Gender differences in Early Childhood Education

Abstract

Although gender differences can be considered a source of inequality conside- ring the personalized education in the stage of Early Childhood Education, such differences can contribute to enriching student learning. Precisely, the fundamental objective of this study is to identify the most relevant gender differences that occur within the Early Childhood Education classroom nowadays as well as to know the possible relationship of the variables of empathy and aggressiveness with the gender of the child. Through the interview with experts and the quantitative analysis of the data obtained, the results still reflect the existence of gender differences in both the empathy and aggressiveness variables, concluding with a series of indications to get the most out of these variables or differences that we found in the Early Childhood Education classroom. Although gender differences are frequently associated with a certain negative nuance to the extent that they are considered to create inequalities, in this proposal we start from the idea that these gender differences represent an opportunity that is worth taking advantage of for the learning of children in the Early Childhood Education classroom, taking advantage of their potential. We will specifically focus on differences that occur between the different genders at this age, such as the greater capacity for empathy in girls and the greater number of aggressive behaviours in boys. The general objective of this study is to find out the role that certain gender differences play in a mixed classroom in the second year of Early Childhood Education in which boys and girls who are aged 4 and 5 years old learn together.