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I don't see any evidence that the gender of the teacher matters at all - based on the details the article provides, the study seems equally consistent with the
by ewjordan 17y ago
I don't see any evidence that the gender of the teacher matters at all - based on the details the article provides, the study seems equally consistent with the hypothesis that girls learn math worse than boys in the face of bad teachers, for whatever reason. Or (less PC, of course) that girls are naturally less capable at (or interested in) math, but respond better to good teachers than boys do. Or any of dozens of variations on that theme.
I'm not sure what the researchers were really hoping to accomplish here, honestly. Without looking at male teachers as well, both good and bad, there's absolutely no way to tell whether any of this "effect" (if you can even call it that, given the miniscule sample size and admittedly "small but statistically significant" (i.e. quite possibly bullshit) effect) is at all related to the gender of the teacher.
This is exactly the type of study that makes me weep at the mere existence of some of these soft sciences - even if it was right, all it tells us is that we need better teachers, as if we didn't already know that. What an utter waste of time and money...