Single-sex teaching in a co-educational comprehensive school in England: an evaluation based upon students' performance and classroom interactions
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Gender
What did the attitude to single-sex teaching within the school show?
Most teachers, students and parents considered single-sex groupings to provide a good environment for learning with the benefits significantly outweighing the costs. Girls were more convinced of this than boys.
In single sex classrooms there was little evidence that girls missed having boys in the class, or boys missed having girls. Arguments in other research that men and boys preferred single sex education because it removed the pressure to indulge in 'peacock behaviour' and allowed opportunities for male bravado and bonding, were not sustained by observations at this school, either in single-sex or mixed classes. Girls' classrooms were perceived by both staff and girls as "pleasant and safe places" for them, offering great benefits. However the atmosphere in the boys' classrooms was not significantly different. There was little evidence to suggest that the gender of the teacher was an important influence on children's behaviour.
A significant feature of the mixed classes was the dominance by girls which "simply did not allow this environment for learning to be disturbed by off-task boys' interventions." Although, the authors point out, this can be seen positively as the girls having gained confidence and assurance by their single-sex education, it can also be seen negatively as suggesting that "some boys were overawed and dominated by the girls in year 10 classes; were much less involved in lessons, and appeared to achieve less well as a result." There was little evidence that single-sex classes had enabled the school to provide a different curriculum for girls and boys.
