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In her 10th-grade math class, Frankie Teague dimmed the lights, switched on soothing music and handed each student a white board and a marker. Then she projected an arithmetic problem onto a screen at the front of the room.”As soon as you get the answer, hold up your board,” she said, setting off a round of squeaky scribbling. The simple step of having students hold up their work, instead of raising their hands or shouting out the answer, gives a leg up to a group of pupils who have long lagged in math classes–girls.
Ms. Teague’s teaching methods are part of broad changes in how math is taught in England’s classrooms. Starting in the late 1980s, England’s education department worried that lessons relied too heavily on teachers lecturing and students memorizing. So it began promoting changes in teaching methods, textbooks and testing in both state-funded and private schools. The changes were designed to help all students, but educators have noticed a surprising side effect: Girls are closing a decades-old gender gap–and by many measures outscoring the boys.
I have always been a sucker for innovative teaching methods especially those that seek to close the gender gap. As discussed earlier, instead of separating girls and boys classrooms, it might make more sense in creating an atmosphere conducive for girls. Such methods might not be detrimental for boys but might actually level the playing field for girls and not raise ubiquitous issues of “inherent ability of girls versus boys” a la Harvard’s Larry Summers.
Related articles:
Wall Street Journal (paid subscription)
Washington Monthly
by Patrix | on Tuesday, May 17th, 2005 at 12:49 pm | 
Society Culture, United States, education . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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October 21st, 2005 at 3:05 am reply
i m a medical student n i can teach all subjects till 10th class n biology for 11th n 12th.so i want to know how to give online tuitions?