The struggle in mathematics of women

At the college level, a study was done to find out what percent of students would have to take a developmental mathematics class. Nearly 55% of all students who attend a community college will have to enroll in a developmental mathematics course. 58% of women are will have to take one of this courses while only 50% of men will enroll in a developmental mathematics course.

This made me think about my students. In the two quarters that I have taught in this academic year I have had 145 students between 6 classes. Of 145 students, 112 of those students were female. When I started thinking about it, I remember most of my students were female. So I decide to go back as far as I could with the records I had. Since the fall quarter of 2012, I have taught 18 classes. In those 18 classes, I taught 423 students with 324 of them being female (77% of my students). All, but one of my classes had more than 60% of students who were female. The one class that didn't was at 59% (17 out of 29).

The first thing I asked myself after seeing those numbers are why are my percents much higher than 58%. The main reason is the gender difference. Women are more likely to ask for help if they need it. When students are registering at Baker, students find out that they will need to their mathematics courses. Most of the people who deal with registration will recommend students to take my mathematics classes if they ask or mention that they struggle with mathematics. Since females are more likely to point this out or ask who should they take, I am more likely to have a higher percentage of females in my classes.

Now that I know that I have higher percentages than normal. I need to make sure that I gear my teaching to provide opportunities for my students. First, I can show students that you can still enhance your knowledge and improve their capabilities. Students are not born into they capabilities and cannot expanded beyond them. They need the encouragement to know they can learn how to do mathematics. Second, I should give students feedback that focuses on strategies, effort and the process of learning. I need to identify where the student has gained improvement in their use of strategies or errors in their problem solving. This will enhance their own beliefs about their abilities. This leads to improvements in persistence and performance on tasks given. Finally, I need to create interest in math by using activities that connect math with careers that do not reinforce existing stereotypes of women. If you reinforce the stereotype, women will have less interest in mathematics. You need get students interested in mathematics. Using stereotypes, will cause female students to lose interest.