Transcript Gender Based Education - High Reliability Schools

Gender Based Education
Gender Bias
 Gender
affects the quantity and quality
of students’ communication with
teachers
 Studies consistently show that boys
have more interaction with teachers
than girls, with the difference being
greatest for disciplinary exchanges and
smallest for instructional ones
 Subject
matter can affect teachers’
treatment of boys and girls
 Studies have shown that typically, girls
have a higher percentage of academic
contact with teachers in reading, and
boys in math and science
Gender-Based Instruction
 Research
has shown that girls and boys
do not perform differently prior to the sixth
grade in the areas of math and science
 The separation in achievement in these
areas begins in middle school and
continues into high school and college and
may be significant in occupational choices
that young men and women make later in
life
Single Gender Educational
Benefits
 Research
from the Harvard School of
Education and the American Association
of University Women indicates that
instructors in coed classrooms give
more attention to boys
 Boys are called on four times more
often, asked more challenging
questions, and praised more frequently
 Researchers
confirm that by senior
year, students at single gender schools
excel beyond their coed peers in the
areas of reading, writing, and science
 Overall graduates of women’s high
schools are more satisfied with their
schools and the quality of the teaching,
more open-minded about their roles
and possibilities, and relieved of some
of the social pressures of adolescence
(Women’s Schools Together, Inc.)
Why a Girls-Only Middle School?
 The
middle-school years are a critical
transition in a girl’s life
 Conflicting messages about femininity and
achievement, peer pressure, and the need
to “fit in” often erode self-confidence and
strong self-image
 Research shows that in most coed
classrooms, both curriculum and teacher
expectations consistently favor boys,
particularly in math and science
 At
a girls-only middle school, girls
have the opportunity to receive all of
the teacher’s attention, assume all of
the leadership roles, and have greater
opportunities to participate in all
aspects of school life
Students’ Perceptions of
Gender-Based Instruction
 Girls
report feeling that they could
speak out in their all-girl classes
because they don’t need to appear
“dumb” to make the boys look good
 They also don’t feel the need to try to
impress the boys with cute remarks
 Boys also report that they feel more
focused on their studies without the
need to impress girls
Effectiveness
 Boys
and girls, when taught together,
are more interested in how they look
and appear to each other than they are
in what is being taught in the classroom
 This is classically a middle school
phenomenon and can be acutely
improved upon by gender grouping
 Since
boys and girls begin to perform
differently on standardized tests in the
areas of science and math at this stage
of their educational development, it
follows that gender based teaching may
be a vary valuable tool at the middle
school level in keeping the playing field
level
 It may not be necessary to gender
group after the middle school years, if
the structure of gender bias can be
dissolved in the middle school years