Differences in Male & Female Learning Styles

Brain Differences

The differences in male and female brains may account for differences in learning styles. Myelin is a covering that develops within the brain and speeds electrical impulses necessary for various brain functioning. Myelin achieves complete formation in female brains earlier than it does in male brains. Another difference is the corpus collosum, the center of the brain that connects emotion and logic centers, which is 20 percent larger in the female brain. This may explain why most women learn and act holistically while men tend to learn and act compartmentally.

Females

On average, girls develop verbal skills such as grammar, spelling and vocabulary more quickly than boys. Females tend to speak more words than males, and women usually are very fluent in social interactions and perform well in cooperative learning situations. Women also lean toward inductive reasoning (expanding upon basic knowledge based on experience). The female brain also uses emotion as a stimulant toward learning and incorporates multiple senses in the process. On average, girls tend to outperform boys academically, possibly due to the way learning is structured in the classroom.

Males

Males usually are good at deductive reasoning. They use a set of criteria and evaluate concepts based on that criteria. Boys and men tend to learn more efficiently when they have plenty of space and when they can move around during the learning process. Males usually prefer visual aids (such as graphs, diagrams and symbols) and are likely to manipulate these visual representations efficiently. The male learning style gravitates heavily toward non-verbal communication. While boys may not outperform girls academically, they often are much more confident about their academic abilities than girls.

References

• University of Pennsylvania: Male and Female Differences
• National Association for Single Sex Public Education: Learning Style Differences