Title page for ETD etd-07092004-143712

Type of Document

Dissertation

Author

Ghosh, Sraboni

URN

etd-07092004-143712

Title

Teachers' Beliefs on Gender Differences in Mathematics Education

Degree

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Middle and Secondary Education, Department of

Advisory Committee

Advisor Name	Title
Elizabeth Jakubowski	Committee Chair

Keywords

Mathematics
Difference
Gender
Belief
Teacher
Achievement

Date of Defense

2004-06-21

Availability

unrestricted

Abstract

The Purpose in this study was to understand the specific beliefs that are held by two high school teachers about gender differences in mathematics education, and the extent of consistency between these teachers' stated beliefs about gender and instructional practices and classroom interactions. This study was built upon three previous studies of teacher's gender-related beliefs, conducted by Tiedemann (2000a), She (2000), and Garrahy (2001). Five high school mathematics teachers from a southeastern United State's school were participants in this study as a result of a convenience selection. Two of these five participants were selected for case studies based on their availability and cooperativeness. Data were generated from four sources: (1) questionnaires completed by five classroom teachers on each of the six students selected within his/her class; (2) teacher interviews; (3) classroom observations; and (4) videotapes of instruction documenting teacher and students. Although the participants claimed that they took student's ability instead of students' gender into account as a mathematics teacher, they held some gender-related beliefs toward the male and female students in their classes. Some of these beliefs were: (1) lower ability female students put on more effort in their mathematics classes compared to the boys; (2) girls are more emotional than boys; (3) girls are less competitive than boys; and (4) female students in the higher ability courses are less confident than male students. The result of this study also indicated that the participant's stated beliefs on gender-related differences were not always consistent with their instructional practices and classroom interactions.

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