Such measures include providing positive examples of students and professionals who have garnered significant achievements in math, allowing students who may feel symptoms of stereotype threat to express their talent in other areas outside of math (by incorporating those areas into lessons and classroom engagement), and by downplaying differences in groups via the reframing of tasks to decrease levels of competitiveness amongst students (Singletary et al., 2009, p. 2) (Shih et al., 1999, p. 82).
In addition to considering the role of classroom and social environments that can impact middle school math students, it is also necessary to examine the type of learning styles that are typically used and which typically favor each gender. In most instances, competitive learning styles in which students are pitted against each tend to favor male students. However, by focusing on and accommodating a diversity of learning styles, instructors can actually increase the achievement of...
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