Är teknikämnet till för både flickor och pojkar?
inlärningsstilar ur genusperspektiv
This is an essay concerning the differences between boys? and girls? way of learning and how this difference influences the teaching in the technology subject. The method is divided in two. The first part is based on a survey over literature about teaching girls and boys in the technology subject. The second part is based on interviews with three male teachers in the same subject. The three teachers all say that both girls and boys enjoy the technology subject in school and that their results are equal to one another. One clear tendency - both in the literature and in the interviews - is that when boys are given a task, they start off in a way that often is much different from the way girls do. Girls usually read the instructions while boys tend to use the "trail and error" method. First after failing to solve the problem, the boys turn to the instructions. In most subjects it is from the teacher's point of view considered as "better" if the pupils choose the girl-method. In the interviews, one of the teachers claims that when girls use this method in the technology subject they show a fear of technology. The technology subject is by tradition dominated by men. The teachers very often base the lessons on their own experience of technology. When it comes to history the scientists and inventors that the teachers and school literature refer to, are men. Perhaps it would be easier for girls to identify themselves with the subject if there were more female persons and inventions in the technology subject.