While the emphasis on individual difference is a laudable approach since it focuses on the
personal knowledge of students and unique learning contexts which have been the basic
ideology running throughout this paper, it is also dangerous to eliminate gender from any
discussion about catering to the diverse needs of students. Elwood (2005) argues that
although alternative approaches to learning, teaching and assessment such as the ones
discussed in this paper are welcome alternatives when it comes to practice we must be
cautious of accepting everything as having a positive effect on boys and girls. She
continues to stress that in any alternative pedagogies or alternative assessment processes
then gender and any other equality dimensions still need to be taken into consideration.
Similarly Brickhouse (2001) also argues that “a feminist perspective on learning should
account for ways in which gender shapes learning” (p. 290). The teachers who
participated in this study are saying the exact opposite. Like Wenger (1998), the
teachers seem to be suggesting that the focus of science learning, teaching and assessment should be on the individual but it should also include social structures. The
danger with this is that although they are supporting a gender-inclusive pedagogy in
principle their classroom practices in fact continue to support the traditional dichotomies
between male and female. This is one of the limitations of the present study which
focused only on the views and perceptions of teachers and did not observe practice.
What teachers say that they are doing can actually be very different from what they
actually do in the classroom.