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Do gender differences affect education
Pros and cons of separate gender schools
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When girls are asked to express their feelings, or if they feel stressed they can share this information with their teachers and friends. They can also provide details and they will look you in the eye when they are explaining their problem. Boys find it very difficult to talk about their feelings and will not give details unless they are asked specific questions. Even then they will give very little information because they do not know how to communicate what their feelings are. Boys deal with moderate stress well and may actually do better because of it. They also feel excited when faced with threat and confrontation. In school they will thrive if a teacher presents a challenge or competition within a lesson and if they do become stressed they will want to be alone when they are trying to deal with it and they will not show any emotion, so teacher may not be able to tell when boys are stressed.
When girls are separated in single sex classrooms, they had a positive attitude, they are very focused on learning, and their behavior is not a problem. However, when researchers looked at the behavioral patterns of boys, they had more fights when girls were not present. They were louder, and more boys were cheating on tests. In addition, the larger boys tended to bully the smaller boys, and the classroom was aggressive and competitive (Jackson, 2002; Gray & Wilson, 2006). Teachers in single gender classes need to enforce strict classroom rules and follow them. Successful studies with single gender boys’ classes have clear, concise, rules and there are consequences for those that chose not to follow the rules. Rewards for appropriate behavior motivated boys and it presented them with the challenge that they thrive on. Developm...
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... each lesson. The test scores will be compared between the co-educational and single gender groups. If the test scores are higher on the assessments then a final assessment will be given to confirm the findings. A bar graph is developed for each student (Appendix C) to show the progress of each individual boy in each group. The progress monitoring results will show if the math intervention was successful in the single gender group.
Each member of the math department will analyze the survey questions and answers. The survey will show if each boy enjoyed the study and the single gender classroom setting. Each parent will be given a survey (Appendix D). It would be important to the study to see if the parents had any positive or negative influence on their sons. The bar graph and student survey results will be shared with the parents at the student conferences.
There is a long history of single-sex schooling, in which males and females attend specific classes or schools only with members of their same sex. This separation of genders may be done for educational purposes or in combination with other factors, such as social interactions that occur between male and female students. There is some support for the idea that single-sex schooling can be beneficial, especially for outcomes related to academic achievement and more positive academic aspirations (Lee, 2008). Although, there are many benefits of children attending single-sex schools, evidence shows that sex segregation can also gender stereotyping and legitimizes institutional sexism (Kennedy, 2000).
When a girl broke the rules she would get a serious talk, but if a boy were to do the same thing he would get yelled at in front of his class. This is a humiliating for any student and it creates a dislike for the teacher and the school. Boys always were always pressured to appear strong by not crying if their feelings because they had the impression that men don’t cry. The boys that got yelled at for breaking the rules and not sitting in class were the boys that ended up not being able to graduate with me. A number of the boys still are not in college. I agree with Fink that boys are automatically viewed as troublesome for not being able to conform to the rules of the class but in reality the student should be approached with a different teaching
Single-gender schools can helps students achieve a better education as well as a better learning environment. This form of educational institution helps students to focus on their academics without the distractions of the other gender. Historical data from Harvard University and other institutions, suggests that single-gender schools are more beneficial to a students’ education than those of co-educational schools. (David Tyack and Elizabeth Hanslot, pg.14) Co-educational schools distract students from getting the most out of their education. The students are being distracted by the other gender, due to examples such as, sexual harassment and the inappropriate appearance and dress code of students. Single-gender schools can help teachers to gear their instruction to a specific gender, rather than generalizing it to please both genders. While co-educational schools can assist students to be interactive with the other gender, single-gender schools can be more beneficial towards a students’ education.
Sending a child to a gender based school, is a very big decision to make. The decision is so big, that looking at what research has to say about the topic could alter one’s decision to send their child to a gender based school. “Educators must apply different approaches in teaching make, and female students” (Gurian). This is said by Gurian, because he also believes that boys and girls learn differently. “Social pressures can be gentler and your child can learn at his own pace” (Kennedy).
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)
Gender equity issues are virtually ignored in most university level education classes and any strategies created to decrease gender-biased classroom behavior are basically non-existent. Most efforts to remove this problem are geared toward working teachers when the focus needs to be on the upcoming generation of teachers presently in school (Miller, 2001).
Everyone has an opinion on the learning styles of girls and boys. Lawmakers, educators, parents, and community leaders all desire to see students succeed in the academic arena and gender schooling is on the rise in public, private, charter and magnet schools. Consequently, many parents believe single-sex classes are beneficial to learning because students are free of distractions from members of the opposite sex. Single sex classes enhance opportunities for the development and refinement of leadership skills. Students are free to compete more aggressively on a single gender competitive playing field with an abandonment of prejudice and disregard for traditional stereotypical male/female identity roles. Will the implementation of
Lee, V. E., Marks, H. M., & Byrd, T. (1994). Sexism in Single-Sex and Coeducational Independent Secondary School Classrooms. Sociology of Education, 67(2), 92-120.
When people think of school classrooms, their first thought is of boys and girls together as a group of students. However, educational experts are now questioning whether it would be more beneficial for each gender, of all ages, to attend single-gender schools. Even though some experts are pro single-gender classrooms, there are others who are against this type of schooling.
Social Construction of Gender Today’s society plays a very important role in the construction of gender. Gender is a type of issue that has raised many questions over the years in defining and debating if both male and female are equal. Today, gender is constructed in four different ways. The The first way gender is defined is by the family in which a child is raised.
In female based classes the teachers are known to be more delicate and understanding, while in male classes the teachers tend to have a more authoritarian approach (Schroeder 71-73). The teachers having different ways of treating the students symbolizes the problem of sexism. Concepts such as this rise the question equality (Strauss). There is a specific example brought about by a court case in 1954: Brown v. Board of Education. It states that things can be separate but they have to be equal. Although the initial case was referring to race, the main meaning behind it still stands. All classes aren’t going to be equal if the teachers (not each individual teacher, but teachers for boys and girls) have different classroom expectations (Piechura 21). This is where the main problem falls in the case of single gender education. Parents wishing to enroll their child in school want to provide their son/daughter with an equal opportunity with a chance to thrive academically. If the teachers aren’t giving each boys and girls the same shot is it actually worth it? Yes. The teachers classroom expectations are built to match the needs of the gender, not the opposite
Women, Girls, Boys and Men today face a variety of different issues in contemporary american society. Many of the problems that they face are regarding gender and cultural issues. Today we say that both genders are equal but in reality they are really not. We have both girls and both falling behind in school because of these cultural issues. According to David Brooks article titled “Honor Code,” the reason why boys especially, are falling behind in education is because of the way the education system is set-up. He states that schools today proclaim that they are diverse, but in fact they have become “homogeneous,” they only cater to students who are “nurturing, collaborative, disciplined, neat, studious, industrious and ambitious.” He says that those who do not fit in with those categories are left behind, they become disconnected and eventually withdraw completely from their education. It has become a huge problem in the U.S, where colleges are lowering their admission standards just so they can admit more men. Mr. Brooks says the problems with boys is that they are naturally aggres...
This problem occurs in schools everywhere and is starting to become more evident in today's society. The problem is that boys and girls learning potential are not being reached when put into the same teaching atmosphere. Girls seem to be out smarting boys in many classes. While boys excel in math and sciences and girls seem to be better in English. The styles in which boys and girls feel comfortable with are extremely different. The learning styles of girls usually contain socializing and context. For instance, most girls like to talk in small groups about the current discussion. They also like hands on activities or real life situations to compare things to. Boys are confrontational and formal. They need to be challenged by their teachers to help motivate them to become better students and be prepared. In contrast girls do not like to be confronted by teachers who are asking for an immediate answers. In most cases, girls seem to be more reserved and modest than boys about their intelligence ("What are someÉ) are. Their differences may not seem evident but make a difference to reaching their highest learning potential.
Society’s outlook on people in general changes constantly. Gender does not exist naturally but involves socialization and learned ideals and behaviors. Each individual becomes accustomed to their gender roles based upon expectations of society regarding what is and is not acceptable or proper behavior for men or women. Those within our social circle, family, friends, teachers, religious organizations, location, and even the media, all contribute to the social process of accepting one's gender role within society. Especially in today's society, both men and women are restricted in terms of their gender and how they can act physically, mentally, and emotionally without being judged or ridiculed. So, to me, that raises the question, are men more restricted than women? In some ways I believe that they are. However, I believe there are ways women are restricted just as much as men.
In order to move forward with equality we must avoid any option that will create gender stereotyping. When teachers believe that boys and girls need to be taught differently, they can end up reinforcing gender stereotypes instead of fighting them. This is a problem that we can easily fix by teaching our teachers that students are more alike than different and that they must be treated like that. When teachers try and say that genders learn differently and need to be split up because of it I don’t understand at all why that would help gender discrimination. Kristin Maschka talks in her article, “Single-Sex Schools and Gender Stereotypes,” about discrimination problems. Maschka speaks her mind about the problems that single-gender schools can cause on our youth. She writes, “Can you imagine anyone today advocating in earnest for public schools or classrooms to be segregated by race? By sexual orientation? By socio-economic status? Why are we okay with segregating by gender?” to show how important this problem is (Maschka). It does no good to separate genders. Separating genders will cause nothing but more division between the genders. In a study they found that there is no evidence of single-gender schools succeeding simply because it is divided by gender. But, they did find that separating students legitimizes institutionalized sexism