Comments on: With boys and girls in mind. Gurian, M., Stevens, K. http://www.weteachwelearn.org/2010/02/with-boys-and-girls-in-mind-gurian-m-stevens-k/ Professional Development for teachers who are also learners Wed, 08 Feb 2012 02:50:10 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Gender debate heats up, Dr. Lise Eliot’s work adds fuel | We Teach We Learn http://www.weteachwelearn.org/2010/02/with-boys-and-girls-in-mind-gurian-m-stevens-k/comment-page-1/#comment-622 Gender debate heats up, Dr. Lise Eliot’s work adds fuel | We Teach We Learn Mon, 27 Sep 2010 04:01:44 +0000 http://www.weteachwelearn.org/?p=1004#comment-622 [...] So we were thrilled when We Teach We Learn recently received a comment from Lise Eliot, an Associate Professor of Neuroscience at The Chicago Medical School of Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science.  It was a great comment.  Unfortunately, she left it on a pretty obscure post–an annotation on an article written by Michael Gurian entitled, With boys and girls in mind.  Anyway, you can read the annotation and Dr. Eliot’s comment here. [...] [...] So we were thrilled when We Teach We Learn recently received a comment from Lise Eliot, an Associate Professor of Neuroscience at The Chicago Medical School of Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine & Science.  It was a great comment.  Unfortunately, she left it on a pretty obscure post–an annotation on an article written by Michael Gurian entitled, With boys and girls in mind.  Anyway, you can read the annotation and Dr. Eliot’s comment here. [...]

]]> By: Lise Eliot http://www.weteachwelearn.org/2010/02/with-boys-and-girls-in-mind-gurian-m-stevens-k/comment-page-1/#comment-610 Lise Eliot Thu, 16 Sep 2010 15:54:58 +0000 http://www.weteachwelearn.org/?p=1004#comment-610 Teachers, please don't take this article seriously. Neither author is a neuroscientist or has any clue about sex differences in the brain, which are real, but much, MUCH smaller than these stereotypes portray. None of their ball bouncing or other silly methods has been validated. When it comes to academic skills, and even self-regulation, the range of ability WITHIN each gender is far greater than the average difference between boys and girls. If neuroscience has taught us anything, it is that there is no truth to the "learning styles" hypothesis. What works are frequent, low-stakes quizzes, daily practice, exercise, and a positive nurturing relationship with the teacher. Please don't buy the snake oil, teachers. Every child, boy or girl, is an individual, and will only thrive when viewed as such. Teachers, please don’t take this article seriously. Neither author is a neuroscientist or has any clue about sex differences in the brain, which are real, but much, MUCH smaller than these stereotypes portray. None of their ball bouncing or other silly methods has been validated. When it comes to academic skills, and even self-regulation, the range of ability WITHIN each gender is far greater than the average difference between boys and girls.

If neuroscience has taught us anything, it is that there is no truth to the “learning styles” hypothesis. What works are frequent, low-stakes quizzes, daily practice, exercise, and a positive nurturing relationship with the teacher. Please don’t buy the snake oil, teachers. Every child, boy or girl, is an individual, and will only thrive when viewed as such.

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