In a new study about the way kids learn math in elementary school, Beilock and Levine found a surprising relationship between what female teachers think and what female students learn: If a female teacher is uncomfortable with her own math skills, then her female students are more likely to believe that boys are better than girls at math.
“If these girls keep getting math-anxious female teachers in later grades, it may create a snowball effect on their math achievement,” Levine told Science News. In other words, girls may end up learning math anxiety from their teachers. The study suggests that if these girls grow up believing that boys are better at math than girls are, then these girls may not do as well as they would have if they were more confident.
The researchers also gave the students tests to tell whether the students believed that a math superstar had to be a boy. Then the researchers turned to the teachers: To find out which teachers were anxious about math, the researchers asked the teachers how they felt at times when they came across math, such as when reading a sales receipt. A teacher who got nervous looking at the numbers on a sales receipt, for example, was probably anxious about math.
Boys, on average, were unaffected by a teacher’s anxiety. On average, girls with math-anxious teachers scored lower on the end-of-the-year math tests than other girls in the study did. Plus, on the test showing whether someone thought a math superstar had to be a boy, 20 girls showed feeling that boys would be better at math — and all of these girls had been taught by female teachers who had math anxiety.
According to surveys done before this one, college students who want to become elementary school teachers have the highest levels of anxiety about math. Plus, nine of every 10 elementary teachers are women, Levine said.
58. Which of the followings is NOT the study mentioned in the passage?
A. Girls may be bad at math because of their female teachers’ anxiety.
B. Most students tend to believe that a math superstar has to be a boy.
C. What kind of teachers is more likely to have math anxiety.
D. On average boys are also affected by a teacher’s anxiety.
59. What can you infer from the second paragraph?
A. Girls can do as well as boys if they are confident.
B. Girls are born much weaker than many boys.
C. Boys are stronger and better in math than girls.
D. Girls who are bad at math can do other things better.
60. According to the last paragraph, Levine’s imply attitude to the math teaching in elementary schools is _______.
A. hopeful B. disappointed C. worried D. content