom Carroll said gender isn't the only factor to take into consideration when looking at success rates in classrooms.

"If the research says that this is true, then I don't dispute it," Carroll said. "(In my classes) there is a stronger correlation, not between boys and girls, but there's a difference from who sits in the front of the class and who sits in the back of the class."

Rachael Hodder, an American studies junior, said she sees the research topic as more of a social issue that doesn't affect her learning at the college level.

"Students are more likely to learn better from instructors that they can relate to," she said. "While that doesn't always come down to the sex of either students or the professors, gender is an obvious point of relation."

However, some students believe that having a teacher of the same sex is beneficial.

"To be truthful, when I find a class (during enrollment), I look for a male teacher," computer engineering sophomore Chris Doriety said. "I find male teachers to be more flexible and more reasonable."

"If the teacher is boring, it doesn't matter what gender they are," said Clif Wells, an environmental biology sophomore. "I've had all male teachers in college, but it's more on me (to do well) by studying on my own."

Parker Brown, an education freshman, said he was inspired to become a teacher when he was in high school.

"I had experience with this program in high school where we worked with fourth-graders," Brown said. "I worked with a boy who couldn't read or write. I worked with him all year, and at the end of the year he got a 95 percent on his comprehension test. It was so gratifying for me because for this little kid, I actually made a difference in his life."

Brown didn't believe it was his gender that caused this student to do better; he thought it was more the child's age.

"I feel that an elementary teacher can still make a deeper impact," Brown said. "Once you get to high school, it's not a lost cause, but most kids have their minds made up. I feel that I can make a bigger impact on younger kids because I can influence them more at that age."

Some believe that gender is important in elementary classrooms.

"It would be a good idea if we had more males going into elementary teaching," Smith said. "Regardless of the results of whether the pattern holds up, it would be an advantage for children to see both men and women as role models in the classroom."

Nationally, 25 percent of all public elementary and secondary school teachers are men, and 75 percent are women.

Mark Dobson, a political theory and constitutional democracy junior, said he feels gender does not play a role in how well a child can learn.

"I work really well with members of the opposite sex, and I always have," said Dobson, who is also getting his teaching certificate. "My foreign language and education classes are just dominated by females. However, I still think it's a great opportunity for students to have a diverse body of educators."

Dobson said there are certain stereotypes for teaching.

"In some instances, some people kind of hold a stigma with education and being female, just like they do with nursing and being female," he said. "But I think that teaching is a great opportunity for anybody, no matter what gender they are."

Lindsay Machak can be reached at machakli@msu.edu.

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