IELTS Naturally | Free Demo

Explore

IELTS Naturally | Free Demo

FREE! Girls in STEM | Gender disparity in education. Problem and Solution | Teacher’s Notes

Flipped Homework

Read the essay question. Then watch the video and make a list of ideas you can use for this essay:

In most science courses at university, there are significantly more male students than female students. What is the reason for this? What could be done to balance out the numbers?

Are Women Bad At Math?

⁠

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqLz5WGITjc⁠

⁠

transcript⁠

⁠

You can also take note of any interesting new vocabulary (5-8 expressions) you’d like to use in our discussion in class. Make sure you’re writing down whole collocations (chunks). For example: science-based careers are dominated by men

Read the two essays and answer the questions:

⁠

Problem & Solution. Cause & Effect⁠

⁠

The point of flipped homework on this course is to get Ss to mine for specific ideas in the sources we’ll be assigning - which is why we give them the prompt first, and then ask them to work with the source. You may want to explain it to them so they’re more intentional as they watch or read the source. We’ll also be asking them to read the sample essays at home to save class time. This course only uses IELTS Liz samples because they’re not bad, but also not perfect with a view to achieve the following goals:

debunk the idea of ‘a sample’ in Ss’ minds so that they stop looking for a perfect, one-size-fits-all solution for all essay questions they’ll have to deal with;

so that we could critically assess the samples in class and draw some initial conclusions about some of the essay’s structural elements (in this case - the thesis statement) or talk about the difference between strong and weak arguments, overgeneralization (if children do sports at school, their families will also do sports), etc (because Liz’s essays conveniently feature instances of these common IELTS errors).

Here’s some extra reading you may want to do before the class to be able to ask some advanced follow-ups on the topic of gender disparity in education and workplace. The first one is a ridiculously sexist, holier-than-thou article that gets it terribly wrong from the standpoint of IELTS (and common sense) because it implies that women in STEM choose to have victim mentality. It also uses false equivalence, which is one of the deadly sins of writing (it suggests that a male teacher essentially has the same experience as a female scientist and ignores a lot of the underlying factors of how differently the outliers (in this case - people of different genders) are perceived and treated in male- and female-dominated fields). You can use this article with really advanced students to talk about the nature of poor arguments :)

⁠

I’m a Male Teacher Surrounded by Women. But Please Don’t Call Me a Victim of Sexism⁠

⁠

There is also a mention of quotas - something that IELTS is curiously quite interested in. Here’s a topic that usually proves to be really challenging for most Ss:

Many high-level position in companies are filled by men even though the workforce in many developed countries is more than 50 percent female. Companies should be required to allocate a certain percentage of these positions to women. To what extent do you agree or disagree?

and an article that has some really great ideas for it:

⁠

https://www.businessnewsdaily.com/4178-gender-gap-workplace.html⁠

⁠

Facing the Gender Gap in the Workplace⁠

⁠

Pro tip: we should disagree that companies should be required to use quotas to hire more women, and argue in favor of other ways for companies to hire and retain female employees, so that they could get promoted to those top positions (this is a Best Way essay - more on that later!).

90 min (relatively fast-paced)

2 min

What are we going to do today?

In today’s class we are going to:

discuss the stereotypes around girls’ academic abilities and look for solutions to gender imbalance in education

work with ideas and topic-specific vocabulary from the video

learn how to plan and write a good Problem & Solution / Cause & Effect essay

brainstorm ideas for an essay on the topic of gender disparity in education and answer some Speaking pt. 3 questions

At the beginning of the class, I like to give Ss a brief overview of what we’re going to do - this helps remove the cognitive challenge of uncertainty, and give them a sense of control (and maybe something to look forward to). You may want to talk them through it or just ask them to read this section to themselves. I sometimes also ask Ss at this stage about how they felt about the source / the topic to set the mood for the discussion that’s about to follow.

8 min

Warm up

Are you good or bad at Math? Why do you think that is? How has it affected your adult life?

Is it true that boys are generally better at Math than girls? Talk about your experience and observations.

What is the problem with labeling certain areas of knowledge as ‘feminine subjects’ and ‘masculine subjects’?

The point of this stage is to refer to Ss’ actual lived experience. This discussion should be quite informal at first, and become more neutral as you progress to question 3. In the first class of the course, you may ask Ss to reflect on this to explain to them what this part of Writing Task 2 questions means: …include any relevant examples from your knowledge and experience. This sounds a bit confusing when Ss learn that they cannot write things like ‘when I was in high school, I was better at Math than most boys’ in their essays. We can use this warm up activity to teach them about abstraction (making points that would hold true for a big group of people) - for example, you can’t say ‘I personally did this and that’, but you can say - ‘most young professionals / young women these days’, and the same goes for their observations on boys’ and girls’ aptitude for Math. In question 3, try to guide them towards making the following points:

this perpetuates stereotyping and exclusion;

children of different genders are discouraged from exploring different areas of knowledge and this reflects negatively on their self-development and future career opportunities;

this leads to different areas being dominated by either men or women, which in the long run means that there’s no dialogue, no collaboration and no innovation that would have been the result of different perspectives converging.

20 min

Let’s discuss!

Why Are Women Bad at Math?

⁠

transcript⁠

⁠

Are they? :) What really is different about boys’ and girls’ experience in Math classes at school?

What made this stereotyping pervasive?

⁠

MV5BMzU1MzAyNzUtY2FlZi00YTg1LTg2OGQtZjZjYzg3YWVlNGMyXkEyXkFqcGdeQW1yb2Njbw@@._V1_.jpg

⁠

Why do you think the notions of raw, effortless brilliance and sustained hard work ascribed to girls and not boys? What is the consequence of this?

Why do women leave or never enter the STEM field after getting a degree?

What needs to be done to improve the situation? Who stands to gain from helping more women participate in STEM?

Here are some quotes from the video with target vocabulary that you may want to throw in as you go through the questions:

What is different though is that girls express far higher anxiety levels about their math's performance. This is a result of girls getting influenced by societal notions reinforced by their teachers, peers and parents that they don't have a natural inclination or talent for math and science, usually regarded as boys' subjects.

This stereotyping of men being naturally more gifted at math and science is pervasive. For the longest time, popular culture reinforced the trope of the genius scientist who is usually male, white and disheveled.

A 2016 study found that people were more likely to ascribe light bulb moments of genius or effortless brilliance to male scientists, while they were more likely to attribute women scientists' success to sustained hard work. + lack of role models and visibility + higher expectations of ‘normalcy’ and ‘decency’ placed on women + consequence: ‘boys get away with more’ - the perpetuation of misogyny and discrimination against women; an uneven playing field where girls have to face unfair competition and put in disproportionate effort to be on a par with boys* *Note that this may not be your Ss actual experience - I’ve had many female Ss tell me they’ve never been discriminated against in their lives. This is actually amazing, and I always celebrate it with them because it means we have been making progress as a society after all :) At the same time, IELTS wants us to solve problems, so we can’t afford to say that something is not an issue anymore. Feminism has made some great strides, but regression is still possible (some troubling examples are the

tradwives trend ⁠

or the abortion ban in the US and some European countries), so we should be vocal about these concerns. This is a common objection among Ss (especially those who are more conservative), so you may want to talk to them about at some point at the beginning of the course. 4. But it's not like women haven't been successful when they've pursued science and math, just that society has often failed to recognize their successes. Think Rosalind Franklin with the double helix, Margaret Knight, who invented the paper bag machine, and Ada Lovelace's computer programming findings. And unfortunately, a hypermasculine hostile environment is the reality in STEM fields even today. For female students, not only is there a lack of role models, but they're far more likely to be subjected to harassment or bullying from their fellow students and faculty. Even in countries like the US and Australia that have managed to increase women's enrollment in STEM subjects in college, work cultures often make them feel like they don't belong. For instance, despite women getting higher grades in engineering courses than men, 40% of American women with engineering degrees either leave or never enter the field. But women around the world are beginning to question these biases that are keeping us out of STEM. 5. To be able to create a scientific culture that is truly robust and expansive, we need to rethink how we conceive of scientific aptitude. Because it's not just bad for gender equality, but also for science itself. Scholars point out that as more women have entered fields like medicine, biology, primatology, it has actually expanded the general knowledge created in these fields, impacting not just what scientists choose to study, but the methodology they use to study it. So let's commit to making scientific inquiry and practice more inclusive, because science and society only stand to gain from it.

25 min

Vocabulary: Gender Disparity in Education

Topic-Specific Vocabulary

Use the vocabulary in the toggle below (click on the arrow to open it) to paraphrase the expressions in bold. You may need to change the structure of the sentence: For example:

enrollment

Even in countries like the US and Australia that have managed to get more girls to study Math and Science > increase women's enrollment in STEM subjects in college, work cultures often make them feel like they don't belong.

Tell Ss that you’re now going to look at some vocabulary that they may want to use in their essays and Speaking pt. 3 answers. Go through the example sentence together and ask Ss about the difference between the original phrasing and the paraphrased part. The answer is that the former is more informal and spoken and the latter is more formal and written.

Throughout the course, keep asking these questions - is it formal or informal? Would you say this or write this? even if the answer seems fairly obvious. It may not be obvious to your students, and even if they’re advanced enough to know the difference in theory, they need to increase their awareness of register and style because this is actually a huge contributor to the Lexical Resource score, and look at many different instances of formal and informal language to be able to use both variations appropriately.

There are some expressions you don’t need.

the word box

frame

pursue

perceive

reinforced by

dominated by

subjected to

bias

inclination

performance

Explain that in the word box, the words from different parts of speech are color-coded for the Ss’ convenience - verbs are red, past participles are purple, nouns are green. Give Ss some time to work with the exercise individually. If you don’t want them to see the answers yet, don’t forget to delete the answer key from the class’ page.

Experiments have shown that men and women see women as being worse at math.

Even today, there are so many more men in math-based careers. 85% of engineers in the world are men. Around 75% of people in the data and the industry are also men.

This stereotyping of men being naturally more gifted at math and science is pervasive. For the longest time, the trope of the genius scientist who usually male, white and disheveled has been supported by popular culture.

Girls express far higher anxiety levels about their Math tests. This is a result of girls getting influenced by societal notions reinforced by their teachers, peers and parents that they are naturally bad at Math and Science, usually regarded as boys' subjects.

But it's not like women haven't been successful when they've tried to build a career in science and math, just that society has often failed to recognize their successes.

the answer key

perceive (women see>perceive women as being worse at math)

dominated by (math based careers remain dominated by men)

reinforced by (the trope of the genius scientist who usually male, white and disheveled has been reinforced by popular culture)

inclination (they don't have a natural inclination or talent for math and science)

pursue (they've pursued science and math)

perceive (women see>perceive women as being worse at math)

dominated by (math based careers remain dominated by men)

reinforced by (the trope of the genius scientist who usually male, white and disheveled has been reinforced by popular culture)

inclination (they don't have a natural inclination or talent for math and science)

pursue (they've pursued science and math)

Pro tip: the odd one out.

Adding one extra option to the word box in gapfill exercises has the obvious benefit of getting Ss to still make a choice even when there’s only gap left. The other way in which we can use this extra item is ask questions about it with a view to increase Ss’ awareness of language. When I choose the extra word, I try to make sure that I’ll be able to ask Ss to compare it with the other items on the list, so it needs to be sufficiently similar to a few other options, but different enough so we could discuss shades of meaning or connotation.

Vocabulary questions

The purpose of this part of the exercise is to increase Ss’ awareness of language and improve their accuracy. Encourage Ss to suggest options and accept all answers (type them all down) and then give Ss more examples to help them arrive at the correct answers.

After you’ve checked all the answers in the exercise, you can ask Ss the following questions. Pro tip: Type the words and collocations you’re discussing in this part - when something is emerging on the workspace as we speak (as opposed to it being a part of the exercise that was there to begin with), it helps Ss focus on these items more.

What is the difference between perceive and frame? What about perceive and regard (for example, Math is usually regarded as ‘boys’’ subject)?

the answer

Perceive is about the way we think about something / view something. It also has an element of ‘sensing’ something, so it tends to be more subjective, irrational or inaccurate (Experiments have shown that men and women perceive women as being worse at Math. - it’s a prejudice, a feeling rather than a fact that’s borne out by statistics). Perception could also be influenced by external factors - media, peer pressure, upbringing.

https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/156537/what-is-the-difference-between-comprehend-and-perceive⁠

Frame, on the other hand, is more intentional - it’s about how we choose to view and present something (for example: As overachievers, we need to reframe our idea of productivity and success = find a new definition, choose a different label). An example from the video: When we frame this raw brilliance as a male characteristic (=choose to assign this label to men and not women), society subtly reinforces the notion that women can't be pioneers in these fields where genius is required.

https://ell.stackexchange.com/questions/301949/frame-someone-vs-set-someone-up⁠

- another meaning of ‘frame’ that you might get asked about. Regard is the most neutral of the three. It just means that people generally have an opinion about something (that we learn about from surveys or by observation). It is interchangeable with ‘view’ and ‘see’ (This is a result of girls getting influenced by societal notions reinforced by their teachers, peers and parents that they don't have a natural inclination or talent for math and science, usually regarded as boys' subjects.)

https://forum.wordreference.com/threads/consider-regard-as-view-as-see-as-perceive-as.3332009/⁠

* Neutrality is actually a really important component of register that we need to teach Ss to identify. From the standpoint of style (academic writing), IELTS expects us to sound neutral because it contributes to clarity and objectivity (this is why I always ask to omit modifiers like ‘I absolutely / strongly disagree’). Emotive, strong and subjective vocabulary is a feature of publicistic style (magazine articles, opinion pieces), so it’s just not a good fit for IELTS Academic, and you might need to prepare for the fact that your Ss will probably be disappointed and reluctant to let go of the ‘advanced’ items (like ‘undoubtedly’) they’ve spent so much time learning. It might also be a good idea to ask Ss to compare these 2 Russian verbs and explain the difference: воспринимать (the focus is on the internal) vs. относиться (the focus is on the external) (perceive vs. regard) Definitions and examples from Cambridge Dictionary:

perceive -

⁠

think⁠

of something in a

particular⁠

way:

The way

people⁠

perceive the

real⁠

world⁠

strongly⁠

influenced⁠

by the

language⁠

they

speak⁠

In those

days⁠

crime⁠

wasn’t

even⁠

perceived as a

problem⁠

. or

notice⁠

something or someone by using

sight⁠

sound⁠

touch⁠

taste⁠

, or

smell⁠

I perceived something

moving⁠

in the

shadows⁠

frame -

present⁠

describe⁠

something in a

particular⁠

way:

be framed as The

smoking⁠

ban⁠

was framed as a way to

protect⁠

workers⁠

from secondhand

smoke⁠

It is

easy⁠

, but not

helpful⁠

, to frame this

situation⁠

as "us against them".

suggested⁠

framing the

issue⁠

positively⁠

regard -

consider⁠

or have an

opinion⁠

about something or someone:

Environmentalists regard GM

technology⁠

with

suspicion⁠

Her

parents⁠

always regarded her as the

smartest⁠

their⁠

children⁠

He is

generally⁠

widely⁠

regarded as the

father⁠

international⁠

law⁠

What are some other things (notions, stereotypes) that are reinforced by media and popular culture these days?

the answer

for example: stereotypical notions of female beauty reinforced by pop culture / ads / social media; that all immigrants are lazy / dangerous Other collocations with reinforce: a feeling, a narrative, a belief

What is the difference between subjected to and subject to?

the answer

subject to / subjected to

“I was told I could board the airplane subject to a security scan.”

“At the airport I was subjected to a humiliating search.”

Does it help you to distinguish between these expressions to know that “subject” in the first example is an adverb and “subjected” in the second example is a verb? Didn’t think so.

Although these two expressions can sometimes be switched with only a slight change in meaning, they are not equivalent. To be subjected to some sort of treatment is to actually be treated in that way, usually in an objectionable way.

But to be subject to a regulation, to taxes, to discussion, to inspection, to any sort of condition, is to be liable to it. In some contexts, the conditional action is mandatory: “Shipment will be made subject to approval of your charge card.” In others, the conditional action may be theoretical, not uniformly enforced: “This Web page is subject to change.” Many people mistakenly use “subjected to” in this sort of context.

https://brians.wsu.edu/2016/05/31/subject-to-subjected-to/⁠

https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/45761/to-be-subject-to-vs-to-be-subjected-to⁠

⁠

What are some synonyms for have an inclination for?

the answer

have a predisposition for / be predisposed to

be prone to

be more likely to (note that this is more about statistics than someone’s nature that drives to act in a certain way) *This could also be a good point to ask whether ‘be inclined to’ is a good way to paraphrase the expression ‘have the inclination for’. The answer is yes because changing the part of speech is enough, and it’s usually a lot better than over-paraphrasing (using a more remote synonym inaccurately; in this case it could be saying something like - ‘their brains are wired differently’ because it would be too informal for an essay).

15 min

IELTS Writing Task 2: Essay Structure

Problem & Solution / Cause & Effect Essays: The Deceptive Ease

What is the difference between the two essay questions? What do these essays ask us to talk about?

An increasing number of professionals, such as doctors and teachers, are leaving their own poorer countries to work in developed countries. What problems does this cause? What can be done to deal with this situation?

Many offenders commit more crimes after serving their first punishment. Why is this happening, and what measures can be taken to tackle this problem?

Ss will have read both Liz’s essays at home and answered the questions.

For some Ss, the difference between the cause and effect questions will be fairly obvious, but others might struggle. This is usually because the mental priming that they come to an exam class with is: ‘It cannot be that simple’. To help them stop overthinking it, It might be a good idea to ask them to look at several Problem / Solution questions in a row and identify whether the essay ask us to talk about what came before or what happened after (I sometimes draw a scale to make it more obvious) BEFORE |___<THE PROBLEM>___| AFTER

Why is this happening? > what led to it? = BEFORE

What problems does this cause? > what are the consequences? = AFTER

Problem / Solution | Cause / Effect essay questions

Cause / Problem / Solution IELTS Essay Topics

The increase in the number of privately-owned cars is having a negative impact on both our towns and the environment. What can individuals and the government do to reduce this problem?

Many people play sport when they are young, but then stop when they become adults. Why do so many adults stop doing physical exercise? What can be done to solve this problem?

Fewer people today visit museums than in the past. Why is this? What can be done to encourage more people to visit museums in the future?

Many animals today are being hunted to the point of extinction. What can be done to tackle this problem?

In many countries today, the average weight of people is increasing. What has led to this situation? What can be done to solve it?

Global warming is one of the most serious issues facing the world today. What are some of the causes of global warming? What can governments and individuals do to solve the problem?

The gap between the rich and poor is growing. What difficulties does this cause? How can these problems be overcome?

More people are stressed today than ever before. What are the causes of this stress? What can be done to address this problem?

Many young people today are leaving their homes in the countryside to move to cities. Why is this happening? What can be done to encourage young people to stay in rural areas?

Many people today are choosing to stay in rented apartments rather than hotels when they travel. What led to this change? What problems could it cause the travel industry?

Children today spend a lot of time on social media. What potential problems could this cause and how could they be addressed?

Many young people today will never be able to afford to buy a house. What has led to this situation? What can be done to remedy it?

In many countries, the tradition of having family meals together is disappearing. Why is this happening? What will the effects of this be on the family and society?

Nowadays we are producing more and more rubbish. Why do you think this is happening? What can the government do to help reduce this amount of rubbish produced?

In many countries, the level of crime is increasing. What do you think are the main causes of crime? How can we deal with those causes?

People today are spending more and more time outside of the home. What are the reasons for this trend? What effects is it having on individuals and society?

In spite of the advances made in agriculture, many people around the world still go hungry. Why is this the case? What can be done about this problem?

People today know fewer of their neighbours than in the past. Why is this? What can be done to solve this problem?

The quality of life in many large cities is currently becoming worse. Why is this? What measures can be introduced to tackle this issue?

Many people have jobs that involve working shifts (i.e. working at night). What are some of the problems that shift workers might face? What can be done to solve them?

https://blog.myieltsclassroom.com/100-ielts-essay-topics/⁠

⁠

Tell Ss that sometimes there are hybrid variations, and they could be asked to talk about all 3 - causes, effects and solutions. Ask them what would paragraphing look like in this case (BP1 - causes and effects; BP2 - solutions; I’d discourage Ss from planning 3 paragraphs because this might be unrealistic under the exam circumstances).

Answer the questions:

Does the writer express their position in the essay (how they feel about the situation)?

The answers are:

No - this type of essay does not ask for our opinion. Point out that there are no personal pronouns in the essay question (’do you agree or disagree’ / ‘give your own opinion’) and we are not asked to make a choice (’positive or negative’ / ‘do the advantages outweigh’).

What information does the writer include in the introduction?

Just the information from the essay question (there is no ‘background statement’ and I always advise against them, especially when working with less confident Ss because it just leads to them answering a whole different question) and a short ‘table of contents’ (thesis statement) - some key specifics of what is going to be addressed in the body paragraphs. *Ask Ss - “Is it okay if I write - ‘This essay will look at some problems and suggest some solutions?’” The answer is no because the rule of thumb is - If we remove the sentence and nothing changes about the essay, it means that this sentence didn’t add anything and we should’t include it. Always remind them to include the key ideas / specifics in the thesis statements. It’s a very easy way to boost coherence and help Ss stay on topic.

What goes into each of the two body paragraphs?

Each of the body paragraphs answer the respective question in the prompt. Ask Ss - ‘Can I change the order of the paragraphs? What happens?’ The answer is no because it will disrupt coherence (logically, solutions can only come last).

How many different ideas are there in each body paragraph?

Ideally, there should be 2 sufficiently distinct ideas in each body paragraph (one effective solution… another possible answer; firstly, the reason for… secondly,… is also owing to…). Ss usually struggle with producing different ideas at first, so when you first teach them to brainstorm, something that you might see them do is expand on the same idea and view it as 2 different ideas. Explain that it’s also a useful skill, but they should try and widen their perspective. Tell Ss that the ideas (for example, the solutions) should come from different areas of life / should concern different groups of people. Some common ways to diversify ideas are: what can the individuals do + what can the governments do; family + society; individuals + environment / animals.

What information is given in the conclusion?

No new information! Russian speakers usually struggle with conclusions because they feel that it’s pointless or redundant to just be repeating the exact same ideas (so they either write a new body paragraph that starts with ‘In conclusion’, or sometimes even skip it altogether). Another common error is using sophisticated cohesive devices like ‘To reiterate’ or not using any signposting. It is at this point that you can refer your Ss back to the intro class where you talked about cohesive devices and how they shouldn’t ‘attract attention’. Ideally, the conclusion should address all the key ideas from both paragraphs. This is why it’s also important to mention them in the thesis statement - this way, we can build structural coherence, where these motives tie the essay together and make it easy to read and comprehend. Your Russian-speaking Ss may also worry about repetition because they’ve been taught not to ‘use the same word twice’ at school. Explain that in English repetition actually promotes coherence, especially when it comes to the key words (and that overparaphrasing is actually a lot worse than repeating the same word twice if it’s the best possible choice for the context). For example, we could use the word ‘ penitentiary’ instead of the word ‘prison’, but ‘dungeon’ or ‘up the river’ would just sound comical.

Write a plan for a Problem & Solution / Cause & Effect Essay:

Ask Ss to type up the plan for the essays you’ve discussed. They need to learn how to do it because every other essay practice on this course will start with this step: mapping out the plan of the essays and what should go into each body paragraph. Let them experiment with what the plan is going to look like, but try to get them to make it look like this: BP1: REASONS WHY: 1 no rehab; 2 can’t find a job BP2: SOLUTIONS: 1 retrain and gain new skills; 2 supervision Some Ss genuinely think that planning is a waste of time ( ’But I only have 40 minutes!’). Explain that having a plan actually helps save time and ensure that they stay on track and don’t start repeating the same ideas (which is different from repeating words), or picking an idea that they wouldn’t know how to develop.

Problem & Solution / Cause & Effect Essay Structure

o. Introduction:

Paraphrase the general topic + address all parts of the prompt specifically (NEVER: “This essay will look at some causes and give some solutions”)

Body Paragraph 1: Problems OR Causes (at least 2 DIFFERENT ideas)

1) Topic sentence = State what the problem is

2) Explain = so what does it mean? why?

3) Example (optional!)

4) Circle-back to the topic sentence (So this is why…)

Body Paragraph 2: Solutions OR Effects (at least 2)

1) Topic sentence = Suggest a solution

2) Explain = how will this work?

3) Example (optional!)

4) Evaluate the efficiency of the suggested solutions (how easy or difficult would they be to implement; who will benefit from these solutions)

Conclusion:

summarize the main points (from both paragraphs)

do NOT introduce any new ideas

(optional) give a projection for the future

When you’re happy with how their plan turned out, take a look at the essay blueprint together. Ideally, talk them through each stage in the plan (even though it may seem obvious to you at this point) - they should have your voice follow them like a mantra when they enter the exam room, so no amount of repetition is too much in this context :)

20 min

Let’s write!

Planning the Essay

See if you can use the ideas from the video (as well as your own academic experience and our discussion today) to brainstorm ideas for the following essay:

In most science courses at university, there are significantly more male students than female students. What is the reason for this? What could be done to balance out the numbers?

Tell Ss that you now have all the ingredients for a good essay - you know what to talk about and how to do it.

Ask them to look at the essay topic and identify the key words -

who exactly are we talking about? Can we talk about how many men and women are employed by different companies? (No - this essay question is about education and university students and we are asked about reasons, not consequences - why don’t girls enroll, not why aren’t there more women in STEM)

what is the most important key word in the question? (significantly more male students than female students) - the key motif of this essay is comparison, so we should keep referring to it as we make our arguments

Ask Ss where they would place this essay on the before / after scale (if they struggled with this to begin with) - is it a ‘why’ or a ‘so what’ essay?

Now ask them to create a plan a brainstorm ideas - it should look like the plan they made in the previous part of the class.

BP1 REASONS WHY:

BP2 SOLUTIONS:

These are some ideas from the video you can remind Ss about if they’re struggling:

BP1 WHY

1) Girls are discouraged from enrolling in science courses at university because they had a negative experience with this subject at school.

What is different though is that girls express far higher anxiety levels about their math's performance. This is a result of girls getting influenced by societal notions reinforced by their teachers, peers and parents that they don't have a natural inclination or talent for math and science, usually regarded as boys' subjects.

2) Boys, on the other hand > this is the comparison that the essay question implied feel more confident and empowered by the role models they see in popular culture.

This stereotyping of men being naturally more gifted at math and science is pervasive. For the longest time, popular culture reinforced the trope of the genius scientist who is usually male, white and disheveled. A 2016 study found that people were more likely to ascribe light bulb moments of genius or effortless brilliance to male scientists, while they were more likely to attribute women scientists' success to sustained hard work.

BP2 SOLUTIONS:

At this point, Ss might suggest introducing quotas - requiring that universities accept a certain percentage of female students to science courses. If it happens, you can draw on the ideas from the article attached at the top of these Teacher’s Notes (the one about companies hiring a set percentage of female candidates) - get Ss to challenge this solution and talk about the way it breeds frustration and bullying (both girls and boys would be made to feel like girls were given an unfair privilege over boys and this would put a strain on their relationship and this may ultimately discourage girls from participating). At the same time, in some essays it’s quite challenging to come up with 2 different, original ideas, so you can teach your Ss a little trick here: they can use a flawed solution and comment on it critically: While this approach could help more female students enroll in science courses / increase female enrollment in science courses, the drawback is that…

Other options are: 1) start early - introduce a policy that would require teachers to use more neutral descriptors in Math classes (avoid giving labels like ‘gifted’ and ‘hard-working’) and try create a level playing field for children of both genders; encourage girls to participate in lab activities and science fairs

2) a change in culture - if girls see more positive role models (for example, in films like

Hidden Figures⁠

where the plot revolves around female scientists) in popular culture and social media, this may gradually change their perception of themselves as being ‘naturally inept’ at science; if more boys are exposed to the same content, the image of a female scientist working alongside male colleagues will also become the default for them. If we use this idea, we could talk about visibility of female scientists, ways to give them a platform and uplift them as a community.

This part from the article could serve as a nice circle-back (the concluding sentence of a paragraph) in BP2 (solutions):

Diversity means collaboration and innovation. Everybody stands to benefit from a diverse scientific community = this is one of the major liberal values that IELTS uphold and expects us to share.

To be able to create a scientific culture that is truly robust and expansive, we need to rethink how we conceive of scientific aptitude. Because it's not just bad for gender equality, but also for science itself. Scholars point out that as more women have entered fields like medicine, biology, primatology, it has actually expanded the general knowledge created in these fields, impacting not just what scientists choose to study, but the methodology they use to study it.

Bad ideas for this essay:

talk about the fact that girls are actually better than boys at Math

talk about the girls’ soft skills that make them better students / better employees

talk about other subjects that girls are better at (Humanities) = off topic

write a whole paragraph about equal rights and feminism = too general

Want to print your doc?
This is not the way.

Try clicking the ⋯ next to your doc name or using a keyboard shortcut (

CtrlP

) instead.