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JOURNAL OF INTERDISCIPLINARY RESEARCH
instruction. It is generally known that specific knowledge
presented in isolation, without logical connections, that cannot
be associated with other elements in the curriculum material, is
the most difficult to remember.
The school environment primarily draws on the left cerebral
hemisphere that dominates analysis, words, numbers, linear
sequence and various types of progression. Our educational
system continues to rely heavily on arranging chairs in rows; the
notes primarily consist of words; exercise books routinely use
lined paper, and students usually make their notes in bullet
points and lists, and learn them by heart. All these processes rely
more on the left hemisphere, which impoverishes the brain’s
potential. Working with mental maps is a necessary exercise
since it helps one to assign new pieces of information to all
information already stored in the brain more easily. The concept
map helps to sort both new and old information naturally;
moreover when creating a mental map one engages both
hemispheres – the left for logical sequencing, words, concepts
and numbers; the right for imagination and visualisation. It is
precisely the activation and use of both cerebral hemispheres in
one’s brain that contributes to simpler remembering and more
effective learning. Novak (1990) claims that the map serves to
capture the meaning of certain concepts through a graphic
representation of their mutual relations. It also must be noted
that mental maps are a dynamic rather than static structure.
2 Differences between boys and girls in the educational
system
Male and female brains demonstrate small but observable
differences, which are often overrated or misinterpreted since the
scientific research of differences between males and females is
almost always accompanied by heated discussions. There are
two major lines of interpretation of this issue. One group of
experts explains the differences in male/female behaviour and
intelligence mainly through cultural influence and the
socialization process. The second group attributes those
differences mainly to biological factors and chromosomes.
Male and female brains demonstrate subtle differences that
probably emerge in the pre-natal period as a result of sex
hormones that lead to an individual brain’s masculinisation or
feminisation.
However, many studies hold that the differences in behavioural
and cognitive functions in men and women are barely
identifiable. Stereotyped thinking claims that men are usually
more aggressive and are better in mastering tasks involving
spatial skills; women tend to be more empathetic and outscore
men in more demanding verbal memory and language skills
tasks.
Women often point to a number of both social and educational
barriers that continue to exist even in the 21st century,
preventing them from establishing themselves in technical areas
dominated mostly by men.
Tindall and Hamil (2003) have identified main reasons why
women tend to choose to study humanities rather than technical
subjects. This choice is mainly influenced by social factors,
stereotypes, traditional gender roles, and a relatively higher level
of empathy and sensitivity. Those determinants tend to be
mentioned in the context of women’s choice to stay away from
predominantly male disciplines. This work follows up on
Heffler’s conclusions (2001) on existing differences in the way
men and women learn. The author claims it is evident that
traditional education does not support diverse learning styles of
students depending on their sex.
Research in education focused on students’ learning styles
primarily concentrate on identifying the relation between a
student’s learning style and the material, or between the learning
style of a student and instruction style of a teacher.
So far, little research has examined the impact of brain
development on one’s learning style and his/her preferred
learning strategies.
Severiens and Dam (1997) used ILS questionnaires (Inventory of
Learning Styles) to examine the level of identification of a
student’s learning style with his/her biological sex. Androgynous
individuals, typified by their high level of femininity as well as
masculinity, were characterized by a high level of effort to
understand the meaning of the curriculum material. Their
learning strategy was to immerse themselves in the curriculum
material; they were independent, and interested in the subject.
Masculine individuals acted more self-confidently and
ambitiously, and mostly with internal motivation. Feminine
types had a tendency to double-check knowledge while learning,
perform more thorough analysis during the learning process, and
rely on external regulation. Both those extreme types expect to
be pushed into learning by external factors, i.e. external
motivation was significantly predominant.
Lorenzo et al. (2006) describes seven basic teaching strategies
that will allow the teacher to help his/her pupils to balance out
the differences between boys and girls in instruction. Those
mainly include integrating everyday life experiences and student
interests (of both sexes) into instruction; using basic knowledge
and working with students’ existing preconcepts; an interactive
environment enhanced through cooperation and communication;
activities aimed at enhancement of students’ understanding;
activities developing key competencies in both sexes;
alternatives in discussions among groups resulting from
differences between sexes; and structuring of material and
accepting diversity in the frequency of responses of both sexes.
3 Research
The research was carried out between October and November
2017 at a secondary grammar school in Nitra (“gymnasium”).
During the research period, we analysed students’ mental
representations through concept mapping. The sample consisted
of 115 students (four classes of the second year at a four-year
secondary grammar school), of whom 49 were boys (43%) and
66 girls (57%).
Research methods and measurement of research data
The research instrument was a test of concept mapping. We
examined five parameters of operationalization: number of key
concepts in the map – PKP, frequency of concepts – FP, number
of hierarchies – PH, quality of hierarchies – KH, and consistency
– KONZ; the higher the score in any category, the better the
results. The students had to develop their concept map on a
thematic area of history (humanities).
The differences in outputs of concept maps made by boys and by
girls were assessed using profile analysis. Profile analysis is a
multi-dimensional statistical method, equivalent to a multivariate
analysis of variance (MANOVA) for repeated measurements.
The prerequisites for profile analysis is a multidimensional
normal distribution of the vector of variables in the considered
groups (boys, girls); homogeneity of variance – co-variant
matrices between groups; and linear dependency between the
variables.
Canonical correlation analysis was used to examine correlation
relevance among variables from the LSI questionnaire and
variables resulting from concept maps. Calculations were made
in the R programme (www.R-project.org), using profileR, CCA,
ggplot2, MVN, and corrgram programme packages.
Profile analysis
The research goal was to verify if there are statistically
significant differences between boys and girls when it comes to
successful mastering of a text with concept maps. The first step
was to verify whether profile analysis was an appropriate
research method.
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