I read Shirley Malcom’s “Diversity in Physics” article ( Physics Today, June 2006, page 44) with great interest. As a physics student in college, I often marveled at just how white and male all of my classmates and professors were.

I have been teaching physics for four years in a public high school in Massachusetts, and I think I can address at least one piece of the puzzle. In my first year as a teacher, I made the classic novice error of teaching as I had learned. Apparently, this method worked great with the boys, but not so well with the girls. The disparity bothered me, since it was clear to me that the female students were more mature, just as well prepared, and as capable as the male students. Over time I observed that the boys were not very careful about the intermediate steps in their work and often rushed to a solution that they found reasonable. This brazen fearlessness benefited them, as they would often receive partial credit for sloppy work on their way to the correct final answer.

In my second year, I made a conscientious effort to teach good problem-solving techniques and to outline general methodologies for broad classes of physics problems. I found that the female students rose to the head of the class, and they have remained there ever since. My explanation, based on my experience, is that boys are trained by society to be fearless and aggressive, which empowers them to dive toward a solution even without a clear idea of what they are doing. Girls, on the other hand, frequently want to know where they are going before they start out on a physics journey. I believe that the emotive aspects of teenage boys and girls come into play in physics problem solving and reasoning.

The solution? More female high-school physics teachers will surely help, but in the meantime, let’s train the male teachers to break problems down, elucidate the steps, and make sure they are talking to everyone in the class, not just to the ones that respond to problems the same way they do. By following these methods myself, I believe I have become a better teacher for all my students, not just the girls.