IT has been claimed for a long time that boys are inherently better at mathematics than girls, and this has led to intense debate on the issue.
According to gender stereotypes in mathematics, girls are less confident in their arithmetic skills and experience greater anxiety and this eventually lowers their test scores.
However, it is important to rely on scientific evidence and extensive research to determine whether this stereotype has any basis in reality.
Is it true that men have an advantage in learning mathematics?
VERDICT:
FALSE
Experts and research have found that there are only slight differences in the maths performance of boys and girls; these differences depend on several factors, including a pupil’s age and maths proficiency and the type of maths they are attempting.
A meta-analysis on gender differences in mathematics performance showed that males have an advantage when the mathematical concepts require more reasoning and are more spatial in nature.
This is in the context of solving problems in geometry and calculus, typically taught in the higher secondary-school grades.
It also found that females have an advantage in early primary-school years when mathematics consists of computational knowledge and speed.
Research also shows that at times, there were no differences and in some cases, an advantage for girls to do more basic numerical skills and math problems that have a set procedure for solving them.
Age and the type of math might have an impact on research findings simultaneously. For instance, two recent studies on the gender differences in children’s earliest numerical abilities found no gender differences in infants and children’s basic maths skills.
Findings also suggest that girls and boys learned math at similar rates, and boys did not have a higher aptitude for learning math or for processing numbers compared to their female counterparts.
No one is better in anything unless one has the desire to learn it and it is not gender that determines our interests but our habits that dictate what we are good at.
SOURCES
https://www.researchgate.net/
https://www.researchgate.net/
https://www.tandfonline.com/
https://www.nature.com/
https://srcd.onlinelibrary.
