GET learner responses to perceptions of science teachers’ pedagogy (Girls n = 356 Boys n = 244)
STATEMENT NUMBERS GENDER AGREE DISAGREE % CHI-
SQUARE SIGNIFICANT DIFFERENCE (Y / N) CRITICAL VALUE = 7.8 FAVOURED
81. Women Natural Science (NS) teachers are better than men NS teachers.
ALL Girls 151 202 57.2
1.5 N
ALL Boys 110 133 54.7
82. My best Natural Science (NS) teacher so far was a male.
ALL Girls 164 188 53.4
2.1 N
ALL Boys 118 121 50.6
83 Our teacher usually first asks a boy a question during NS/ Natural Science lessons before asking a girl.
ALL Girls 80 273 77.3
33.1 Y: 1%
ALL Boys 105 138 56.8
84. Our teacher usually first asks a boy to do experiments in the Natural Science (NS) lesson before asking a girl.
ALL Girls 89 263 74.7
32.1 Y: 1%
ALL Boys 109 133 54.9
Statements in the survey questionnaire elicit learners’ views on the gender of the person whom they considered their best science teacher and on science teachers’ pedagogy, specifically their gender preferences in science classrooms, in order to establish whether there is a gendered difference in learners’ perceptions of science teachers’ actions. A shortcoming in Statements 83 and 84 is that the gender of the teacher asking the question was not stated, which somewhat limits the analysis of the response data for gender-related differences. Results of statistical testing indicate that there is no significant difference between girls’ and boys’ views of the gender of ‘better performing’
science teachers. Both girls and boys disagree slightly more with the statement, with the girls displaying stronger disagreement in their responses. The statements were put to the learners in this way in order to cross-check and corroborate their responses. This means that the majority of girls and boys do not think that women science teachers are better than men science teachers. The data for both statements that alluded to the gender of the science teacher that learners thought was better show a slightly stronger disagreement from the girls than the boys. Since the statements presented both genders for learners to choose as their ‘better’ science teacher, their responses, which are in the region of 50%, are quite evenly balanced and perhaps reflect personal preference.
The data from the statements that relate to teachers’ gendered actions in science classrooms indicate that there is a significant difference between the responses of girls and boys. Whilst the genders of the science teachers were not established in the questions, the girls disagree more than the boys by a margin of about 20% in both questions. Conversely, the boys agree with the statements more than the girls, also by a 20% margin. This means that there is a strong indication that girls don’t think that boys are being preferred to girls when teachers elicit responses from learners, neither do they think boys are given preference when learners are called upon to do experiments. Girls do not think that there is a gender bias in science classrooms when it comes to teachers’ asking questions or requesting learners to do practical work. Whilst there was stronger disagreement than agreement to the statements amongst all the learners, the disagreement- agreement gap was wider for girls than for boys. More girls than boys felt that science teachers do not give boys preference over girls. The response data for Statements 83 and 84 also indicate that more boys agree with the statement, which indicates a perception that teachers give first choice to boys for a response to questions in science classrooms. The percentage agreement-disagreement gap of the boys’ responses to Statements 83 and 84 is not as wide as for the girls, which might indicate a small degree of ‘comfort’ with the statement. The response data for these statements also indicate that girls do not feel discriminated against in science classrooms and there are differing perceptions and interpretations of what is happening in science classrooms.
The data for the statement that investigated the gender of the learner whom the science teachers first asks to perform an experiment were disaggregated to establish if there were response differences between Grades 7, 8 and 9 learners, and between boys and girls. A closer examination of the learner response data to this statement, as presented in Figure 6.7 below, reveals a significant difference in girls’ and boys’ responses at the 1% level; one can state with 99% confidence that there is a significant statistical difference between the responses of the girls and boys across the grades. This means that boys and girls differ significantly in their thinking on the actions of their teacher, as to which gender is preferred when doing practical experiments in science classrooms.
Boys are reporting that boys are favoured and girls are reporting that boys are not. Whilst this statistical difference between girls’ and boys’ responses also exists when the statistics for the statement about whom the science teacher first asks a question are analysed, for the statement on the practical work, the strength of the difference is greater and existed in all three grades, whereas for the statement about the questioning it exists, at the 1% level, only in Grades 8 and 9.
A closer analysis of the statistics of the Grades 7 to 9 girls’ responses to the statement that ‘teachers usually first ask a boy to do experiments’ reveals an increase in the girls’ disagreement, from Grade 7 (34%) to Grade 8 (47.8%) and Grade 9 (58%). This means that girls are becoming surer in their responses that teachers are not first asking boys to do experiments in science classrooms. Girls appear to feel that they are not being discriminated against in science classrooms because of their gender. This could also mean that, as the girls mature in science classrooms, they are experiencing a confidence in their stature and are becoming more secure in their ability to participate in science lessons. Whilst the disagreement also exists for the boys and increases in Grades 8 and 9, it is not as strong as for the girls.