Gender Differences in Mathematics

Preckel, F., Goetz, T., Pekrun, R., Kleine, M. (2008) ”Gender Differences in Gifted and Average-Ability Students: Comparing Girls’ and Boys’ Achievement, Self-Concept, Interest, and Motivation in Mathematics”, Gifted Child Quarterly, 52(2), 146-159

For gifted students, boys seem to have a more positive self-concept, interest and motivation, compared with girls. This gender difference is not evident amongst average-ability students.

Performance is different among males and females based on the content. For example, Males score better on Problem Solving tasks, whereas females score better on Mental Arithmetic.

There is an over-representation of males in higher levels of mathematical ability.

There is a correlation between ability group and self-concept, moreso for boys than girls. Boys estimate their mathematical ability higher than their female counterparts. I believe that this can have significant motivational impacts on students.

One of the implications of this paper is a preference for single-sex schooling. At one co-educational private school in Sydney, Maths classes have indeed been split up based on sex, which could be to the benefit of the students academically, whilst still providing social opportunities to interact with members of the opposite sex.

Equations in Word 2007

I have discovered a few problems with the In-Built 'Equation' editor:

1. You can't write a short or long division algorithm (is that the right word?) e.g.
   
2. To 'align at =' is a pain and does not always work as expected
   
3. If you write text and equations in the same line, it formats using Latex (looks horrible), try typing Evaluate and it turns out like:
   
4. Since it it NOT Times New Roman, the font in every equation looks considerably different from the text around it. 
   

My Solutions (how not to use it): Use MathType (unless you do option 2, which is way cheaper and almost as good!) Record a macro to put a button in the quick-access toolbar, to use "Microsoft Equation 3.0" with one click

1. Go to 'View' Tab
   
2. Macros (far right) > Record Macro
   
3. Click 'button' <select the new macro in the left hand column and add it to the right hand column, you can also customize to change the name and icon> Click OK
   
4. Go to 'Insert' Tab > Object > "Microsoft Equation 3.0" > OK
   
5. Click back on your word document (do not close the equation editor window) View tab > Macros > Stop Recording. Now close the equation editor window and you should have a nice little icon on the quick access toolbar.
   

 All that being said, it is nice to have "Microsoft Math" Add-in, and also the Microsoft Worksheet Generator. UPDATE: I've experienced some problems printing these new equations in Word 2007 - they don't print!! This link helps with the problem: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/960985/en-us

ACEL Response to NAPLAN

Here is the link to the article posted by ACEL, in response to NAPLAN.

ACEL Response to NAPLAN.pdf

A very interesting response to NAPLAN by ACEL. I have had a few thoughts whilst reading through this article, so thought I would share them with you.

I agree with much of what was expressed here, especially noting that there is a long delay in providing feedback and results to students and schools. It has been the case that by the time the results have come out, that the students understanding, application and ability can have changed quite significantly.

I think one of the most important issues with the MySchool website is the reporting of Year 7 results. A student’s numeracy and literacy in Year 7 at the time of sitting NAPLAN, is primarily based on their education prior to entering Year 7 and is therefore more of a reflection on the particular primary school a student attended, rather than the secondary school that it is linked with on the MySchool website.

There was a suggestion in the report that “value-added” should be reported instead of (or in addition to) raw marks. Given that I am already aware of some schools focusing on the Year 9 NAPLAN and not the Year 7 NAPLAN, this could pose some problems. If the desire is to get the best value-added scores, then a school is definitely encouraged to neglect Year 7 NAPLAN preparation, and focus on basic literacy and numeracy skills (possibly to the determent of the wider curriculum) in preparation for the Year 9 assessment.

Despite this, I believe that the notion of “value-added”, if it could be fairly and accurately calculated, is a worthwhile one. The big question is – how to calculate it.

Geogebra

I have recently abandoned The Geometers' Sketchpad, in favour of the free, regularly updated and feature rich GeoGebra. I had always found GSP clumsy in the way that you had to do things (maybe I was just getting used to it). GeoGebra seems more intuitive. The cartesion plane does not seem as though it is an after thought either, with good capabilities. I have started to create a number of GeoGebra applets. Here are the first three:

• Area of a triangle (proof)


• Area of a circle, by using inscribed polygons


• Angle sum of a triangle

Feel free to download them and use under the creative commons (AT-NC-SA) license.

Sharing: The Moral Imperative

The K12 online conference has just started and it is on iTunes U this year! This is great for watching and listening via my iPhone. I watched the video below, which gave a good background to sharing with other teachers. I am a teacher - which by its very meaning, means that I teach! So, why do I often keep my ideas and musings to myself?

This is the third time that I have commenced this blog at http://www.maths.net.au/. I originally got the domain back in 2007 and now find an urge to launch and maintain this blog. Please join me for some ramblings and musings - I hope that some of what I put here will be of benefit to you.