Job Discussion Forums

[leeroy]

(Or should that be "men and women"?)

So, what's the difference (aside from the obvious physical ones) between male and female students and teachers? This was something I was thinking about today...

When I was teaching spoilt little Chinese-Indonesian teenagers, the girls were far, far easier than the boys. They were polite and cooperative, whereas the boys deliberately challenged the teacher's authority and were needlessly dispruptive.

How things change once hormones settle!

Now I teach young adults in London, and the difference is profound. On the whole I prefer boys (I use the term "boys" as "men" seems a little odd, somehow, and "males" too distant and formal). This may simply be that I am one (and thus have more in common) - or feel more comfortable talking to them in a context where flirting and/or implicit romantic discourse is simply Not Cool. Perhaps it has more to do with how they are in class though.

Men are, pretty much regardless of culture, more aggressive/assertive communicators - or at least certainly on the surface. Boys ask more questions, become more involved in activities/discussions and (due, perhaps, to their innate competitiveness) generally more fun. While girls will happily "get on with it", it is rare that they apply the same enthusiasm and jizz (FAO: dmb) to classes and activities. Boys usually don't care how polite I am or what I wear, and I rarely feel I am being judged as a person per se. They are simply there to participate in the lesson and (even) learn a bit of English. I like teaching boys, they are simple - what you see is what you get. A class of girls is a lot more complicated...

Like most staff rooms (I assume), a great deal of coffee time is spent complaining about students that, for whatever reason, teachers don't like. Curiuously, most of the complaining is done by female teachers about female students. The complaints are invariably not about the students' abilities, rather about "how they are" - be it arrogant, rude, or whatever. A (mixed) pub discussion about this ensued, and the following hypothesese were put forward...

* Girls are more "in tune" to social environments, contexts and atmospheres - thus female teachers are simply more likely to notice that a student is being b*tchy.

* In a similar vein to point 1, female teachers might try to include more "personal" discourse in lessons - thus providing students with more opportunities to demonstrate what horrible people they are.

* Students are naturally more intimidated (for wont of a better word) by male teachers, and so are less inclined to be confrontational (explicitly or otherwise)

* Men notice it too, but speak of it less for fear of "saving masculine face".

* Women are, under the surface, far more competitive with each other than men are in social situations. Thus, while men might express their competitiveness by "trying to win the game" in class, girls might do it by tutting and giving each other dirty looks (and, I am assured, a million other things that men don't pick up on).

Apparently (and this came from a female work colleague, not me) - it is quite normal for a girl to resent another because the resentee worries that the resented has bigger *beep*/is prettier/gets more attention/is liked more by the boys, etc... Having committed any one of the above crimes, a female teacher is open to (implicit) abuse and/or hatred from female students.

I had a class of 9 advanced girls, of mixed nationality. They mentioned at one point that they preferred having a male teacher to a female, but were vague and evasive when I asked why. Someone later put forward the idea that a class of girls might prefer a male teacher as the complexities of Female Social Politics would not apply, and thus the teacher-student power relationship could remain relatively simply and the lesson's objectivity could stay intact. Either that or they fancied me...

My own experiences of observing other teachers show that male/female teachers have drastically different approaches in "how to be" with the class. While the girls (ahem, "women") might walk into a class, smile and ask how everyone is in a softly-softly way - men (myself included) are more likely to stride in and instantly state, command or declare something. Men instinctively "take control" of lessons more than women, which can be both good and bad admittedly.

So, I've tried (although in a hurry because the internet at this time of day is quite expensive) to give my experiences of how men and women differ both as teachers and students in my own professional context.

Your turn!

And, by the way

DISCLAIMER:

1. This post is full of generalisations - I know there are exceptions!
2. Let's leave the words "western" and "asian" out of this one
3. Sorry if this comes across as saying "men are better than women", that certainly isn't my intention and isn't what I believe!

[stillnosheep]

[valley_girl]

I don't see any division among gender lines in my classes. Some of the female students and male students work very hard, some (of both sexes) are slackers. I'd say it's pretty evenly divided. Furthermore, I don't see any rivalry amongst the female students. Perhaps I'm just not looking hard enough for it.

[denise]

I usually have an easier time chatting with guys, both socially and as a teacher. While I don't really have a preference (nice people come in both sexes, as do meanies), I do find it much easier to have conversations outside of class with my male students, and more so with the outgoing (flirty?) ones. I guess it's because I'm just so damn shy. Shy teacher + shy student = looooong time to build personal relationships.

There are a few very outgoing female students here, and I have an easier time with them than with the more demure ones.

d

[ls650]

I was about to write that my female students are much better than my male students - but then I just remembered a class I used to teach in Indonesia that I and the other teachers in the school called "The B1tches from Hell." And were they ever....

I think it just depends on the luck of the draw. Maybe next semester I will get another class of BFH.

[Gordon]

Good topic Leeroy, yours usually are.

At my current job in Japan, I'd say I have an easier time in class with the female students. I think mostly because their level is higher than the males and they can actually understand what the heck is going on. Not much fun cracking jokes or talking to the wall.

Generally, in all my teaching jobs, I'd say it has been even between males and females. I also agree about the discipline issue. I think male teachers have an easier time of discipline than female teachers (always exceptions, this is a generalization). I hate disclaimers! I'm bigger than the average bear and am quite strict, so I think I have an easier time with discipline than most.

[foster]

In the past, I have usually prefered boys to girls for students. Yup, boys are more aggressive and more outspoken. Girls, I find, (warning: Generalization coming) to be manipulative, back-stabbing little sneaks. Boys get mad at you, do stuff outwardly and get over it. Girls fester and rot. Fester, fester, fester, rot, rot, rot....horrid.

My girls now are sneakier than my boys. My boys talk. End of discussion. The girls think that I would not clue into the fact that 3 of them want to go to the loo at the same time and hang out there. HELLO? Who do they think they are trying to fool??

Girls seem to perform better on tests tho. I am in HK, where testing is the only and major evaulation tool. Either they are better at memorizing all the 'teach-to-the-test' crap I piled on them, or they are genuinely brighter.

My boys tend to be lazy and forget to do homework more. My girls are usually better preparted for class. That said, I have some GREAT boys and bright boys and some crappy and not-so-bright girls.

In class, it is usually the girls who ask more questions...or the people sitting at the front. Also, it will be the people who are more confident speaking English, which is usually the girls.

Again, these are horridly sweeping generilaztions made from the past 9 years of teaching. I still recall with dread and absolute fear some of the girls I have taught in the past...as well as their male counterparts.

[Roger]

Yes, an interesting topic.

From the outset ten years ago, I as a male, and foreign, English teacher have noticed that girls are more interested in the subject, i.e. English. This was also borne out by pure stats as I taught in two different normal schools, and bohad predominantly female student bodies - somewhere around 9 females to one male.
The males in those classes tended to be more introverted, and not necessarily linguistically gifted. Everywhere I have taught so far, girls outperformed students as a rule, with some exceptions.

I also taught at kindergartens. Here, the numbers of girls and boys were approximately equal. I can't say the girls were necessarily better performers. Oh, many of them were very, very eager, but so were many boys. I couldn't find any significant performance difference at this stage, though at higher levels this seems to be the norm.
Maybe as little children they are not burdened yet by a heavy and gender-specific cultural baggage.
It is true, of course, that boys tend to be the more spoilt among CHinese children; parents are more willing to invest in their professional future. And, at kindergarten level I noticed only boys acted truant or turned out to be antisocial little brats. No girl caused me any such trouble.

As adults, - when they come to classes for which they pay by themselves! - I am equally comfortable with men as with women. Some men have intimated to me a lot of the pain they endured growing up in a society that's stricnformist, while women showed their vulnerability by saying how lonely and bored they were. Often, adults join classes to make friends - not just to improve their English!

[Dr.J]

Teacher stereotypes:

Male

-Introverted geek, can't control the class, smells funny
-Former PE teacher shouts 24/7

Female

-Softly softly, wears flower print dresses, can't control the class
-Dragon lady

Student stereotypes:

Boys

-The "sports god"
-The small kid with the glasses
-The fat kid
-The wild kid who smells like tabacco

Girls

-The "fashion queen"
-The skinny one
-The fat one
-The one who wears earrings and perfume

The question is, is it nature or nurture?