每天正常大便的量:性别偏见：小小女孩乖又好，她们数学学不好

女孩子在小学首先学到的一个内容就是男孩子比她们的数学好。

Although this incorrect lesson is certainly not part of the curriculum, first- and second-grade teachers, who are predominately female and math-averse, communicate that math is not their strong suit to some female students, according to a study published January 25 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers found that the girls who got the idea that math ability falls along gender lines had the worst achievement in this subject during the school year.

尽管这个内容肯定不是课程设置的一部分，但一二年级的小学老师（主要为女性并讨厌数学）向一些女生们传达了数学并非她们长项的信息。这项研究在去年1月25日发表在《美国国家科学院院刊》上。研究发现，认为数学能力由性别决定的女生往往在学年中数学成绩较其它学科差。

"We speculate that having a highly math-anxious female teacher pushes girls to confirm the stereotype that they are not as good as boys at math, which, in turn affects girls’ math achievement," wrote the authors.

“我们推测，假如女老师本身对数学高度焦虑，而她又促使女生认同她们数学不如男生的刻板印象，那么结果就会影响到女孩子们的数学成绩。”作者这样写到。

The research team, led by Susan Levine, a psychologist at the University of Chicago, based its study on two key pieces of information. College students majoring in early elementary education in the U.S., of whom 90 percent are female, hold the highest level of math anxiety compared to students majoring in other subjects. And elementary students emulate the behavior of same-gender adults more than opposite-gender adults.

该研究团队由芝加哥大学的心理学家Susan Levine带领。研究基于两个关键方面的信息：美国小学教育专业的学生在所有专业学生中的数学焦虑程度最高，而这些学生中90%是女性。另一方面，小学生往往效仿同性成年人的行为，多于效仿异性成年人的行为。

To examine the impact of teachers’ math anxiety on students’ math achievement, Levine’s group gave 65 female and 52 male first- or second-graders in five public schools in one Midwestern school district an arithmetic-based tests at the beginning and end of the school year. In these sessions, Levine’s team also asked the students to draw pictures of a student who did well in math or reading and explain if that student was a boy or girl.

为了检验老师的数学焦虑对学生数学成绩的影响，Levine团队对一些小学生在学年之初和学年之末做四则运算的测试。这些学生来自美国中西部某学区的五所公立小学一二年级，其中女生65人、男生52人。研究小组还让学生们画出在数学或阅读课学习好的学生，并让他们描述画的是男生还是女生。

At the end of the school year, the researchers also graded the students’ teachers, all of whom were female. The teachers were asked to complete a math exam. Levine’s group also evaluated the teachers’ math anxiety by asking them to rate how anxious they would feel in various situations, such as reading a cash register receipt or studying for a math exam.

在学年末，研究人员也对这些学生的老师进行评分。这些老师均为女性。她们需要参加数学考试，然后研究团队会评估她们在不同情况下的数学焦虑程度，例如看购物小票时或准备数学考试时。

Although there was no difference among the girls’ and boys’ math improvement, the researchers found that the girls, but not the boys, whose achievement did lag were also the students who acquired math gender biases during the school year. In the gender belief test, these girls drew a boy doing well at math and a girl at reading. Moreover, these changes in gender beliefs were found to correlate with the teacher’s degree of math anxiety (but not her math ability).

尽管男女学生在数学成绩的提高幅度上没有差异，但是研究者发现，那些成绩进步慢的女生恰好也是在该学年中学到数学偏见的女生。而男生的成绩和他们的偏见却没有这样的相关性。在性别信念测试中，这些女孩子会画男孩子数学好和女孩子阅读好。另外，这些性别认知的变化同老师的数学焦虑程度呈正相关（但与她们的数学能力无关）。

Levine’s team points out that these young children are also learning gender-based attitudes from parents, siblings and peers. But because teachers are probably confirming or strengthening sexist ideas about mathematical ability, the researchers suggest that elementary teachers be required to take more than the minimal college math courses. "More care needs to be taken to develop both strong math skills and positive math attitudes in these educators," the authors wrote.

Levine团队认为这些小孩子也会从父母、兄弟姐妹和同龄人那里学到性别信念。但由于小学老师很可能会强化学生们学习数学的性别偏见，他们应在大学里学习数学课程以外的内容。作者写到“对这些老师来说，扎实的数学技巧和积极的数学态度，两者同样重要。”

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