How gender segregated classrooms might benefit from a change in teaching methods: Rethinking IT discussion sections

Samantha Oestricher

As mathematics teachers become more explicit about their requirements and more structured in their teaching, the gender gap is shrinking. But now girls are out performing boys by many metrics. I will review several case studies on public schools who chose to segregate their classrooms by gender and how that has effected the teaching strategies in those classrooms. Group oriented learning may serve girls better than boys. In these studies the male classrooms were more physically active and competitive than the female. Do these lessons apply in the college setting? With IT classrooms being approx. 85% male, what can we try to better engage the male students in these classes? Come find out and join the discussion.

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