Female Teachers’ Math Anxiety Affects Girls’ Math Achievement

ZapperZ

Did anyone manage to read this report? It seems that a new study has shown that if a female math teach is unsure of her own math skills, her female students tend to be more susceptible to accept that boys are better at math than girls, and will also perform lower in that subject.

The actual paper can be found at the PNAS site, and it is an open access paper:

http://www.pnas.org/content/early/20...9-19033052984d

One would think that this might have a similar effect in the sciences such as physics.

It will be interesting to see if the same effect occurs for a subject in which there are plenty of female role models, i.e. if the teacher is unsure of her skills say, in English or history (I can't think of good examples, biology?), would the effect be the same?

Zz.

story645

Don't know about that, 'cause, as the article points out, this may end up leading to a lot of girls never even ending up in physics. So, maybe the ones left don't have anxiety about their field? Also, this effect was seen in elementary school kids. By the time kids get into the hard sciences, they're in high school and there aren't many female teachers for those subjects.

Norman

I had heard this in the background on the news when I was making dinner (or was it getting ready for work...) the other day. Seems very reasonable and almost too obvious (as is often the case with these type of things).

Regarding physics and the sciences: you are probably correct ZapperZ but it is probably a compounding effect since science uses a lot of math.

Klockan3

Couldn't they do a similar study for Math anxious male teachers? I mean, it is not like anyone tells these kids that guys are better than girls at maths, is there? I haven't been told that anyhow and it is not like those kids got any access to professorship statistics or such.

Leptos

IIRC, females studying in all female classes perform better than females studying in co-ed classes, however, males perform the same regardless of whether they are in co-ed or uniform gender classes.

ZapperZ

I read this paper and found its conclusion rather "alarming" a bit. I'll explain why.

I've been involved in introducing girls in high school to various aspect of science and science careers for several years. This year will be the 7th year of my involvement. The program tries to get these girls to interact with female scientists and get them to see that, yes, there are female scientists and they are doing well. The program also shows the students various areas of science where they visit various facilities.

That's where I come in. I introduce them to accelerator physics when they visit our accelerator facility. I describe to them what we do, why we do it, etc.. and this includes our educational background, what our "typical day" is like, etc.. They tend to ask a lot of those kinds of questions.

So what's the problem? I'm a MAN (at least, I am one the last time I checked). We have no women in our group, and in our division, we only have one female scientist. While we do have female accelerator physicists at the lab, they are all in different divisions. I've asked the organizers of the program if it would be better if these girls were introduced to these areas of science by a woman. The reply I got was that it doesn't matter, and some of the studies they have seen indicated that it isn't significant that these subject matter was introduced by a man.

Well, this study has kinda changed my mind a bit. I did, in the back of my mind, planned on trying to get one of the female accelerator physicist to either accompany me the next time we have this program, or maybe even thrust her into "center stage" so that these girls can see first hand a female accelerator physicist. But now, with this study, how well she can present the subject matter to the students makes a lot of difference. If she appears to be a bit apprehensive (and it could happen since she will be at a facility that she's not familiar with), then this could backfire. I could do this presentation almost in my sleep since I've done it many times, and I get good feedback each time from both the students and the teachers that accompany them. And the idea of having her simply in a supporting role doesn't sit well with me, because it might simply reinforces the perception that I lead, and the female scientist follow.

Maybe we just need more study on this! :)

Zz.

physics girl phd

I'd share your concern here (with regards solely to getting young women interested in science/math). In my experience, most science and math teachers I had (in the higher math and science courses in high school) were male, so I had no female role models for continuing on in science. Worse, as I progressed upwards, there were low counts of female colleagues (re. the concern about the girls work better in all-girl classrooms).

However, I'd concur that it's most important that what role models are presented (regardless of gender) are very good (both in their subject matter and more importantly, in conveying the information they do know in a clear and dynamic manner). In my experience, a poor teacher is hesitant to admit what they do not know... and a good teacher is willing to listen (without any gender bias), state that a question is good to affirm the student's thought process, afterward affirming or correcting the students response appropriately and giving further explanation/example (but also looking into it and getting back to the student if he/she does not know the answer). While my major role models (K-12, and even college and beyond) were male, they were very good.

If you could get a woman to give part of the presentation (or teach) at an equal level, and not IMPOSE on her to do so because she's a woman, that's great. However, I tired of being the "woman in science" that always got chosen to lead tours, etc. (even though I'm really quite social and was quite good at it). I now avoid any "woman in science" brunches, studies, etc. While I at first regretted it, my professional role in science decreased (as the trailing spouse to a previously-tenured administrator) and now I'll probably always have a lesser role (in fact I think our family would destabilize if I were to pursue a tenure-line). On the other hand, I'm at least the most innovative instructor in our department, and my teaching methods are effective (both in terms of "learning gains" and "attitudes adjustments").

Unfortunately, at the college level, it is virtually too late to have an effect on students entering a STEM field. However, at least a few of my students are going on to elementary and high school instruction... and I hope my teaching is an example to them. Sadly, though it would be amenable to my family life, I've over-degreed myself to return to teaching at the middle- or high-school level (they'd have to pay me at the salary-cap, and most K-12 schools can't afford to hire at that level).

Andy Resnick

After reading the paper, I call "BS". There's several deficiencies:

1) What is the correlation between a teacher's 'math anxiety' and actual math knowledge? Could it be that teachers less sure of their own abilities actually know more than teachers who delude themselves into complacency? Also, I would have liked to see more about what the MARS test assesses.

2) As you correctly point out, there are no controls: what about controlling for the gender of the teacher, controlling for subject matter (reading, for example), controlling for 'anxiety' versus 'knowledge'...

3) when the student 'beliefs' about gender ability was accounted for, teacher anxiety was no longer statistically significant (fig 1). Not mentioned is the origin of the student's beliefs. The caption is telling:

"When teacher math anxiety and girls’ gender ability beliefs were simultaneously entered as predictors of end-of-year math achievement, teacher anxiety no longer significantly predicted girls’ math achievement [...] The reduction in the direct relation between teacher anxiety and girls’ math achievement was significant [...] This provides support for our conclusion that teachers’ math anxiety hinders girls’ math achievement through girls’ relatively increased acceptance of traditional gender norms in school." (emphasis mine)

It's well-known that we like to read things that reinforce what we already believe to be true, this paper is no exception. The last paragraph of the 'discussion' section is proof enough of that.

Moonbear

Typical of Pain 'N the AS$ articles, the methodology and conclusions are rather puzzling. They assessed both math anxiety and math ability of the teachers, but unless I've completely missed it somehow, nowhere in the article does it indicate if math ability was in any way correlated with math anxiety. I would expect it was, but there's no evidence of that. And, as others have pointed out, there were no gender controls. Would the outcome be the same if the students had a male teacher who was math anxious? In other words, was it really a reinforcement of gender roles, or is it possible that the female students are just more perceptive of anxieties regardless of the gender of the teacher? That too would be a very interesting result. I'd also be curious about the opposite end of things... would a girl be better off with a confident male teacher than an anxious female teacher even if actual math ability of the teacher were the same? Or, what if an anxious male teacher were even worse than an anxious female teacher? And, how many first and second grade teachers really aren't anxious about math, regardless of gender? (Where is Tom Mattson? He has a lot of experience with education majors and their math ability, or lack thereof.) They might be anxious about higher math, but are they still competent to teach at a 1st or 2nd grade level?

Sankaku

Cultural stereotypes do that. It varies quite a bit between regions and countries, but the math-anxious teachers are just re-inforcing messages that the girls are getting elsewhere.

Anyone who doesn't see the cultural stereotypes really isn't looking...

http://mathforum.org/~sarah/Discussi...attitudes.html

http://www.nncc.org/Curriculum/sac52...nce.girls.html

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE5507QQ20090601

http://www.amazon.ca/Math-Doesnt-Suc.../dp/0452289491



Edit: Hmm - I see that some of this was already said. I will leave it anyway.

Klockan3

But I was under the impression that this was about kids just starting school, i.e ~second grade when they first comes in contact with maths. I doubt that much of the male nerd stereotype have gone into them by then.

Sankaku

So you didn't have older siblings or watch any TV at age 6 or 7?

Char. Limit

It won't happen.

Studies today are geared not toward knowledge, but toward giving the majority (in other words, women) every advantage they can think of.

Even though it has been proven (by studies, ironically) that more girls attend college and girls get less disciplinary referrals and better grades than boys, they are somehow still oppressed.

Klockan3

With older siblings age is a much larger difference than gender and how much maths do you see on a TV? You might see some strange "scientists" in some kids show, but how would they associate that with the earliest forms of school maths?

Most studies I have seen suggests that it is the parents and teachers attitude that creates this belief and that in the earliest years females likes maths more than guys do but that this declines over the course of elementary school.
They aren't doing better than males in all areas, that is the problem. Saying that women and men approach maths differently is blasphemy, but saying that women are better at understanding non verbal communication is just common knowledge.

What makes maths and physics fun for me is the risk taking, aka thinking for yourself. When you think out an innovative solution you are taking a risk compared to just doing what the teacher says, but just doing what the teacher says is a lot more boring and it also teaches you a lot less. If women are less prone to take risks like this then I wouldn't find it strange at all that they don't like the subject.

In my opinion the most important aspect if you want to create gender equality is to promote risk taking for women. Safe gets you through life, but risky gets you to the top.

Char. Limit

Wait, why do women have to do better than men at all subjects in school? Do you assume, perhaps, that women are intrinsically smarter than men, and thus should do better in all areas?

Explain your logic as to why men doing better in some subjects is a bad thing, a "problem" that must be "fixed".

Sankaku

You are looking at it as a zero sum game, which it is not. Why not help everyone excel to the best of their potential?

More smart people achieving their best is beneficial for everyone in society.


What I meant was that older siblings (along with parents, teachers, and TV) transmit the assumptions about gender-ability.

Char. Limit

Making sure that women do better than men in ALL areas of school is not "helping everyone excel to the best of their potential".

And that's what this is. Don't try to hide it. I don't mind an equal start, but what these people are trying to do is not an equal start. It is an unequal start designed to create an "equal" outcome, and handicapping men in the process.

Don't tell me I don't have a point at all here.