Thursday, May 20, 2010

Rule #11: Male and female brains are different




The diagram to the left shows the "Gist" and the diagram to the right shows the "Details."
  1. Boys Read: Considering Courage in Novels
  2. Girls Read: Online Literature Circles
Read through the lessons. Compare them with the information from the chapter.
Read

16 comments:

  1. Brain Sex by Anne Moir and David Jessel is still a better take on the issue. EDCs are huge. Environmental Disrupting Chemicals....
    Epigentics plays a role as well. Basic issue still remains. I am in charge of me and my learning. You are in charge of yours. No matter the issues that may make the task easier or harder. We still are the same specie.

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  2. The chapter contrasted sex and gender. Gender refers to social expectations. The gender differences can be dividedinto three areas: genetic, neuroanatomical, and behavioral.
    The genome chart Cathy showed us and talked about was fascinating.
    The video was funny, but very truthful: details versus the gist!

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  3. Male and female brains are different, and females are more genetically complex. It was fascinating that men are more likely to respond to the gist and that women are more likely to respond to the emotional details. It is also interesting that women have back-up X chromosomes and that men do not have this back-up. The Genome project would be good to study.

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  4. Just trying once again to see if this works.

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  5. ok, In the reading for today, studying the differernces in brain and how sex effects learning hit home in the art classroom. Studies have shown how boys do mature more slowly than girls, now add all grade levels into the mix. I agree with some research stating that boys require more attentiona and girls don't always raise hands and speak up in mixed enviornments. I have seen this first hand in my own classroom. I also had the opportunity to do my student teaching in Ireland at a Catholic Girls school and the learning environment was quite different, it seems that there are fewer problems with some items, but added concerns in other areas.

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  6. It's easy to get caught up in the generalities of this chapter but we have to remember he was talking about statistics and not people. Sometimes I find it disturbing that we focus on female friendly methods and content. It is easy for this trend to lead back to the old watered down curriculum for girls that I do remember from high school. I had science teachers that simply said that girls could not do physics and we should sit and watch. Likewise with PE - girls should not stress their bodies.

    I find it easy to play devil's advocate on both sides of this issue. Mainly because I know there is a fine line to walk here. I taught in a girls high school and I know that girls of that age can thrive without the social pressure of boys.

    We teachers need to recognize that we deal with individuals and teach accordingly.

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  7. Unfortunately stereo types abound. There is no question that just a small amount of Y chromosome creates a male – even if it is a VERY small amount. Genetic abnormalities abound with even a small defective in the Y chromosome.

    Concerning education, I’m not so sure. Being a female science teacher I have been in male dominated courses for most of my life. Even my early teaching jobs, female science teachers were unusual. (Not so much now – so maybe progress has been made.)

    In the classroom I do see differences on how students assimilate information – but not so much stereotypically male/female but just different personalities attracted to what they do well. All students need to be encouraged and hopefully find something to connect with.

    Sorry – I do realize that there is a difference between male and female brains, but I am finding that personalities and interests make a far greater difference than the student’s sex

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  8. I am astounded to hear all of the progress on the Human Genome Landmarks shared in our discussion. It will be interesting to see the impact that research has on future generations and our understanding of gender differences. I am especially interested in what is the bigger influence on who we are; our personalty type or our gender. Marsha's example of her and her husband's thinking process being more in line with the opposite gender, is a good example of just one way the brain doesn't always follow what we know about each gender's processing, so it makes me wonder if there isn't someway to use the research to understand personality types which seems like it might be more beneficial...

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  9. Can't argue with Modina that gender differences discussions can be a dangerous thing to have. The problem, as he points out, is that while predispotions may in fact exist (the poor harvard president was right, women's lack of of spacial relationsip processing compared to men does make it harder for them to be great architects ect.) they are ALWAYS trumnped by the spectatular adaptive abilities of our brains. No geneic gender difference can be used as an excuse for poor behavior/choices by humans. The interesting question here is can gender predispotions be used to make certain types of learning easier, and what are the "side effects" of such actions? Medina's example of all girls math classes is a prefect illistration. While they might improve academic achievement, do they also create larger "achievement gaps" when these "sheltered" girls try to go out and compete in the marketplace with thier male counterparts. One thing we can't forget is that there is no "free lunch" in the real world--every gain comes at a cost. Are we smart enough to figure out which gains are worth it for children who won't "pay the price" for a decade or more?

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  10. OK, is this why my marriage failed? I didn't know about (or I forgot from my human biology class) men Y Chrom < 100 genes wheras women have 1500. The other parts about brains being structurally different I knew about and teach in my common set of lectures on student skills I give the first two weeks of every class. And I loved the part of women knowing the details of an event but men only remember the big picture. I'm a big picture guy and I'm lovin it. So where can we get more serotonin?

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  11. Jay Swords Says (since Ch12 is not posted yet):

    Chapter 12

    Always best to end with a bang. This was a great chapter because it covers a fascinating topic, baby cognition, and because the themes; exploration and creativity, are closest to my educational heart. If school has one fundamental flaw, it is that we don’t seem to care about either of those things. In fact, we seem to do everything we can to destroy those traits in every student who enters the system. Why do we do this? In a word, control! As Medina points out, exploration and creativity are messy, dangerous activities. They lead us to be contrary and to take risks. As adults, such traits interfere with efficiency and cooperation so we discourage them. In kids they lead to questioning of authority and putting oneself in physically and psychologically dangerous situations. Since safety requires avoiding risks and following orders, we try to discourage such behaviors in our children. The Iowa Core Curriculum is going to be interesting on this point. On paper it requires us to encourage exploration and creativity, but I wonder if parents, districts, and lawmakers are willing to tolerate the messy, unpredictable and untestable educational environment it will create or the contrary personalities it will foster in their children, students, and fellow citizens. It should be fun to watch!!

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  12. Chapter 12 (Since it isn't posted yet and I want to finish this book).

    This chapter is a no-brainer. Even though we are not babies anymore, we do still want to explore, engage in active learning by observation, hypothesis, experiment, and conclusion. What is different is our experiences, our past knowledge which is cumlative. We add to what was already learned. Some call this wisdom.

    The new thing, or something that I knew but forgot, what that we are still creating neurons and are lifelong learners. We say that but really don't know that it is true. We are always learning and creating new paths in our memory. But exactly where. Do we learn only in short term memory, working memory, or only long term memory. Or is that memory (learning) is where we can imitate behavior, or "mirror neurons" which are scattered across the brain?

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  13. This may be way off base, but the X chromosome from the mom info really hits home for me. In name my son is a Kroening, but in every other way he is a Ripslinger. He looks like my brothers, acts like my brothers; it's really scary.(I have often felt I was switched at birth or secretly adopted.)He will be thrilled to learn there is so much of his mom in him!

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  14. Obviously a lot of things mentioned in this chapter are subjective. To say that boys always compete and girls always cooperate, is a very generalized statement. I know boys who would not attempt to "one-up" their brother or friend. I also know girls who would. We can make general statements about gender, but I don't think we'll ever be able to pinpoint any one "set in stone" difference between men and women (other than physical differences).

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  15. These seems to be a nature vs. nurture debate in some ways. Are boys and girls inherintly different or is it the way that we raise them that results in these differences? I don't think there is any one answer. Lumping boys and girls together takes away the fact that each person is an individual with their own learning styles. One boy may learn differntly then another. Gender studies can be interesting but not always reliable.

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  16. Fascinating article! I love gender issues and reading about gender differences. I am fascinated by the differences in the male and female brain. I am currently reading a book called Guyland...how post-adolescent males are different from females. Failure to launch and all that good stuff.

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