Developing a Collaborative Classroom

1. Chapter Nine Developing a Collaborative Classroom Gender and Sexual Orientation

2. Rationale for Collaborative Teaching and Learning • An interdependent world requires that we learn to live cooperatively. • Competition for natural resources is counterproductive. • Thirty years of research demonstrates that girls (and probably boys) learn more effectively when cooperation is the norm.

3. Characteristics of a Collaborative Classroom • Both competitive and collaborative approaches are present. • Teachers, students, other school personnel, parents and members of the community work together. • Lessons are integrated. • Interest in home-school collaboration is high; parents are viewed as the first teachers.

4. Pedagogies: Old and New • Collaborative work in schools is not new: think about teams, choirs, and plays. • In collaborative classrooms, this kind of work is applied to the formal curriculum. • In collaborative classrooms, the instructional mode is cooperative learning.

5. The Effectiveness of Cooperative Learning: Two Factors • Goals cannot be accomplished unless each member of the group does his or her part (task specialization). • The group’s success depends on each individual learning the required material; the group sinks or swims together (positive goal interdependence).

6. Secondary Characteristics of Cooperative Learning • Emphasis on face-to-face interaction • Development of social skills • Group participation in reflection and analysis: monitoring how well the group is doing

7. Uses of Cooperative Learning • To teach specific content • To ensure active cognitive processing of information • To provide long-term support for and assistance in academic progress

8. Roles: Old and New • The teacher often acts as a coach. • Students may serve as coaches as well. • Parents, grandparents, and other community members often serve as instructors. • Adults and students use a partnership model of teaching and learning.

9. Place of Content Knowledge: Old and New • Because teachers and students collaborate, content is often interdisciplinary. • Learning (and teaching) serve a variety of purposes. • Students are better able to make connections between areas of knowledge.

10. Assessment: Old and New • Assessment techniques should be compatible with instructional strategies. • Assessment of collaborative work should measure performance over time (e.g., with portfolios or other demonstrations of both individual and group problem-solving ability).

11. Perspectives on Gender Identity • The development of one’s sense of identity—the knowledge that one is separate from parents and family—begins early. • A critical part of identity development, beginning at least at birth, is gender.

12. Sex and Gender Identity • Identification in terms of sex begins at about 18 months of age—”I am a girl,” “I am a boy.” • However, while sex is a biological characteristic, gender is a social one—what it means to be a boy or girl in any given society, what the rules are.

13. Gender Role Socialization • The rules associated with one’s gender role may vary by race, ethnicity, social class, religion, and even by geographical region. • The process of learning one’s gender role can be described in three parts: Continued…

14. The child learns to distinguish between men and women, boys and girls, and to know what kinds of behavior are characteristic of each. • The child learns to express appropriate gender role preferences for himself or herself. • The child internalizes the “rules” and learns to behave in accordance with gender role standards.

15. Gender Role Socialization in the White Middle Class • Parents: • Boys handled more roughly; girls get more verbal attention • Boys given more freedom to explore; girls kept closer to supervising parent • Girls given more help in solving problems; boys told to “figure it out” • Parental approval of “appropriate” gender behavior shapes the behavior of children.

16. Other Socializing Agents • Television • Children’s books • Children’s toys • Nursery rhymes, religious stories • Proverbs and sayings

17. Masculine and Feminine Behavior • It is also the case that this society favors the active, the adventuresome, and the aggressive, and that these traits are largely associated with boys. • At the same time, boys pay a high price for this association: Continued…

18. Boys are socialized much earlier to gender role behavior than are girls. Boys are also punished more harshly than girls for deviation from norms of gender roles. Consider the relative meaning of the terms “tomboy” and “sissy.” Which has a more negative connotation? At what ages can these terms commonly be applied?

19. Perspectives on Gender and Schooling • Schools as socializing agents: • Schools have an important socializing function for middle class norms. • Among those norms are those for gender roles. • While these norms are changing, sanctions still operate when boys and girls move too far from the norms for each.

20. Gender Stereotypes in School • For boys: independent, strong, logical, direct, adventurous, aggressive • For girls: passive, weak, illogical, indirect, gentle, and emotional • These traits, while able to be exhibited by either sex, are genderized in favor of one or the other.

21. Social Factors that Enforce Male and Female Stereotypes • Misogyny:the denigration or hatred of women • Homophobia: the fear of homosexuality and homosexuals • In both cases, the assumption is that feminine qualities are less valued, even contemptible.

22. Some Further Definitions • Sex Role Stereotyping: when specific behaviors, abilities, interests and values are attributed to one sex or the other • Sex Bias: behavior that results from an underlying belief in sex role stereotypes • Sex Discrimination: any action that denies opportunities, privileges, or rewards on the basis of sex

23. Productive and Reproductive Processes (Martin) • These concepts refer to two sets of processes in society • Productive Processes: political and economic activities, and the production of art, music, dance, drama • Reproductive Processes: caretaking activities of home, children, the ill, and the elderly Continued…

24. Martin’s idea that is these processes are also genderized in favor of males and females, with productive processes “given” to males, and reproductive processes “given” to females. • Moreover, schools tend to focus almost entirely on productive processes, ignoring the reproductive and thus ignoring at least half of what it takes to build and maintain a healthy society.

25. Gender as an Issue of Legal Equity in Schools • Title IX, Educational Amendments (1972) No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any educational program or activity receiving federal financial assistance.

26. Some Important Court Cases • Grove City v. Bell (1984)—Supreme Court agrees that schools that do not receive direct federal funds can be excluded from Title IX • Civil Rights Restoration Act (1988)—overrode Bell, required all education institutions receiving any federal funds (e.g. student loans) must comply with Title IX Continued…

27. Numerous cases have been brought in lower courts on the question of girls’ athletics; most have affirmed Title IX • Other cases have been brought on issues of sexual harassment; the results have been mixed in adult-on-student cases: • Franklin v. Gwinnett County Public Schools (1992)—petitioners may claim punitive damages under Title IX when intent to evade compliance is established Continued…

28. Gebser and Mccullough v. Lago Vista Independent School District (1997)– denied compensatory damages from both the teacher involved and the school district • The first successful student-on-student harassment case was decided in 1995: Doe v. Petaluma Unified School District (1995) – plaintiff was awarded punitive damages of $250,000

29. Perspectives on Gender and School Culture • European American values with respect to gender are often reflected in traditional school culture • Tendency to view humans as separate from nature, and able to control it, resulting in an emphasis on science and technology (rational thought, objectivity, materialism, and need for concrete evidence—all traits generally associated with boys) Continued…

30. Tendency toward an action orientation – measurement of progress and change, testing. While girls generally get better grades, boys are more often challenged to “do it until they get it right,” and girls are more often evaluated on qualities such as neatness. • Tendency toward an optimistic, progressive orientation – school culture more often emphasizes this future orientation and the productive processes for boys Continued…

31. Tendency toward self-motivation, goal setting – also more often emphasized for boys in school; girls are not so often encouraged to be adventurous and aggressive, traits that are necessary to “get ahead” • Tendency toward a strong sense of individuality – boys are more often encouraged to be independent, while girls are expected to help others and demonstrate caring attitudes Continued…

32. Tendency toward a belief in the mutability of human nature – change is relatively easy, with good leadership; yet girls are more likely to be protected from “strangers,” and less likely to be encouraged to take leadership roles • One result of this socialization is that boys are more likely to attribute success to effort and skill, and girls are more likely to attribute success to luck.

33. Perspectives on Gender and Sexuality • Sexual activity among teenagers is lower than 10 or 15 years ago, but is still very high. • The U.S. has the highest teenage pregnancy rate in the industrialized world. • The likelihood of sexual activity increases with age; more than half of seventeen-year- olds are sexually active. Continued…

34. Among the most difficult problems facing teachers and students is the relationship between heterosexual and homosexual students. • Public awareness about homophobia has increased, due largely to gay and lesbian activism and the tragedy of AIDS. • Some studies suggest that the more students know about homosexuality, the less homophobic they will be. Continued…

35. Yet, cognitive knowledge about homosexuality often fails to neutralize deep-seated attitudes toward the issue. • Tolerance is also complicated by the gender-related issues involved: • Hostility and violence are more often directed toward gay men. • Losing jobs or being evicted from housing is a more common problem for lesbians. Continued…

36. Differences in masculine and feminine traits (and behavior) are perhaps as wide among homosexuals as they are among heterosexuals, which serves to complicate the issue still further. • The belief that gay men are “feminine” and lesbians are “masculine” is as much a stereotype as any other kind of stereotypic categorization. • One of the most difficult aspects of homosexuality in a homophobic society is the separation of sex and gender.

37. Teachers Can Decrease Levels of Homophobia • By using gender-free terminology (e.g., partners and persons instead of husband, wife, boyfriend or girlfriend) • By systematically interrupting homophobic comments • By overtly using homophobic misinformation to encourage critical thinking • By using educational materials that do not assume that all students are heterosexual

38. Ethical Issues • The degree to which all students are encouraged to be open, reflective, and critical thinkers • The degree to which open inquiry may place students at odds with their families or the community • The degree to which the role of the school is seen as one which helps all students to understand, appreciate, and negotiate differences—of gender and sexuality as well as of other characteristics

39. Something to Think About Although it is true that not every single boy or girl believes in or adheres to gender stereotypes, it is generally true that society, in part through schooling, attempts to enforce them. . .even in the face of contrary evidence.