Gender Differences In High School Geography Learning

The principle of "people-oriented and paying attention to individual differences among students" is the demand of new curriculum reformation. In the existing research, the main concerns are differences of student’s age and personality traits. Respecting for the law of individual physical and mental development and teaching students in accordance with their aptitude has become one of the guidelines for education today. Educators should follow guidelines, give full play to the potential of each student, and adopt appropriate and effective educational approaches and methods, so that each student could get advancement. However, according to lots of teaching practices, we may ignore an important problem, that differences of students not only exist between individuals, but also between groups divided by gender. The survey found that many experienced teachers have found this difference, but we don’t have systematic solutions to deal with this difference for various reasons. Present theoretical research also lacks complete directional conclusions. I have experienced deeply about the difference between boys and girls during teaching activities, and have communicated with experienced teachers, so I chose this topic.Under the guidance of psychoanalytic theory, internal space theory, individualized instruction theory, disparity teaching theory and many other psychological and teaching theories, based on the full understanding of the characteristics of geography subject-as a special subject that integrated humanity and nature, it involves both liberal arts knowledge and science thinking mode, I found that differences exist between boys and girls in learning geography, through conducting various investigations including observation, surveys, interviews and questionnaires on the geography learning styles of students in senior high school. In accordance with comparative analysis, I identify differences of leaning style between girls and boys, and examine problems in geography learning under this difference. Based on the study of reasons for differences, I found three main aspects including physical, psychological and environmental factors.How to arrange teaching more reasonably based on qualities of geography subject and combined gender difference between male and female students in the study is the main focus of the study. The cause of differences between male and female students in the geography study lies in congenital genetic factors and acquired growth factors. Since we cannot change genetic factors, we should start from environment, education and other acquired aspects, respect gender difference during the teaching process, and take different teaching methods according to characteristics of male and female students. Geography teachers should have enough patience and wisdom, follow the principle of teaching students in accordance with gender, establish a correct outlook on gender, improve knowledge level of disparity teaching theory and overcome gender stereotypes. Meanwhile, teachers should combine geography teaching and disparity teaching theory, integrate theory with practice, and implement gender education policy in actual teaching activities, including arrangement of content, establishment of teaching objectives, selection of teaching strategies and evaluation of teaching design. The paper also elaborates how to improve the ability of girls to study geography from several aspects involving the way to stimulate girls’ interest, enhance self-confidence and cultivate spatial thinking ability.Education is a primary means to promote human progress and social development. As an educator, we must pay attention to students which are the main body of class teaching. Implementation of quality-oriented education requires us to educate from both universality and individuality, pay attention to individual’s physical and mental development, and improve the quality of education.