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Re: Where Have All the Boys Gone?



Michael Edmiston wrote:

I'm sorry I don't know what subject heading to use for this. We have at
least three different subjects being discussed under this heading, but I
...

I'm not citing anything particular that I'm responding to, but Michael
has got me thinking a bit.

On the issue of extra credit, I haven't had requests for extra credit
from anybody while teaching. In the past year I've taught two
non-calculus intro physics classes and though I haven't compared numbers
would say that the females seem to have outperformed the males. The
main difference that I've noted is that the men who come to ask me
questions in office hours are the ones who have had to swallow their
pride because they are in serious trouble. The women who come to see me
are the ones who are excelling and want to make sure they've got it
completely right. In fact, in September there was one girl who was
continually putting up her hand and asking "dumb" questions. I started
to notice eyes roll whenever her hand went up. She soon stopped asking
questions in class, but was in my office more than anybody else. Of
course she got the top mark by far because she had her problems dealt
with before the tests.

Something Michael said is that just because girls get high marks at
science doesn't mean they are enjoying it. For me "Exhibit A" is my
daughter Tara. To illustrate where she sits relative to her peers - on
a recent Grade 6 math standards test where our school division average
was 56% and everybody else in both classes at her school were below 80%,
her mark was 91%. Yet ask her what she thinks of math and she'll shrug
her shoulders - or worse. I think this is partly peer pressure but I
think it is fair to say that there is much more to inspiring girls to
pursue science than having them outperform the boys in class.


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Doug Craigen
http://www.dctech.com/physics/