RSS Feed
August 2nd, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda WEDNESDAY, Aug. 1 (HealthDay News) — Being more impulsive than
girls may give boys an edge in math, according to a new study.
Researchers from the University of Missouri found boys and girls have
different approaches to solving math problems when they start school. Boys
often rely on their memory, while girls prefer to solve problems more
carefully. Although the boys’ approach may cause them to make more
mistakes than girls early on, the researchers found they surpass girls
later.
The observed difference in arithmetic accuracy between the sexes might
stem from a “willingness to risk being wrong by answering from memory
before one is sure of the correct answer,” study co-author Drew Bailey, a
recent Ph.D. recipient from the University of Missouri, explained in a
university news release. “In our study, we found that boys were more
likely to call out answers than girls, even though they were less accurate
early in school. Over time, though, this practice at remembering answers
may have allowed boys to surpass girls in accuracy.”
In conducting the study, the researchers followed about 300 students
from first grade through sixth grade. Boys in the first and second grade
answered math problems quickly, often calling out answers from memory.
Girls, on the other hand, preferred to take their time and calculate their
answers. As a result, they responded more slowly to fewer questions.
The researchers noted that by solving problems more carefully, the
girls made fewer mistakes than the boys. By the time the children reached
sixth grade, however, the boys were not only answering more math
questions, but also getting more answers correct.
“Developing mathematical skill may be part ‘practice makes perfect’ and
part ‘perfect makes practice,'” explained Bailey. “Attempting more answers
from memory gives risk-takers more practice, which may eventually lead to
improvements in accuracy. It also is possible that children who are
skilled at certain strategies are more likely to use them and therefore
acquire more practice.”
The researchers said their findings could help parents and teachers
guide individual students in math and improve their performance.
“Parents can give their children an advantage by making them
comfortable with numbers and basic math before they start grade school, so
that the children will have fewer trepidations about calling out answers,”
study co-author David Geary, a professor of psychological science at the
University of Missouri, said in the news release. “As an adult, it seems
easy to remember basic math facts, but in children’s brains the networks
are still forming. It could be that trying to answer a problem from memory
engages those networks and improves them, even if the answers aren’t
correct at first. In time, the brain develops improved memories and more
correct answers result.”
The study, recently published online, appears in the September print
issue of the Journal of Experimental Child Psychology.
More information
The American Academy of Pediatrics provides more information on how to
help girls overcome the education gender gap.
Related posts:
Views: 0
Posted in 
Tags: 
