Gender Differences in Preschool - Essay Example

Gender differences are a widely debated topic. It is one that everyone seems to have their own opinion on. Some claim that the differences between men and women are minimal, and are in fact grossly exaggerated in society; therefore they should not account for differential treatment in society because men and women can do everything equally. Others claim that although there clearly are differences between men and women, they should not be used as a means of differential treatment because although men and women may do things differently, they each bring something unique to the table. Still, others claim that there are differences between men and women and that these differences should be embraced. People who believe this line of thought believe that men and women should be treated differently, in order to emphasize the unique qualities that each possesses. Which one of these lines of thought is correct is still up for debate, and probably always will be. What is more important is that everyone acknowledges that there is at least some difference between men and women. Where does this difference come from It may be argued that gender differences are innate, and therefore are apparent at the time of birth. At the same time, gender differences may also be learned, as boys and girls are shaped by their environments into men and women. In an attempt to delve further into this question, it is important to look at the behaviors of young boys and girls. This paper looks at the whether preschool boys and girls are treated differently by their teachers, and the possible implications and explanations for any differential treatment observed. In a study done by Dobbs, Arnold, and Doctoroff, preschool classrooms were observed in order to find out whether boys and girls received differential attention by teachers. This study included 150 children and fifty teachers from eighteen different preschool classrooms were videotaped during free play and structured learning activities. These tapes were then coded to differentiate different kinds of attention given to students. Attention fell into one of six categories. The first type of attention, rewards, refers to and prizes or privileges granted to the child in response to a desired behavior. The next type of attention, physical warmth, refers to any type of affectionate physical contact by the teacher, such as wiping away tears or patting on the back. The third type of attention, non-specific positive interactions, refers to any miscellaneous attention given to a student that does not neatly fit into the other categories, which includes encouragement and compliments among other types on interactions. The fourth type of attention, praise, refers to when the teacher verbally points out when a student in engaged in a favorable behavior. The last type of attention, command, refers to any verbal interaction initiated by the teacher which directs the child's behavior in a certain way. Command does not include verbal interactions in the context of discipline. Child misbehavior was also observed and noted. Dobbs, Arnold, and Doctoroff found that teachers do treat boys and girls differently in regards to attention. They found that while there was no difference in the amount of physical warmth and praise that teachers gave to boys when compared to girls, there were differences in the other types of attention. Teachers tended to command boys more than girls, while they also tended to reward and engage in non-specific positive interactions with girls more than boys. There may be some explanation for these findings. First, while boys received more commands from teachers, they were also observed to misbehave more often than girls. It was observed that teachers gave more commands to students who typically misbehaved, even when they were not misbehaving. A possible explanation may be that the teacher is trying to prevent future misbehavior. If this is true, then behavior is in fact the mitigating factor in commands, and not gender. The difference noticed in the frequency of rewards given to boys in comparison to girls may also be contributed somewhat to misbehavior. It was found that while girls receive rewards more often than boys, girls who misbehaved received rewards more often than girls who did not misbehave. At the same time, boys who misbehaved received rewards more often than boys who did not misbehave, although this was still less than girls who did not misbehave. A possible explanation may be that teachers use rewards for acceptable behavior in order to wean children off of misbehaving. This explanation does not completely account for the observations, since non-misbehaving girls still received more rewards than misbehaving boys. At best, misbehavior can be used in conjunction with gender to explain this observation. Lastly, Dobbs, Arnold, and Doctoroff observed girls receiving more positive interactions than boys. This observation may have more to do with the different types of activities that the boys tended to be engaged in during free play when compared to girls. Boys tended to be more active and use up more space during free play, whereas girls tended to stay in one place, and often stayed close to the teacher (291). Because the girls tended to be more accessible and closer to the teacher, the teachers may have had more opportunity to engage in positive interactions with girls than boys. This explanation may also explain the gender difference in rewards. Although this study did show differential treatment for boys and girls with regards to attention, it is clear that gender is not the sole variable in this differential treatment. Another study, conducted by Erdena and Wolfgang, attempted to discover whether preschool teachers disciplined boys differently than girls. In this study, 130 female preschool teachers were given the Beliefs About Discipline Inventory (BADI), a standardized measure that was created for the purposes of this study. This measure consisted of four vignettes which described a certain instance in which discipline was needed. They included: disruption to group time, the destroying of classroom materials, problems during snack time, and trouble lining up properly. There were two versions of this test, one in which a girl student was engaging in all of the behaviors, and one in which a boy student was engaging in all of the behaviors. After reading the vignettes, the teachers were asked to choose between three predetermined discipline styles. These styles were referred to as "Relationship-Listening", "Confronting-Contracting", and "Rules and Consequences" (Erdena & Wolfgang 4). Relationship-Listening is a humanistic approach to discipline in which the teacher makes the student aware that his actions are wrong, allows the student to talk about his feelings regarding the action, and the action is believed to stop. The teacher has very minimal power in this situation, and is instead supposed to provide a warm environment that allows room for change (4). Confronting-Contracting is a social and developmental approach to discipline in which the teacher confronts the student about the misbehavior, allows the child to decide how he is going to change his behavior, and encourages the child to make some sort of contract which binds the child to the behavioral change (4). Rules and Consequences is a behavioral approach to discipline in which the teacher holds all of the power. The teacher clearly outlines the rules of the classroom, and rewards and punishes the students accordingly. In this study, Erdena and Wolfgang discovered that teachers chose the Rules and Consequences form of discipline most often when the student offender was a boy, and the Confronting-Contracting form of discipline most often when the student offender was a girl, even though the behavior was exactly the same for both boys and girls. There are a few possible explanations for this discrepancy. It may be that teachers were operating under the stereotype that boys are tougher than girls and girls are more emotional than boys. If that were the case, then it may explain why teachers tended to use more power in disciplining boys when compared to girls. They may have believed that boys could "handle" that kind of situation and girls could not. On the other hand, teachers may have been operating under the stereotype that girls have better verbal skills and negotiation skills than boys. If that were the case, then it may explain why teachers tended to use a disciplining style that called for negotiation and communication more often with girls than boys. Although these explanations are not as convincing as those in the attention study, it seems that teachers are acting on stereotypes when disciplining children instead of blatant favoring. A third study, conducted by Cherry, aimed to determine whether teachers verbally interacted differently with males than with females. Four female preschool teachers and thirty-eight children were tape recorded in their classroom interactions on five different days. The recordings were then coded for different types of verbal interaction which included "attentional-marked utterance", "directive utterance", "repetition", and "question-answer-acknowledgement" (533-534). An attentional-marked utterance refers to any statement that is used to get the child's attention. A directive utterance refers to any statement that is used to tell a child what to do or not to do. A repetition refers to any statement that is repeated within five sentences of the original statement. Question-answer-acknowledgement refers to any time the teacher asks a question, the child answers, and the teacher gives some form of verbal acknowledgement of the answer. Cherry found that teachers used different forms of speech with boys when compared to girls. Boys have more overall verbal interaction with teachers than did girls. At the same time, boys received more directive speech whereas girls received more verbal acknowledgements. There may be many explanations for such observations. One may be that because boys misbehave more often than girls, they receive more directive speech, and quite possibly, verbal interaction in general. Also, it was noted that although girls received more verbal acknowledgement, nonverbal acknowledgement was not taken into consideration. While there is no explanation for why girls would receive verbal acknowledgement and boys would not, it may be possible that boys were receiving some form of acknowledgement that was not within the parameters of this study. Regardless, it seems that once again, factors other than gender contributed to the differential treatment given to boys and girls. A fourth study, conducted by Perdue and Connor, attempted to discover whether there is any difference in the patterns of touching between teachers and students. Eight classrooms were observed for different types of touching. Four male teachers and four female teachers were observed, along with their students. Four different types of touching were defined: "friendly" touches, "helpful" touches, "attentional" touches, and "incidental" touches (1258-1259). Friendly touches referred to touches that expressed approval or warmth. Helpful touches referred to touches that occurred while the teacher was helping the child or the child was helping the teacher. Attentional touches referred to touches that were aimed to gain attention or control behavior. Incidental touches referred to any accidental touches that tend not to carry any meaning. It was found that overall teachers exhibit different patterns of touching when comparing boys and girls. The most significant finding is that teachers tend to touch children of the same sex as themselves more often that different sex children. There may be many factors at play here, such as the teacher feels more comfortable touching children of the same sex, or that the teacher can relate to children of the same sex more readily. At the same time, it was found that male teachers tended to use a helpful touch far more often with girls than any of the other touching types, whereas female teachers did not favor one type of touch over another. A possible explanation for this may be that the male teachers are operating on the stereotype that females are dependent on males, and therefore need more help than males do. An important fact to note in regards to this study is that although male teachers touched children at the same rate that female teachers did, preschool classrooms are predominantly taught by women. This implies that girls are in fact touched more often in the preschool setting than boys. Although this may be true, it is important to remember that factors other than child gender are at play. Another study, conducted by Martin, aimed to show how preschools encourage different bodily behaviors for boys and girls. Five different preschool classrooms were observed. Martin found that while both boys' and girls' bodily movements were shaped by the teachers, they were shaped in different ways. First, it was noted that teachers often adjusted the girls' appearances, either by fixing their hair or readjusting their clothes, whereas they very rarely engaged in these activities with boys. These actions call attention to the girls' appearances, showing that the teacher finds appearance to be important for girls (499). It was also noted that while all classrooms had a "raise your hand" policy, boys tended to disregard this rule more often than girls. At the same time, teachers tended to still listen to what boys had to say when they did not raised their hand, but when girls neglected to raise their hand they were reprimanded. Also, teachers tended to direct girls' activities during free time. In one specific example, all the children are engaged in different activities, but the teacher calls on three girls to come and paint with her (502-503). It is possible that the teacher just randomly chose students to paint and they all happened to be girls, but it is also possible that the teacher guided the girls toward a more "feminine" activity. Lastly, it was found that while boys who were playing noisily were allowed to carry on with their business as long as they were not hurting anyone, girls were often told to quiet down the minute they got noisy. The observations made by Martin show that children are instructed to act differently in regards to gender. The teachers in this study seem to be teaching girls how a "lady" should act. However, this is not the complete picture. It is important to note that these ladylike behaviors are most likely also reinforced at home as well. One last study, conducted by Fagot, observes teacher's reactions to cross-gender behavior. Preschool children were observed in free-play in many different classrooms over a six-year period. It was found that teachers tried to encourage boys who engaged in feminine behaviors to act more masculine. At the same time, teachers did not try to stop girls who engaged in masculine behaviors. A possible explanation for the tendency of teachers to try to shape the boys' behavior is that the teacher is trying to save the boy from ridicule. It was observed that boys who engaged in cross-gender activities were picked on more often than other children, and were often excluded from play with the other children (906). It is very possible that the teacher is aware of such behavior by the other children, and is therefore trying to avoid it. In accordance to this assumption, girls who engaged in cross-gender activities were not treated any differently by their peers and the teachers did not try to change their behavior. The studies mentioned above all point to instances in which boys and girls are treated differently in the preschool classroom. However, it is important to note that in nearly every case, this differential treatment has more to do with outside factors or the child's behavior than gender. But, because gender is easier to see than these other factors, it is easy to attribute this differential treatment to gender. Greater research must be done in order to rule out the possibility of differential treatment on the sole factor of gender. Works Cited Cherry, Louise. "The Preschool Teacher-Child Dyad: Sex Differences in Verbal Interaction." Child Development 46 (1975): 532-535. Dobbs, Jennifer, David H. Arnold, and Greta L. Doctoroff. "Attention in the Preschool Classroom: The Relationships Among Child Gender, Child Misbehavior, and Types of Teacher Attention." Early Child Development and Care 174.3 (2004): 281-295. Erdena, Feyza and Charles H. Wolfgang. "An Exploration of the Differences in Prekindergarten, Kindergarten, and First Grade Teachers' Beliefs Related to Discipline When Dealing with Male and Female Students." Early Child Development and Care 174.1 (2004): 3-11. Fagot, Beverly I. "Consequences of Moderate Cross-Gender Behavior in Preschool Children." Child Development 48 (1977): 902-907. Martin, Karin A. "Becoming a Gendered Body: Practices of Preschools'." American Sociological Review 63 (1998): 494-511. Perdue, Valerie P. and Jane Marantz Connor. "Patterns of Touching between Preschool Children and Male and Female Teachers." Child Development 49 (1978): 1258-1262. Read More