One the psychological
research says that Boys with difficulty reading actually respond better to
female teachers, according to a new Canadian study. Research shows that boys
develop higher positive self-perceptions as readers when they worked with
female research assistants compared to working with male research assistants.
The study focused on 175
third- and fourth-grade boys who were identified as struggling readers by their
teachers. The boys participated in a 10-week reading intervention to determine
the effect of the reading teacher's gender on boys' reading performance,
self-perception as readers, and view of reading as a masculine, feminine or
gender-neutral activity.
"As competent
reading is the strongest predictor of school success, it's crucial to find ways
to engage boys to become stronger readers," says University of Alberta
professor Herb Katz. "Although boys and girls enter kindergarten with
similar performance in reading, by the spring of third grade, boys have lower
reading scores, which makes this an opportune time for reading
intervention."
Over the 10-week period,
the research assistants visited children at school to conduct 30-minute reading
sessions, reading books that hold high interest for boys. The process included duet
reading during which student and tutor read simultaneously and solo reading in
which the student read independently.
"From this we can
conclude that the drop in the number of male teachers, especially in elementary
schools, is not the reason why boys are underachieving in reading," says
Katz. "Therefore, the strategic hiring of male teachers as a way to
address boys' poor reading scores may be naïve."
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