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Duffus Argument- Module 5 13 November 2013 Learning is more than Listening Do you think the teachers gender has an impact on how well students learn, or do think there is more involved? Personally, I think there is more to it. How well you connect with a teacher might be effected more by gender, but how well you learn from a teacher, in my opinion, is based more on the teaching style, teaching experience, and the students learning styles. More goes in to learning than just the teachers gender as said in the One Teacher, Two Genders article by Jennifer Boylan. Boylan is a transgender, so she has the experience of teaching from both genders. She believed that how well students relate to and connect with a teacher has to do mostly with the teachers gender, but she failed to mention the opinions of her students. Boylan did say that her students were more intimidated by her when she was a man and they were more passionate about what she had to say in her lectures, but when she was a woman, the students were more open to sharing their feelings and engaging in class discussions than they were before. However, she fails to mention if the students learning was effected by her changing genders. Learning is a complex matter, therefore, there are more factors to consider when deciding how students best learn. First of all, a major factor in how well the students learn is the students learning style. For example, certain teaching styles might not connect with certain learning styles. Teachers can use be visual, auditory, or kinesthetic techniques and so can students. If a student is a visual

Spurlin 2 learner and the teacher is an auditory teacher and lectures every class, then the student has a lower chance of success in that class. In a recent study about how different learning and teaching methods effect the success of a students learning, the author, Necmettin Firat zkan, tells us that, Teaching is not just telling and learning is not just listening, and he is correct. Learning is about more than sitting at a desk listening to what the teacher is saying and writing it down. Students have to understand the material they are given and be able to apply that information, not just write it down or memorize it like robots. zkan also tells us that, Learning styles group the ways people learn and different learning styles may emerge in different circumstances. One learning style is not better than the others and depending on the classroom environment and teaching style, the student may adjust the way they study for that class to make sure they achieve success. Second of all, classroom settings dont always promote the best learning environment for students. For instance, some elementary schools decided to try out an open floor plan for their classes which means that the classrooms werent separated by walls. As you can imagine, having all those elementary aged students put together and a lot of people talking all at once, the students would get distracted. This creates a chaotic learning environment for the students and the concept of the open floor plan offers very few benefits. Another factor would be how well the teachers manage their classrooms. Some teachers are unsure how to control their classes because they are afraid of being too strict, or they dont know how to set boundaries for their students and get them to follow the rules. According to a study done to test how teaching styles effect student learning, Vello Hein figured out that, Students learn best through guided learning, which means that students learn best when the teacher focuses on helping the students master certain

Spurlin 3 skills by interacting with them throughout the class instead of the traditional way of lecturing the entire class. Another factor in how well students learn is that students have no control over their education until college. For example, they do not get to choose their classes, decide their schedules, or pick their teachers all throughout elementary, middle and high school. Students who have never been on a block schedule before might not adjust to it well and that might be reflected in their grades. Also, students might discover that they do not get along with certain teachers, or the way certain teachers teach might not work for them, so they suffer academically. Teachers all have different methods of teaching, and those methods might not work for all students. Vello Hein also said that, All teaching styles, when used appropriately, contribute to human development in different ways... the use and significance of each individual style will be determined by the teaching objectives or by desired learning outcomes. Teachers often use different styles throughout the period of a class so that they can reach all of their students and keep them focused. Teachers changing up the way they teach can benefit students in the long run because the students will get used to the different styles and they will be able to adjust to other teachers in the future. Lastly, the amount of teaching experience a teacher has plays a large part in how well a student learns from them. For example, a teacher with more experience will have a better idea of what students need to learn and how they best learn. Newer teachers try to incorporate all the new ideas and techniques into the classroom which is not a bad idea, but students dont always react well to using all new ideas when what they have done in the past works for them. Students have to learn to adapt to the different teaching styles in ways that they have never had to before. In addition, in a study by Nancy Martin, research showed that the gender of the teacher has very

Spurlin 4 little impact on how well students learn from them. Research indicates that male teachers are more controlling than their female counterparts. In addition, related research reveals that males are more likely to take control of conversation by choosing the topic, interrupting more, and speaking for longer duration. Women on the other hand, are more likely to use helplessness as a way of influencing others (Martin). However, according to the studies, students dont focus on the gender of the teacher, rather how well they teach and manage the classroom. In the end, learning is mostly about the students. The way students learn and apply the information from the teachers varies for each student. Boylans idea that the way students learn is related mostly to the teachers gender is false because learning involves a lot more than the gender of a teacher. Teaching styles and experience, student learning styles, and different classroom environments all factor into how well students learn. Teacher gender is only a very small piece of the puzzle and it doesnt have that much of an impact on how well the students learn.

Spurlin 5 Haley Spurlin Dr. Duffus Argument- Module 5 13 November 2013 Bibliography Boylan, Jennifer Finney. One Classroom, Two Genders. The New York Times. 9 September 2013. Web. 14 Nov. 2013. Hein, Vello. The Effect Of Teacher Behaviour On Students Motivation And Learning Outcomes: A Review. Acta Kinesiologiae Universitatis 18 (2012): 9-19. SPORTDiscus with Full Text. Web. 15 Nov. 2013. Katsioloudis, Petros, and Todd D. Fantz. A Comparative Analysis Of Preferred Learning And Teaching Styles For Engineering, Industrial, And Technology Education Students And Faculty. Journal Of Technology Education 23.2 (2012): 61-69. ERIC. Web. 15 Nov. 2013. Martin, Nancy K., Zenona Yin, and Hayley Mayall. Classroom Management Training, Teaching Experience And Gender: Do these Variables Impact Teachers Attitudes And Beliefs Toward Classroom Management Style? Online Submission (2006): ERIC. Web. 15 Nov. 2013. zkan, Necmettin Firat, and Berna Ulutas. Evaluating The Effect of Teaching Strategies And Learning Styles to Students Success. E-Journal Of New World Sciences Academy (NWSA) 7.2 (2012):613-620. Academic Search Complete. Web. 12 Nov. 2013.