Boys and Girls Learn Differently!: A Guide for Teachers and Parents »

Michael Gurian is an educator, family therapist, and author of fourteen books, including the bestselling The Wonder of Boys, A Fine Young Man, and The Good Son. He is an internationally celebrated speaker and writer whose work has been featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, USA Today, Time, and other national publications as well as on the Today Show, Good Morning America, CNN, and numerous other broadcast media.

At last, we have the scientific evidence that documents the many biological gender differences that influence learning. For instance, girls talk sooner, develop better vocabularies, read better, and have better fine motor skills. Boys, on the other hand, have better auditory memory, are better at three-dimensional reasoning, are more prone to explore, and achieve greater abstract design ability after puberty.

In this profoundly significant book, author Michael Gurian synthesizes the current knowledge and clearly demonstrates how this distinction in hard-wiring and socialized gender differences affects how boys and girls learn. Gurian presents a new way to educate our children based on brain science, neurological development, and chemical and hormonal disparities. The innovations presented in this book were applied in the classroom and proven successful, with dramatic improvements in test scores, during a two-year study that Gurian and his colleagues conducted in six Missouri school districts.

Publishers Weekly

Educator and author Gurian (The Wonder of Boys) and his co-writers argue that from preschool to high school, brain differences between the sexes call for different teaching strategies. While it's widely accepted that, in general, boys do better in math and girls in language, the authors claim that, until recently, society has taken the politically correct but scientifically inaccurate classroom view that children of both genders learn best in an "androgynous classroom." Presenting a detailed picture of boys' and girls' neurological, chemical and hormonal disparities, the authors explain how those differences affect learning. Although Gurian et al. address the problems of both genders, they focus on boys, contending that they are more difficult to teach and have more learning and discipline problems. The female brain, Gurian says, has a "learning advantage" because it is more complex and active, although the male brain does excel at abstract thinking and spatial relations, one reason why boys do better in math. Drawing on anecdotes contributed by teachers participating in a Missouri-based pilot program launched by the Michael Gurian Institute, the authors present a variety of methods, from pairing a language activity with movement for boys, to using role models to engage girls in academic risk taking. Throughout, the authors stress the importance of teacher training, arguing that regrettably few teachers are knowledgeable about this issue. (Apr.) Forecast: With a seven-city author tour to spark media interest and follows the huge success of The Wonder of Boys, this book will be picked up by parents eager to learn more of what Gurian has to say. Most Americans are intensely concerned about the state of our educational system, so the book could reach beyond its target readership of teachers and parents. Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.

Introduction ..... 1

Part 1: How Boys and Girls Learn Differently ..... 11

1: How the Brain Learns: Inherent Differences Between Boys and Girls ..... 13

2: How Brain-Based Differences Affect Boys and Girls ..... 43

Part 2: Creating the Ultimate Classroom for Both Boys and Girls ..... 69

3: The Ultimate Preschool and Kindergarten Classroom ..... 73

4: The Ultimate Elementary School Classroom ..... 124

5: The Ultimate Middle School Classroom ..... 201

6: The Ultimate High School Classroom ..... 262

Epilogue ..... 313

Notes ..... 315

Additional Resources ..... 323

The Authors ..... 331

Index ..... 333