Npj science of learning: should girls be born away from "Mathematics"?

November 10, 2019 / BIOON / -- in 1992, Barbie released a talking toy, "Tenn talk Barbie", which includes a controversial voice clip, "math is hard" The toy has been strongly opposed since it was released, but there has always been a question in people's subconscious mind: are women born with lower mathematics learning ability than men? Are women born with poor math skills unable to compete with men in science, technology, engineering and math (stem)? To study the problem, researchers such as Jessica cantlon of Carnegie Mellon University examined the brain development of young boys and girls Their research shows that there is no gender difference in brain function or mathematical ability The results of this study are published in the recent journal npj science of learning According to our findings, children's brains have similar functions regardless of gender Therefore, we hope to be able to re-examine the expectations of girls' achievements in mathematics " First, cantlon and her team conducted a neuroimaging study to assess gender differences in children's math abilities Her team used functional MRI to measure brain activity in 104 young children (ages 3 to 10; including 55 girls) and watched educational videos covering early mathematical topics such as counting and addition The researchers compared the scans of boys and girls to assess brain similarity In addition, the team compared children's scans with those of a group of adults (63 adults, including 25 women) watching the same math video After extensive statistical comparisons, cantlon and her team found no difference in brain development between boys and girls In addition, the researchers found no difference in how boys and girls deal with math skills and equal participation when watching instructional videos Finally, boys and girls remained statistically equal in brain maturity compared to men or women in the adult group "Boys and girls understand math in the same way, and the whole brain is similar," said Alyssa Kersey, lead author of the paper, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Chicago's Department of psychology The researchers also compared the results of the "early mathematics ability test" of 97 children (50 girls) aged 3 to 8 to assess the speed of mathematics learning ability development They found that children's math abilities were the same, and there were no gender differences in the rate of development over time Cantlon believes that the current social culture may be leading girls and young women away from math and stem Previous studies have shown that parents are more willing to develop boys' ability of spatial cognition through games, and many teachers will spend more time teaching boys in math classes "The current social culture will aggravate the differences between boys and girls in their ability to learn mathematics, which is not conducive to women's achievements in science and mathematics We need to be aware of the root causes of this problem and make sure that we don't think it creates gender inequality in the first place " Brain of girls and boys are similar, producing equal math capability original source: Alyssa J Kersey, Kelsey D csumita & Jessica f cantlon Gender simulations in the brain during mathematics development Npj science of learning volume, 2019 doi: 10.1038/s41539-019-0057-x