MATHS AND GENDER DIFFERENCES

Maths and Gender Differences

Maths and Gender Differences

Introduction

Numerous studies have provided strong evidence that difference in perceptions, preferences and income between men and women to the area of mathematics. Some researchers have attributed such situations to the biological differences between sexes but what is really behind these differences found? It has been determined that several factors may be responsible, including the cognitive, affective and educational, however, argue that each of these factors is engaged in a more complex component: the socio-cultural factors.

Today's society is using 'Mathematics' without even realizing it. It is not only a school subject that students have to learn about in school but it is something that one needs to be aware of, as without mathematics it would be hard for us to function, whether it be to work out the correct change that get in a shop or whether just working out if taxes are correct. Math's co-exists in life. Yet there are many of us, who still struggle to get to grips with even the basic of principles in Mathematics.

Psychology and mathematics Psychology is a science in charge of studying the behavior of humans. Teaching and learning in general are part of these behaviors that contribute greatly to the development of societies. Among the traditional theories of learning theory is stimulus - response advocated by the different variants of behaviorism. Human beings learn, as the behaviorists, if presented with information (stimulus) and are capable of putting an answer. Proponents of this theory, however, did not care to know what was happening in the individual's mind from the moment he received the information until it was an answer to the question being asked. In opposition to them, there was some interest in the psychological schools of thought processes and how they affect human learning, particularly in learning mathematics.

One of these psychological tendencies conformed Gestalt psychologists. Although their initial concern was the phenomenon of perception as a mental process, they extended their research to the field of human learning. The Gestalt claims that the human mind interprets incoming stimuli to the senses according to certain organizational principles that allow the individual some kind of understanding. For them, perception is not simply the sum of incoming stimuli to the senses but the recipient initiates a search for meaning than it receives sensory, contributing as a thinking that is, the organizing principles of his mind. The way each person records the organizing principles of his mind is likened by the Gestalt psychologists to how that individual organizes his thoughts (Hall & Hoff, 1988: 395). One of these psychologists, Wertheimer noted with concern as mathematics teachers encouraged among students in the habit of applying the algorithms in a meaningless way, restricting the natural tendency for children to see things as a structured whole (Wertheimer, 2000: 87). Instead of this meaningless rote learning, the Gestalt psychologists propose a productive learning organization based on a set of structurally related ideas: a valuable contribution of the Gestalt psychologists in mathematics ...