Job Discussion Forums

[Sashadroogie]

No evidence whatsoever to support this idea, but over the years I have come to the conclusion that, very broadly speaking, women are by far the better learners, and men are the better teachers, but by much less of a margin.

Total twaddle? Or is there something in this?

What sayest the other posters, of any or either sex?

[spiral78]

I sort of very generally think there is some truth in both of the above.

With women being better language learners, I think there are cognitive studies that demonstrate women usually have greater facility to communicate in general.

Have no clue why men may be somewhat better teachers in general than women, but I speculate it might be because they are less supportive, in a sense. If we are trying to spoon-feed adult language learners, they may be slower to develop the autonomy needed to actually acquire and activate language skills. Of course, I've known some abysmal male teachers (the ones that sit on the desks of pretty female students come to mind - that's simply creepy), and I know some outstanding female teachers. I can say that the great female teachers I know have a sort of no-nonsense, straightforward approach in the classroom, while still being approachable.

[HLJHLJ]

In terms of language teaching, it's possible, but not something I've particularly noticed myself. There's a lot of data showing that in general women are much more verbal than men, they speak more frequently, use more words when they do speak, and have a bigger vocabulary. Also, men have a tendency to impart information and then shut up, compared with women's tendency to wrap information in extra vocabulary to create a social interaction.

So if the current preference for teachers speaking as little as possible, and students speaking as much as possible, does maximise learning, then a gender difference is feasible.

However, these are gross generalisations, so even if they can be considered as a tendency in half the population, the individual differences within each gender are likely to be almost as great as any differences between them.

Having said all that, it's equally likely that there are other social factors which would have a bigger effect. For example, in a country with strong traditional gender roles, women typically have much greater demands on their time outside of work. So it may just be that the women who are able to find/make the time for English classes are more motivated

[scot47]

For thousands of years the female of the species has been the transmitter of language. They are better at it !

[nomad soul]

Sorry, Sasha, but I agree with the others. There's also a huge cultural component, especially when teaching staff consist of native and nonnatives representing diverse values, cultural norms, learning/teaching styles, varying levels of exposure to the target language and its culture, etc.

[coledavis]

My colleagues spend too much time grooming each other's hair. Surely that is a vote for men.

[nomad soul]

[spiral78]

They're well-groomed. What more could you want, nomad??!!
Isn't that the definition of 'good teacher'??

(If it's not, someone should break the news to a few of my former colleagues;-))

[nomad soul]

LOL! Seriously, that sort of ties into Sasha's other thread about the attractiveness of students. That is, what about those employers that tend to hire female teachers based on their good looks and males for their solid teaching qualifications? Perhaps that's why Sasha feels male teachers outperform female teachers.

[johnslat]

In my ESL experience here in the States, my opinion is that too many of the female teachers in Adult Basic Education ESL tend to treat their students as they would elementary school pupils. Most of my colleagues here are ladies; the staff is about 95% female.

It's strictly an opinion, but I see too much emphasis on "fun games," "guitars/jazz chants" and "Now, let's all get in a circle and throw the beanbag around."

I think learning SHOULD be fun - but when I get students in high-level ESL classes who can't write a sentence, have never heard of the parts of speech, or don't know how to use the present, past or future, I have to wonder just what they've been doing in all their previous classes.

Regards,
John

[spiral78]

Dear John:

I saw something similar to what you describe in the university where I used to be in Canada. Many of those ladies were in fact retired elementary school teachers, hired to teach adult ESL by directors/managers who didn't really have any knowledge or understanding of the field.

Alternatively, some of the ladies had related experience and quals, but, and I know this is sensitive, mostly in Asian teaching contexts, where edutainment is apparently still expected more or less in many situations.
Their approach seemed to be that if it worked in Asia, it would work in North America as well.

Best,
spiral

[Sashadroogie]

Interesting comments, one and all. Glad to see I am not totally mad in my notions, then : )

[artemisia]

[johnslat]

Dear artemisia,

Um, I THINK that what he meant .

Regards,
John

[artemisia]

You mean I'm being dense? (That can't be right!)

Well, I don't know. Does it mean all the female versions of Coledavis' colleagues are dancing (grooming) monkeys?