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5The visuo-spatial observation is interesting, but it's contentious and unnecessary to tie it to gender. It's just good teaching practice generally to cater to a variety of cognitive styles, regardless of gender valence. There is other research showing that the supposed gender "spatial intelligence" difference is context- and culture-dependent. I understand your point here, but I'm suggesting caution about this because it is often misinterpreted and it is one of the first things bigots reach for when they try to justify the underrepresentation of women in STEM.Elizabeth Henning– Elizabeth Henning2020-01-01 21:25:20 +00:00Commented Jan 1, 2020 at 21:25
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4@ElizabethHenning: The question is tied to gender already :) I agree that teaching to different styles is best, but it helps to be more concrete (particularly as no one really knows what "learning styles" are, with most specific definitions failing to produce reproducible results). IIRC, visuospatial intelligence is one of the stronger sex differences in intelligence around, and at least in maths it's mostly clear what to do about it (avoid reliance on spatual intuition and 3D animation; if possible, provide alternative "encodings" more convenient to an algebraic/verbal mind; ...darij grinberg– darij grinberg2020-01-01 21:34:16 +00:00Commented Jan 1, 2020 at 21:34
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4This is getting a bit pedantic, isn't it? Whether the differences are innate or not doesn't matter; they are unlikely to change during a one-semester course. And even if the differences are only pronounced in the environment of a test, then they will still show up in a class environment, since tests are used in classes all the time. Mental rotation only shows the biggest sex difference between the tasks in the study I've referenced; the other tests have smaller differences, but still in the same direction.darij grinberg– darij grinberg2020-01-01 21:55:59 +00:00Commented Jan 1, 2020 at 21:55
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2Note that there isn't any evidence that catering instruction to different "cognitive styles" gives any benefits. E.g., see Daniel Willingham, Why Don't Students Like School?, Ch. 7Daniel R. Collins– Daniel R. Collins2020-01-02 04:59:01 +00:00Commented Jan 2, 2020 at 4:59
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6The "sex skew in visio-spatial Intelligence" is a greatly misunderstood and misleading average that males like to believe indicates they understand math better. All it indicates is that more male students understand math in a more concrete, less global way on average than female students do on average. It could reflect a male teaching style that more female students don't benefit from than do benefit from, though. In that way only, it's relevant here.Jamie Watts– Jamie Watts2020-01-02 05:17:08 +00:00Commented Jan 2, 2020 at 5:17
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