We have a tendency to adopt policies from else where and jump the gun even without putting things in place or devoid of their success report.
Holthouse (2010) spoke of the new trend to adopt a single sex school attitude or gender segregated classrooms. He reported that in 2002 only 11 public schools in the United States had gender-segregated classrooms and as of December 2009, there were more than 550.
What brought about this new wave? Well it is the age old debate about boys and girls being wired differently. Hence, the male and female brain development and function vary during childhood through adolescence, thus calling for classrooms in which boys and girls are not only separated by gender, but are also taught according to radically different methods (Holthouse, 2010).
Stakeholders just like us have mixed views. However, what does the research have to say? Various studies have found benefits for girls but not boys; benefits for boys but not girls; benefits for both girls and boys; and benefits for neither girls nor boys (Sax, 2006). Thus, it is actually a bit inconclusive.
Although, there has been no attempt to account for the variation in the results. Sax (2006) suggested that “The most obvious explanation for the variation is that merely placing girls and boys in separate classrooms accomplishes little,” he said. “For the single-sex format to lead to improvements in academic performance, teachers must understand the hard-wired differences in how girls and boys learn and incorporate the best practices for all-female classrooms and all-male classrooms.”
This point of view has led me to a new question. How does this vary from teaching to the individual needs of students which encouraged differentiated classrooms or the big issue of multiple intelligences?
References within post:
Holthouse, D. (2010). Gender segregation: Separate but effective? Teaching tolerance, 27. Retrieved from: http://www.tolerance.org/magazine/number-37-spring-2010/gender-segregation-separate-effective
Sax, L. (2006). Six degrees of separation: What teachers need to know about the emerging science of sex differences. Educational HORIZONS, Spring. Retrieved from: http://www.boysadrift.com/ed_horizons.pdf
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