Recognizing and Addressing Learning Needs of Males in the

February 2015
CARS Convention
Ginna Guiang-Myers
Ginna Guiang-Myers
-20 years of teaching
-2 years teaching an all-boys class
-10 years in the Philippines and 8
years in the U.S.
-Mother of 1 boy and aunt to 14
nephews
• Academic performance:
Boy Crisis?
• Brain Differences: Do they exist?
• Effects of culture and societal
expectations
• Classroom Implications: Are
there boy-friendly ways of
teaching?
1. Read the
message.
2. Add your
thoughts.
 Boys get the majority of Ds and Fs in
most schools- in some, as high as 70
percent.
 Boys make up 80% of our discipline
problems.
 Of children diagnosed with behavior
disorders, 80 percent are boys.
 Over 80% of school children on
Ritalin or similar medications are
boys. As of 2004, the number of boys
on Ritalin approached five million.
From: Gurian and Stevens (2005)
 According to the U.S. Department of
Education, our sons are an average a
year to a year and a half behind girls in
reading and writing skills. (Girls are
behind boys in math and science but to
a lesser degree).
 Of high school dropouts, 80 percent
are young males.
 Young men now make up less than
44% of our college population.
From: Gurian and Stevens (2005)
60
55
50
Males
45
Females
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Grade 2 ELA Grade 3 ELA Grade 4 ELA Grade 5 ELA Grade 6 ELA Grade 7 ELA Grade 8 ELA Grade 9 ELA Grade 10 ELA Grade 11 ELA
2012 ELA CST-% A and P MALES
2012 ELA CST-% A and P FEMALES
65
60
55
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Grade 2
Grade 3
Grade 4
Grade 5
Grade 6
Grade 7
Grade 8
Grade 9
Grade 10
Grade 11
2011 ELA CST-% A and P MALES
2011 ELA CST-% A and P FEMALES
60
55
50
45
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
0
Grade 2
Grade 3
Grade 4
Grade 5
Grade 6
Grade 7
Grade 8
Grade 9
Grade 10
Grade 11
1. Whose behavior are
oftentimes more
inappropriate?
2. Think of your last three
referrals for discipline. Are they
males/females?
3. Who typically underperforms?
4. Who is more motivated?
1. Prefrontal cortex – larger in females, mature faster in
females.
2. Anterior cingulate cortex – smaller in men than in
women (“worry wart” center, fear of punishment area)
3. Ventral tagmental area – more active in the male brain
(intiates movement, motivation, and receptive to
rewards).
4. Rostral cingulate zone – larger in males than females
(registers social approval and disapproval).
5. Amygdala – larger in males than females (emotioncenter of the brain)
6. Temporal parietal junction – more active in the male
brain (“problem solving, take charge” center)
From: “The Male Brain” by L. Brizendine
Male monkeys, like boys,
showed consistent and
strong preferences for
wheeled toys, while
female monkeys, like girls,
showed greater variability
in preferences. Thus, the
magnitude of preference
for wheeled over plush
toys differed significantly
between males and
females (Hassett, Siebert
& Wallen, 2008).
"One of the largest and most persistent differences between the sexes are
children's play preferences (Geary, 2012)."
Monochrome Males and
Colorful Females
Do Gender and Age Influence
the Color and Content of
Drawings?
Lynn Wright , Fiona Black (2013)
Black and Wright (2013)
Black and Wright (2013)
Gurian (2008):
1. Sex differences exist in the way the brain
is used: which brain areas are activated
during specific tasks.
2. Males use the right hemisphere more,
females use both hemispheres more
often.
3. Females have greater capacities for
memory and sensory intake.
4. Males perform better in spatial tasks and
abstract reasoning.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-Ene-femjvI
Gurian (2008): The female brain processes more emotive stimulants,
through more senses, and more completely, than males. Females also
verbalize emotions more quickly.
Kret and DeGelder (2012)…although women are better at recognizing
emotions and expressing them, men show greater responses to
threatening cues (dominant, violent or aggressive) and this may reflect
different behavioral response tendencies between men and women as
well as evolutionary effects.
1. Each member reads a
section.
2. Each member distills main
idea.
3. From main idea, all
members identify a
teaching take-away.
Reflective Walk.
Find a walking buddy.
Reflect on what you have
just learned.
Walk twice around the
room.
Strategies
1. Make movement a
regular part of your
instructional routine.
e.g. outdoor activities,
games
Video:
Math
lesson
Use gestures when teaching.
Teachers should also move
around their classrooms too
as they teach.
Instructors' physical movement
increases boys' engagement,
and includes the teacher leading
students in physical "brain
breaks"—quick, one-minute
brain-awakening activities—that
keep boys' minds engaged.
From: http://www.ascd.org/ascd-express/vol6/604-gurian.aspx
2. Integrate more projects into
units of study.
Products that go
Products that have a purpose
Products that illustrate
Products that engage
From: Teaching Boys, Reaching Boys (Reichert and Hawley, 2010
3. Teachers increase the use of
graphics, pictures, and storyboards in
literacy-related classes and
assignments. When teachers use
pictures and graphics more often (even
well into high school), boys write with
more detail, retain more information, and
get better grades on written work across
the curriculum.
From: http://www.ascd.org/ascd-express/vol6/604-gurian.aspx
Right Side:
Teacher-driven
Left Side:
Student output
Vocabulary
Landform
Magma
Lava
Viscous
Eruption
Pressure
4. Approximately 50 percent of reading
and writing choices in a classroom are
left up to the students
themselves. Regularly including
nontraditional materials, such as graphic
novels, magazines, and comic books,
increases boys' engagement in reading and
improves both creative and expository
writing.
From: http://www.ascd.org/ascd-express/vol6/604-gurian.aspx
www.GuysRead.com
Reconsider reading lists! Think “non-traditional.”
-fiction, non-fiction
-graphic novels, comics
-music lyrics
-texts with pop culture appeal
-action-oriented books
-sports cards
-superhero themes
-newspapers
-magazines of high interest
From: Gurian, King & Stevens (2008)
5. Teachers provide competitive
learning opportunities, even while
holding to cooperative learning
frameworks. Competitive learning
includes classroom debates, contentrelated games, and goal-oriented
activities; these are often essential for
boy-learning and highly useful for the
life success of girls, too.
From: http://www.ascd.org/ascd-express/vol6/604-gurian.aspx
6. Classroom curricula include skills
training in time, homework, and
classroom management. In order to feel
competent, engaged, and motivated,
many boys need help learning how to do
homework, follow directions, and succeed
in school and life; classrooms are the
primary place these boys come for that
training.
From: http://www.ascd.org/ascd-express/vol6/604-gurian.aspx
Ginna Myers
synaptixs@gmil.com