女教師模式化教育阻礙男孩天性發展
Women teachers are holding back boys by reprimanding them for typically male behaviour, according to a study out today.
They are reinforcing stereotypes that boys are ‘silly’ in class, refuse to ‘sit nicely like the girls’ and are more likely to indulge in ‘schoolboy pranks’.
Women teachers may also unwittingly perpetuate low expectations of boys’ academic achievement and encourage girls to work harder by letting them think they are cleverer.
Schools should avoid dividing pupils into ability groups because the practice often results in girls dominating the higher-achieving tables, concluded the Kent University research.
The study of primary schools in the county suggests that under-performance among boys in most national exams could be linked to lower expectations.
The research mainly implicates women teachers, since nearly 90 per cent of primary school teachers are female. It warned that school staff find boys’ play, such as wielding toy guns, ‘particularly challenging and difficult’.
Boys are punished and urged to conform to a more feminine style of play instead of being taught how to play responsibly with their preferred toys.
Bonny Hartley, the study’s lead author, said: ‘By seven or eight years old, children of both genders believe that boys are less focused, able, and successful than girls – and think that adults endorse this stereotype. There are signs that these expectations have the potential to become self-fulfilling in influencing children’s actual conduct and achievement.’
根據今日發佈的一項研究，女教師責備男孩的男性典型行爲，從而阻礙了男孩的成長。
她們強化一些模式化觀念，責備男孩在課堂上表現“愚蠢”，拒絕“像女孩一樣乖乖坐着”，以及更喜歡搞“小學生惡作劇”。
女教師還可能在長時間內無意中對男孩的學業成績期望值較低，讓女孩認爲自己更聰明，從而鼓勵女孩更用功學習。
肯特大學的這一研究得出結論說，學校應該避免把學生按能力進行分組，因爲這一行爲經常導致女孩在成績上以絕對優勢居於前列。
對郡內小學的研究顯示在大多數國考中男孩表現不佳可能和低期望值有關。
這一研究主要涉及女教師，因爲近90%的小學教師是女性。研究警告說，教職人員認爲像玩玩具槍這種男孩遊戲“特別具有挑戰性和難度”。
教師們懲罰男孩，驅使男孩進行一些更女性化的遊戲，而不是教他們如何有責任感地玩他們喜歡的玩具。
該研究的主要作者伯尼•哈特利說：“到七八歲的時候，男孩和女孩都認爲男孩不如女孩能集中注意力、能幹以及成功，並認爲成年人也認可這一模式。有跡象表明這些期望有可能內化並影響孩子的實際行爲和成就。
Vocabulary:
hold back: 妨礙進展
schoolboy prank: 小學生惡作劇
unwittingly: without being aware of what you are doing or the situation that you are involved in（糊里糊塗地；茫然；無意地）
perpetuate: to make something such as a bad situation, a belief, etc. continue for a long time（使永久化；使持久化；使持續）
under-performance: 表現較差
wield: to hold something, ready to use it as a weapon or tool 揮，操，使用（武器、工具等）
conform to: 遵照
endorse: to say publicly that you support a person, statement or course of action（公開）贊同，支持，認可
self-fulfilling: a self-fulfilling prophecy is one that becomes true because people expect it to be true and behave in a way that will make it happen（預言等）自我應驗的，自我實現的
