| Abstract: | Discusses the influence of gender characteristics of instructional materials on children. Recent reviews indicate that most instructional materials are still sexist. Definitions of sexist and sex equitable that incorporate both language form and gender content are included in the present article. Generalizations synthesized from research regarding the effects of gender characteristics of instructional materials on students are presented. It is suggested that the following generalizations apply to students from preschool through college age: (1) The use of gender-specified language forms explicitly including both sexes yields gender-balanced associations, while use of male generic language frequently results in male associations. (2) Exposure to sex-equitable materials results in more flexible sex role attitudes for both males and females, with degree of attitude change being directly related to the amount of exposure. (3) Students often prefer materials with same-sex main characters but do not reject sex-equitable materials. (4) The patterns for comprehension are not as clear, but sex-equitable materials do not decrease comprehension. (63 ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved) |
