14 DAY TRIAL // Penn State psychologists found that preschool teachers can unwillingly pass on gender stereotypes to their students, when they emphasize gender differences.
It might seem a bit strange for this to happen nowadays, but this study concluded that when teachers make a difference between genders, preschool kids are more likely to form stereotyped opinions of what activities suit girls and boys better, and also which gender they'd rather play with.
The research included 57, three to five year old children, at two preschools, over a period of two weeks.
The class sizes were similar for the two schools, and so was the teacher-child ratio and populations served.
The researchers asked the teachers in one set of classrooms, to avoid making divisions by sex, according to the policy of the institution.
As for the other teachers, they were asked to use gender divisions and language, like lining up the kids by gender, and asking boys and girls to post their work on different bulletin boards.
Still, the teachers never made statements comparing girls and boys, or starting a competition between genders.
After the two weeks of study, the researchers wanted to see how much did the kids assimilate cultural gender stereotypes – like girls play with dolls and boys with toy cars.
The children were observed during play time, and were asked about their interest in playing with kids of their own and the other sex.
Children from classrooms in which there was no characterization by sex, had no change in their behaviors or their responses, over the two-week period.
Kids from the other classrooms however, revealed an increase in stereotyped attitudes and had far less interest in playing with children of the other sex.
Lynn Liben, Distinguished Professor of psychology, human development and family studies, and education, at Penn State, says that the results of this study are very important for the way that teachers structure classrooms and interact with kids, because they have proved the strong effect that classroom environments can have on preschool children's gender-related beliefs and behaviors.
“The biggest impact of the study and the findings seems to be that classroom structure really matters,” said Liben, who worked with Lacey Hilliard, a Penn State graduate student, on the experiment.
“It shows that if teachers emphasize gender--in any way-- it has amazingly profound effects on how children interact with each other.”
These findings add to previous research showing that gender differentiation in classroom environments, increases stereotypes among elementary-school-aged kids.
The researchers published their results in the current issue of Child Development.