Women: Their Underrepresentation and Career Differentials in Science and Engineering Proceedings of a Conference (1987) / Chapter Skim
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EQUITABLE SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS EDUCATION: A DISCREPANCY MODEL
EQUITABLE SCIENCE AND MATHEMATICS EDUCATION: A DISCREPANCY MODEL
Pages 5-42
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However, equal outcomes have not been achieved in science and mathematics education.
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Eventually, the goal is an evolution from the actual to the ideal state or from inequitable to equitable education in science and mathematics. The Ideal State of Science and Mathematics Education Researchers who have sought to identify factors leading to excellent and equitable science and mathematics education and who have analyzed curricula, teacher behaviors, and classroom climates concur
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The anomoly exists that one ideal type of curriculum for elementary school science has existed for several decades, yet it is little used, and if implemented, it is frequently misused.
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Study after study documents that girls and boys enter elementary school with equal interest in science but with unequal experiences in science (Iliams, l985; Kahle and Lakes, l983; Kelly, l985)
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The Classroom. Partly as a result of the process curricula and partly because of changes in the education of elementary teachers, instructional interactions and teacher behaviors will be different also.
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First, the description of ideal secondary science curricula, classes, l0
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, interpreted the results of the national APU survey in order to suggest ways to improve science education for girls. Their suggestions, too, portend the ideal state.
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The GIST project, as well as the other two, also proposed the integration of the actual contributions of women scientists into the curriculum. In addition, both British projects stress the inclusion of "tinkering" activities in order to overcome the lack of such experiences by girls.
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l3. demonstrate that the ideal secondary science curriculum must provide experiences with rotating three-dimensioaal figures in space, with drawing and conceptualizing three-dimensional forms, and with projecting curvilinear distances and outcomes.
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The Classroom. The NABT study focused primarily on teaching behaviors and instructional strategies that encourage girls as well as boys to continue to study science and mathematics.
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The NABT study suggests another aspect of the ideal science classroom: all of the exemplary classrooms -- whether in a wealthy suburban area or in an urban ghetto -- provided pleasant, attractive, and stimulating environments for learning science. Future classrooms will be filled with posters, aquaria, terraria, plants, animals, models, scales, levers, computers, and other devices that will motivate girls as well as boys to study science and mathematics.
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The Actual State of Science and Mathematics Education Our children and our students are participants in a complex process that equips one sex with math, science, and technical skills indispensable to functioning in the adult world, while it fails to encourage the same development in the other sex. Although the lives of individual women are the most negatively and directly affected, the loss to both sexes is immense.
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Research had focused primarily on finding differences between boys and girls, rather than on determining optimal learning situations. Factors leading to the above state of knowledge as well as descriptors of the actual state of science and mathematics education will be discussed in this section.
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Therefore, all four factors will be discussed and described in the actual state of science and mathematics education. Numbers The numbers of boys and girls who study science and mathematics and of men and women who practice science contribute to their masculine images.
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In the United States, only 24 percent of secondary school science teachers are women, and it may be safely said that most of them teach biology. Although virtually all high school students take biology (which functions as a required, introductory science course)
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The packaging of science and mathematics outside of schools also leads to masculine images. For example, a lack of role models has often been cited as a reason for the lack of science and mathematics 20
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B Kahle, SCORES: Science Career Options for Rural Environment Students, Women's Educational Equity Action League Report No.
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SOURCE: Jane Butler Kahle and Marsha K Lakes, "The Myth of Equality in Science Classrooms," Journal of Research in Science Teaching, 20:l3l-l40, l983.
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G Spear, "Sex Bias in Science Teachers' Ratings of Work and Pupil Characteristics," European Journal of Science Education, l984, pp.
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. Today, cooperative learning settings, including laboratory work, account for only a small portion of time in secondary science classrooms (l5 percent)
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Furthermore, Linn and Petersen's (l986) recent review of the research concerning spatial ability reports no evidence that sex differences in spatial ability explain gender differences in mathematics performance.
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Ideal Actual Gender neutral science Masculine science Women are viewed as an integral part of the scientific community by colleagues, educators, students, and the general public Low female attrition from elective science/math courses Both male and female students work up to full potential in precollege science/math Science is taught by both men and women Students feel free to choose college majors and careers according to their interests and abilities Nonsexist texts and instructional techniques such as discussions and laboratories that maximize learning for all students Science is viewed as a masculine domain by the scientific community, students, and the public High female attrition from elective science/math courses Gender differences in precollege science and math achievement Science classes are primarily taught by men Students follow sex stereotypes in addition to perceptions of abilities and interests in choosing a major/career Sexist curricula and whole class instructional techniques that benefit selected groups of students Expectations of student abilities, interests, and performance are unrelated to student sex, disconfirming societal stereotypes Institutions are committed to addressing the special needs of gifted and disabled females Transformation of student's views of sex roles through science classes Teacher, counselor, parent, peer and the student's own expectations are biased by sex-role stereotypes Gifted and disabled females are often not encouraged to fulfill their potential in science/math Traditional sex roles reinforced by science classes Figure 4 A contrast between the ideal and the actual state of science education.
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A summary of the actual and ideal states of science education in Figure 4 reveals l0 basic areas of difference, while a review of intervention projects indicates ways to change from the actual state to the ideal state. Many of the prerequisite changes have been discussed in the "Ideal" section; others will be proposed now, based on the premise that changes in the practices and packaging of science and mathematics will diminish their masculine image.
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discussed why the route of "interestbased science" will not lead to equitable science education: If the teachers .
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The ideal state of science and mathematics education will need data to determine how minority status, giftedness, and physical disability influence the mathematics and science education processes for women and for men. Without that information, the ideal state will be valid for only a shrinking portion of the precollege population.
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A revolution in science and mathematics education will result in the evolution of science and math and, in the process, their public images may be improved. The paths proposed in the transitional period from actual to ideal follow the directions identified by projects and by teachers successful in promoting science and mathematics education for all.
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Interviewer: Susan: What do you want to do? Be able to help people.
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Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, April l984. ERIC document No.
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l979. Ethnic and sex difference in occupational stereotyping by elementary school children.
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American Educational Research Journal l8:329-34l.
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Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, April l986. Johnson, S., and Murphy, P
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Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, Montreal, Canada, April l983. Leinhardt, G., A
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Paper presented at American Educational Research Association, San Francisco, May l985. Matyas, M
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American Educational Research Journal 22:309-335. Powell, R
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American Educational Research Journal 2l:565-578. Stake, J
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Paper presented at the annual meeting of the American Educational Research Association, New Orleans, April l984. Wilkinson, L
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School Science and Mathematics 8l:378-382. Yates, L
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