Education has been an important factor of all of our lives for an exceptional amount of time, but unfortunately, America has been falling behind from other nations in their education system compared to other nations (Pahlke 444). Almost all of our public schools in our country are coeducational and only handful of them are single-sex educational schools. Single-sex education should be taken into high consideration for most students to attend because of the benefits they might gain from them. It is important to look at all possible ways to try and better our education system for the benefit of the children and teenagers attending school. The most important years of schooling that provide a solid background for all students would be kindergarten through senior year of high school. It provides the basic knowledge and problem solving skills that will be utilized for most of our lives. In order to ensure that the children and teenagers today are provided with the best quality of education, we want to make sure they are engaged and focused in school and single-sex schools will be able to make that possible for students. Not only will it help our students remain focused in the classroom, it will also provide a comfortable environment for them in which they can enable themselves to learn.
Single-sex education has shown to be effective in helping students maintain their focus inside the classroom and learn better by doing so. The distraction of the other gender is not present in the classroom environment which enables the students to primarily focus on what they are learning. According to Pahlke's article titled "The effects of Single-Sex Compared With Coeducational Schooling on Mathematics and Science Achievement: Data From Korea", s...
... middle of paper ...
...having a hard time in their early educational career due to the lack of focus or lack of a comfortable environment, single-sex education should be highly considered. In order to obtain our goal, we must be willing to try these new routes of education; you never know what can happen and you just might enlighten the student in their educational course by changing the environment in which they’re learning in.
Works Cited
Pahlke, Erin, J.S. Hyde, Mertz, J.E. “Effects of Single-Sex Compared With Coeducational School on Mathematics and Science Achievement: Data From Korea.” Journal of Educational Psychology 105.2 (2013): 444-452. EBSCO 18 February 2014.
Hoffman, Bobby, B.A. Badgett, Parker, R. “The Effect of Single-Sex Instruction in a Large, Urban, At-Risk High School.” Journal of Educational Research 102.01 October 2008: 16-28. EBSCO 18 February 2014.
Single sex schools have their pros and cons. Having both sexes in the classroom could be considered a distraction where studies are not considered the main priority and that attraction are more attended to. Single sex schools
According to Leonardo Sax, the founder of the National Association for Single-Sex Public Education, “...whenever girls and boys are together, their behavior inevitably reflects the larger society in which they live” (Stanberry, 3). (1) It is a part of nature for girls and boys to socialize and get prepared for the real-world and develop skills to interact with another gender. (2) In the real-world it is conventional for both genders to work together and communicate everyday. (3) According with the journal “Forbes”, when students are separated by gender, they miss an opportunity of working together with different perspectives and developing their own, new, and unique thoughts as well as ideas (Saunders, 1). (4) Advocates often argue for schools to be a reflection of a ‘real’ world to prepare young adults for the future (Jackson, Ivinson, 15). (5) When both genders learn together, they learn from one another and benefit from absorbing various learning styles (Saunders, 4). (6)
In this paper I will use a multitude of research that shows scholarly evidence on why single sex education is harmful to one’s over all wellbeing and physiological health throughout one’s life. Single sex education is defined, as “the practice of conducting education where male and female students attend separate classes or in separate buildings or schools”(Pinzler, p. 785, 2005). The controversy over single sex education involves aspects such as its effectiveness and social ramifications of binary genders. Supports of single sex education believe that there are fewer distractions because everyone is of the same sex. Supporters also believe single sex education is also seen as a way to break down stereotypes such as women not doing well in the math and science field. They believe that single sex education helps males also break out of typical gender roles such as hyper masculinity. However, proponents believe separating girls and boys makes little to no difference in their academic achievement and is actually more harmful to your identity.
It seems that single-sex education perpetuates gender stereotypes and promotes gender bias among students (Taylor). Gender-separate education requires schools and teachers to create gender-oriented courses, facilities, and learning environment. As a result, sing-sex schools exacerbate sexist attitudes and “feelings of superiority toward women” (Guarisco). It is fair to argue that the best way to achieve gender equality is to promote rather than eliminate interaction among girls and boys. However, girls in the sex-mixed class receive less attention from teachers than boys, which may lead to gender bias. More precisely, boys always have disciplinary issues, such as interruption; teachers have to pay more attention to boys’ behaviors in order to proceed the lecture more smoothly. Girls may feel less important and supportive in male-dominated classes; boys may think that males are smarter and far superior than females. Single-sex schools can address both girls’ and boys’ issues of gender stereotypes directly and accordingly. Male students may be freer to engage in some activities they have not considered before in mixed schools. For example, boys feel pressure to follow some non-macho interests when girls stay around them; however, the all-boys schools eliminate their pressure toward gender stereotyping to pursue music, dance, and drawing. Single-sex schools would help boys explore and develop themselves. Also, girls in sex-separate schools show more confidence and power (Guarisco). They could receive full attention from teachers and express their opinions in science classes without worrying about the boys’ banter. They may realize that they are as important as boys. Hence, both girls and boys can be free from gender stereotypes and benefit from a same-sex learning
Also, teachers can focus on gender issues facing young females today, such as body concerns as well as focusing on more challenging subjects for young girls. Through studies made from various single-sex female schools, as well as the research made through comparisons to coeducational schools, the belief that single-sex school as being a bad idea is shown to be not only incorrect, but also a completely misguided belief.
Stotsky, S. "The Promise of Single-Sex Classes." EBSCO Publishing. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Jan. 2014.
It's been found that few educators are formally trained to use gender-specific teaching techniques (Stanberry, Kristin. "Single sex education: the pros and cons").
Finally, there is no one sex school is going to be right for every student. There are many advantages and disadvantages mentioned in that essay before. But it's thought all over the world that the coeducation is preferred worldwide. About 90 % of schools all over the world are stuck to co-education. Mixed-sex education has achieved higher success rate. They also graduate students who are settled emotionally and able to deal with the real society. "There are not any dominant blessings for single-sex schools on academic grounds. Studies all over the world have failed to expose any major variations.'' - Academician Alan Smothers, director of education and employment analysis at the University of Buckingham 2011.
The single-sex format creates opportunities that do not exist in the coed classroom. (Edison 1) Researchers are unaware that both genders brains function differently. This lack of knowledge may be why the real truth about single-sex education being more efficient than co-ed education has not been discovered. Some say single-sex education may be the key for a brighter generation. It shows to improve test score dramatically. The number of public schools experimenting with single sex classes is now reported to be more than 350. (Silva 130) Some research also shows that single-sex classes have a more welcoming atmosphere. Single-sex education improves grades while coed educations keep an average pace.
Single sex education is a controversial battle that will most likely continue for decades. However, research and studies have shown in multiple cases and circumstances that single sex education is an extremely important tool that should be utilized in numerous situations. Many people think that dividing students based on sex will perpetuate gender discrimination; however, this kind of education may bridge more gaps than people realize. Not only do boys and girls develop and function differently, they are distracted by one another. Eliminating distractions and making classrooms conducive to each gender and learning style will ultimately result in a tremendous incline in academic grades and student participation.
Stanberry, Kristen. "Single-sex Education: The Pros and Cons." GreatSchools. GreatSchools Inc, 2013. Web. 19 Dec. 2013.
Therefore, creates two different environments of education. In other words, single gender schools have teaching methods which can be applied more successfully on that gender only and therefore improves the quality of education for both genders. According to ( Kirshenbaum, 2007), girls seem to prefer learning in quieter place in which they work and learn together, while boys tend to learn or prefer to learn in a place which is more competitive, louder and physically active. It shows that girls gets a higher benefit from being together especially for Mathematics and Science. They feel much more comfortable about their abilities without worrying about how they look in front of boys and have more confidence to take place and participate in class discussions, while boys have much more confidence to dominate most class discussion, thus giving no chance for girls to participate in those discussions. The major problem is that teachers often call boys more than girls in Mathematics mainly. It also shows that boys get a great benefit from attending single sex schools. It is expected that a teacher of a class of boys only could adopt a teaching method that encourages boys' abilities in discussions and debates to be more direct, straight, excited at the same time. Generally, not all boys and girls are going to be relaxed in single sex classes, it would be very violent. But offering single sex classrooms especially in public schools is the simplest innovation that can be applied to offer much better quality education and improve achievements in all educational fields. Single sex education is a much better way for both genders to get the best quality and achieve the most benefits from learning in single sexed
Recently, there has been an increase in debate and research on the benefits of single-sex education. The results of the examination have been received with mixed feelings across the population as there has been a spilt between people arguing for and against the issue. Ideally, reviews of the cons and pros illustrate disagreements among experts and researchers. Promoters of co-ed education argue that: students learn to communicate with each other of different genders; boys seem to study harder to impress the girls and that such schools are more opening since students are able to view different perspectives. According to Bohm, author of “Back to School Minus the Sex Stereotypes,” students who study in mixed sex institutions tend to develop higher
Single-sex education has long been provided in educational institutions such as religious, private, and preparatory schools in a diverse range of situations, including individual classes, programs after school, required programs, voluntary programs, and programs to remedy gender inequities and encourage cultural pride
Garner, R. (2009). Why single-sex schools are bad for your health (if you're a boy). THE INDEPENDENT.