by Stacey Wells ‘15

The number one thing that students notice about their teacher on the first day of school is the teacher’s gender. To some, the gender gives a hint on how tough the teacher will be and what their personality is like. However, there is actually no proven difference that gender affects an individual’s teaching style.

According to a German tandem study performed in 2012, if male and female teachers have the same professional qualities, like the same degree, then there are no teaching style differences. The common belief that female teachers are more emotional and empathetic towards students was not supported by the results of the study.

Even though gender does not determine a teacher’s style, some students succeed more in the classroom when they are with a teacher of the same gender. In the well-known paper “The Why Chromosome,” published by research economist Thomas Dee, it is stated that learning “from a teacher of the opposite gender has a detrimental effect on students’ academic progress and their engagement in school.” It can actually lower test scores by four percent if boys have female teachers and girls have male teachers. Having a teacher that is opposite the student’s gender also dramatically decreases the amount of student participation and engagement in the class.

Since girls respond best to female teachers and boys respond best to male teachers, it would make sense for coed public schools to strive for an equal number of male and female teachers. However, that is not the case. In 201l, only 18.3 percent of elementary school teachers were males and 42 percent of secondary school teachers were males. While Sherwood still has more female teachers than male teachers, the school has hired many new male teachers this school year.

The math department added three new male teachers, but math resource teacher Sapna Chaudhry says that hiring all new male math teachers “was not intentional” and it “just so happened.” Instead of looking for a specific gender, Chaudhry says the interview panel looks for “strong role models [who] can be men or women … who know their job [and have] good personal skills.”