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A Case for Co-education
A Case for Co-education
Academic Performance
Learning Styles
Culture
…and finally
Academic Performance
In the UK, Girls’ schools top the league tables, seeming to give legitimacy to the theory that girls at least perform better academically in a single-sex environment; statistics are cited from exam results that appear to prove this.
In 2006, HMC commissioned a study that looked at academic performance in single-sex and co-educational schools across the globe, including Australia, US, Europe and UK.
The study concluded that “half a century of research has so far revealed no striking or consistent advantages for single-sex education”.
Professor Alan Smithers: “The reason people think single-sex schools are better is because they do well in league tables. But [these schools] are generally independent, grammar or former grammar schools and they do well because of the ability and social background of the pupils… not because they are single-sex”.
In 2005 US Federal Department of Education study also concluded that there was “no evidence” to suggest pupils in single-sex schools perform better than in co-educational.
While girls on average will always achieve more highly than boys, they achieve just as highly in co-educational schools.
Professor Smithers did find, though, that “40% of people who had a single-sex education wanted their own children to go to a co-educational school”.
Learning Styles
The Girls Schools Association website speaks of ‘girl-centred learning strategies’ such as ‘calling pupils by their name and waiting for them to reply before moving onto the next pupil’.
Professor Howard Gardner developed the theory of multiple intelligences and learning styles; most pupils, it seems, have a preferred learning style.
Gardner’s research reveals that while girls tend to be stronger in linguistic, and boys in spatial intelligence, both boys and girls benefit from a variety of learning styles.
To identify girl or boy-centred learning strategies is meaningless; to separate pupils on this basis will have a negligible impact on learning.
Factors that have the biggest impact on learning are: Quality of teaching; Feedback; Thinking skills and Home encouragement – not separation by gender.
Culture
Aren’t single-sex schools gentler places?
Quite the opposite, co-educational schools can help to civilise and balance more extreme single-sex environments.
Don’t single-sex schools allow pupils to grow at their own pace and find themselves?
Young people ‘find themselves’ not by navel-gazing but in relation to others; how can they achieve this with any depth and maturity if half of the population goes unrepresented in their daily lives?
Don’t pupils get distracted by the opposite sex?
Of course they do; this is called growing up, and is part of what it means to be a human being. We should not reflect on an unspoken fear of the opposite sex – fear of otherness, of difference. Co-educated boys and girls become more emotionally mature and both are enriched by each other’s company. In co-educational schools, girls and boys soon learn to be friends and feel comfortable in each other’s company.
Aren’t pupils in single-sex schools more likely to take risks with non-traditional male and female subjects?
With positive role models of both genders on the staff, students can be inspired to do anything. And with an enlightened curriculum like the IB, where all pupils must pursue arts and sciences, this becomes a non-issue.
Do girls feel inhibited in a co-educational setting?
So long as a strong framework of pastoral care exists, with a culture that counters laddishness and sets clear boundaries, there’s no reason why either girls or boys should feel inhibited in each other’s presence.
…and finally
The point of school is to prepare students for university, work and life. In all of these, teamwork, emotional intelligence, mutual understanding and the ability to relate to others are crucial attributes. These skills are better fostered by a co-educational education that mirrors the conditions of real life.
Single-sex schooling enjoys a long and honourable tradition, but is a legacy of when men and woman enjoyed vastly different rights and expectations. Now these expectations are similar, doesn’t it make sense to educate boys and girls together? The Armed Forces, the judiciary, even the Anglican Church have seen the light.
If we want our students to be leaders in an interconnected world, they need to realise that, while we might comprise two genders, we are still one species and must learn to work together. The sooner they embrace that fact, the more likely it is our students will enjoy success in work as well as emotional well-being and happiness in life.
This report was compiled by Neil Tetly, Deputy Head of Seven Oaks School and was presented at the Independent Schools Show 2010 in Battersea, London.