Mindful Learning: A Moderator of Gender Differences in Mathematics Performance

Past research has demonstrated that males outperform females in mathematics (Hyde, J. S., Fennema, E., & Lamon, S. J., Psychol Bull 107:139–155, 1990a). Research has also shown that encouraging mindful learning–learning information in a conditional rather than an absolute way–can increase mathematics performance in females (Ritchhart, R., & Perkins, D. N., J Social Issues 56:27–47, 2000). This paper examines the moderating role of mindful learning for gender differences, by manipulating mindful learning for females’ and males’ performance on a novel math task. The results from this study show that males performed better than females when mindful learning was not encouraged (absolute instruction), but males and females performed equally well when mindful learning was encouraged (conditional instruction). Thus we find that mindful learning moderates gender differences in math performance.