What women/men want

[Ankesh]

Originally Posted by MichaelRoss

Maths vs Boys vs Girls.

There are two schools in town. One a boys school and the others a girls school. Every year the boys do better at math-related topics and the girls at written topics, yet both are taught the same thing.

1.

Thanks Michael - for being logical as always.

I've actually read a bit on the math discrepancy.

And what stands out for me is this:

* There are studies done that show that men are better than women at math by a factor of 14 times!
* Then there are studies done that show that men are better at math by just a factor of 3 times.
* And then there are studies done that show that men and women are equal in math.

If what you say is true - that biological evolution has made men better at math than women - then shouldn't the rate at how better they are - be in around the same ball park every time?

After all - the rates don't change in strength or speed comparison. So why do they change so drastically for math comparison?

2.

When boys and girls are taught in the same class - their math skills come out to be very close to each other. Sometimes the women performing better than the men.

So maybe with math at least - its more about the teaching methods and the teachers expectations that is bringing out the discrepancy?

3.

Psychology experiments have shown that students do as well as their teachers expect them to do.

Robert Rosenthal and Lenore Jacobson (1968/1992) report and discuss the Pygmalion effect at length. In their study, they showed that if teachers were led to expect enhanced performance from some children, then the children did indeed show that enhancement.

Details at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pygmalion_effect

4.

So it is my conclusion that men aren't really better than women at math - at least from ability point of view. But they become better because of this expectation that many people have that men are better at math.

And because most teachers are biased with this notion too.

Given a good teacher - the math discrepancy is never seen.