Subtle Sexism in the Classroom

The AAUW report cited in Kindlon's discussion of alpha girls states: "Boys were given higher-quality instruction than girls and were chosen more often to answer questions in front of the class and then given more time to formulate a response(76)." The report concluded that school systematically cheat girls of classroom attention, by emphasizing competition instead of cooperative learning. The statement caused me to question how do my personal biases affect my classroom? What underlying ideas cause teachers to react differently to students?

Reading Alpha Girls has caused me to become more introspective about how my gender biases impact my classroom. In Language Arts, a subject where girls typically excel, I find myself asking my female students to read constantly. My students have noticed that I call on girls more than I call on boys to the extent that I have to purposefully select boy-girl pairs for each task. While it may improve my female students' self confidence, I am well aware that it may make the boys in my classroom feel unwanted in my classroom. My actions also reinforce stereotypical gender roles in education.

Furthermore, the push to have students succeed individually may also result in gender bias. The report showed that competition amongst students reinforce the boy's ability to succeed, especially in math and science. Girls struggled to feel confident in those subject areas, and the lack of collaborative learning allowed the cycle to continue. With the present encouragement to use collaborative learning versus a group setting are girls excelling more in classrooms? How would using the competition model foster the development of an alpha girl? Is competing in the classroom harmful when a similar model is present in employment settings?