'We decided to give it a twirl': single-sex teaching in English comprehensive schools

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Did teachers adopt different teaching and learning strategies for boys and girls?

Fourteen schools talked about the use of different teaching and learning strategies for boys' and girls' groups. In some cases strategies had been thought out before single sex teaching began, but more often staff were not aware of the different strategies initially and implemented them only when they had become accustomed to the different needs of each gender. For boys a long list of teaching and learning strategies emerged, including:

short structured tasks;
conducting the lesson at a quick pace;
competitive activities;
the use of writing frames to give structure to learning and writing; and
an emphasis on oral work.

There were considerably fewer strategies suggested for girls but those mentioned were:

longer tasks;
more reading and writing;
being left to get on with a task; and
cooperative activities.

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Research Home Themes \| Find digests \| About the digests resources glossary researchers contact TRIPS Introduction Why do schools introduce single sex classes? What impact did single-sex teaching have on pupils' attitudes and behaviour? How did single sex teaching affect pupils' achievement? What did teachers and pupils think about single sex teaching? When did single sex teaching work best? Did teachers adopt different teaching and learning strategies for boys and girls? How did the researchers collect their data? Implications Where can I find out more? Send us your feedback Collated digests To view/remove/add notes and save your collated digests click here Get Word Reader 'We decided to give it a twirl': single-sex teaching in English comprehensive schools This digest found in Gender Behaviour Send to a friend Word doc 50KB Printer friendly Collate for later Did teachers adopt different teaching and learning strategies for boys and girls? Fourteen schools talked about the use of different teaching and learning strategies for boys' and girls' groups. In some cases strategies had been thought out before single sex teaching began, but more often staff were not aware of the different strategies initially and implemented them only when they had become accustomed to the different needs of each gender. For boys a long list of teaching and learning strategies emerged, including: short structured tasks; conducting the lesson at a quick pace; competitive activities; the use of writing frames to give structure to learning and writing; and an emphasis on oral work. There were considerably fewer strategies suggested for girls but those mentioned were: longer tasks; more reading and writing; being left to get on with a task; and cooperative activities.