GESA gives teachers the skills and tools needed to study disparity in their interactions with students. GESA training helps teachers identify five major areas of disparity in schools and provides positive, supportive instructional and administrative strategies and practical suggestions. Although overt stereotyping is not as common as it was 20 years ago, subtler bias persists, hurting both male and female students. School districts choose potential GESA facilitators. These facilitators attend a three-day workshop given by GESA staff.
Facilitators then bring the information back to their own schools.
They set up one meeting per month for six months, working with 20 to 36 teachers. The teachers work in groups of four. After each meeting, teachers in each group observe in one another's classrooms, coding the teacher-student interactions which have been studied. Each participant will observe in their teammates' classrooms one-half day a month and be observed 30 minutes by team members. Last updated on Sat, Jul 19, 1997.