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Case: I Don't Discriminate My Girls As a teacher with 25 years of experience, I am regularly asked to mentor new teachers at my school. In my 25 years, I have taught every grade level from Kindergarten to 5th grade. One of the new teachers in our school is Ms. Smith who is in her second year at my school. She pays a lot of attention to teaching science using hands-on inquiries. She also wants to make sure that both boys and girls have good experiences in science. She strongly believes that schools push girls away from math and science. I observed one of her science lessons last week. She had her students conduct science experiments in small groups. Students, then, wrote an experiment report at the end. As she was walking around in the classroom, she commented on student work and praised students. What I noticed about her praise was that she praised the boys for using proper science skills, coming up with good hypotheses and predictions, conducting the experiments carefully while she praised girls for keeping the materials orderly, writing a neat experiment report, and being a good team member. When I talked to her about my observation, she became very defensive. She said that she was making sure that her female students were praised for the work they do and that she did not gender-discriminate. I have to find a way to show/convince her that what she is doing may actually hurt her female students. Am I right about these points? How should I explain to her my points? Do you think what she is doing is right? Solution: (Rates are posted for this solution!) I think that telling her was the right thing to do. As a veteran teacher you do have a responsibility to give her insight and to help direct her in her teaching. I am sure that she feels quite passionately about this subject now as a new teacher, but her feelings may be different a few years on down the road. By you giving her insight now, she may remember this a couple of years later and take your advice into consideration. |
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