Do gender stereotypes affect learning?
I was once placed into a certain gender stereotype, of how girls were annoying and just useless. I was told this in 3rd grade since I didn’t want to play baseball and was unable to hit the ball. Being told this as young as I was, it took me a long time to surpass that stereotype, due to how it was in the back of my mind. It wasn’t till another teacher said to forget those harsh words and just work hard at anything and everything. I’m now known for having spectacular grades and being hard working rather than useless or annoying. Now to explain what gender stereotypes consist of in order to show how they can affect students to where they can’t learn effectively. According to a website called the European
…show more content…
Gender stereotypes don’t help create an effective learning environment within a classroom. Now, this affects the classroom environment due to how much peer work is needed to be completed with certain assignments. Classrooms are meant to help children learn fundamental subjects and how to work collaboratively. According to an article called “Gender Socialization” written by a website called Lumen states, “when children do not conform to the appropriate gender role, they may face negative sanctions such as being criticized or marginalized by their peers.” When this happens, peers are neglected or even outcasted by these gender roles and can cause the student to not be able to learn effectively with being criticized. Along with that, students won’t be able to learn effectively with how they might be worrying about the criticism being placed upon them by their peers rather than focusing on the classroom work. Another source called “gender-based bullying” written by a website named European Institute for Gender Equality, defines this term as “a complex form of violence that targets a person’s sex or sexuality, representing a pattern of behavior rather than an isolated event”. This website also stated “many bullying behaviors are acts of gender policing and much of the aggression that occurs within student social culture can be connected to gender norms. Any child who does not live up to idealized gender performances (and these vary by peer culture) is subject to this kind of harassment”. This of course can cause peer relationships to lessen and thus end up in harassment. Harassment of course does not create an effective or a happy learning environment for the student getting harassed by their peers. Overall gender stereotypes cause problems with the effectiveness within the classroom with causing issues amongst peer