EFFECTS OF A MATHEMATICS FACILITATION PROGRAM UPON SEX ROLE IDENTIFICATION AND ATTITUDES TOWARD MATHEMATICS

Literature dealing with American women's occupations and occupational satisfaction shows many of these women are stuck in jobs they consider boring, poor paying, and unchallenging. These women are also very limited in choices of occupations, as they are heavily represented in only 20 of the 441 occupations listed in the U.S. Census Occupational Classification System. Literature also reveals what has been called a "math filter" which seems to operate in restricting interesting, challenging, and high paying jobs to those people (mostly white, middle or upper class males) who are well trained in and at ease in working with mathematics. Women (and minority men) who do get good training in math are usually able to pass through this metaphorical filter and obtain interesting, challenging jobs.;The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of three treatments designed to encourage both math learning skills and nonsexist attitudes towards mathematics. Subjects included 130 women enrolled in the first math education course at a university in the elementary education curricula. Subjects were divided into four treatment and two non-treatment control groups. Treatments took place in four one hour sessions and included training in effective study behaviors, structured sex roles discussions, and an attention-only group for the examination of Hawthorne effects. Dependent variables included standardized scales to measure various attitudes towards math, math grades, and the Bem Sex Role Inventory, an instrument designed to measure the degree of stereotypical sex role characteristics one ascribes to oneself.;Contrary to the hypotheses, none of the treatments produced between group differences on dependent variables at post treatment testing or at follow-up testing which occurred 90 days later. A replication of this study with longer, more powerful treatments is recommended.;It is recommended that math education courses include both more emphasis upon fostering less math-sexist and more math positive attitudes and that math education courses evaluate student attitudes toward mathematics as well as performance in mathematics.;Females in general make better grades than do males in math related classes, and this relationship seems to be evident from the early grades through graduate school, yet women take much fewer math courses than do men in high school or college. This is related to the American sex role stereotype of men being good at math and women being poor at math. This stereotyped belief is present in many children by the time they reach the seventh grade. Not surprisingly, many elementary school teachers strongly believe this same stereotype and are influential in passing it on to the children they teach. Several studies have shown that many elementary teachers draw very sharp distinctions between what they consider normal and appropriate behaviors and skills for boys and what they consider normal and appropriate behaviors and skills for girls. Another study found junior high school students attitudes toward and achievement levels in mathematics much more related to their previous teachers' attitudes towards math than to those teachers' achievement or ability levels in math. Thus it may be more important for elementary teacher education programs to produce teachers who like math, consider it a very useful subject, and are not sexist in their attitudes toward math than to produce teachers of high math ability.