Single Sex Education Ensures Equality
I was very interested to hear that single sex education can give both sexes an equal start in life. Educationalist Dr Leonard Sax happened to be in New Zealand (where I live) visiting in his role as executive director of the National Association for Single Sex Public Education. He gave an interview on New Zealand National Radio which I listened to as I drove to a meeting on education and training for the eighteen to twenty five age group - an area of concern for us in education, as numbers of men are trailing far behind numbers of women.
Dr Sax argues that both boys and girls do much better in different physical environments as well as different philosophical environments. Boys study better at temperatures some 3 to 4 degrees lower than girls. Girls enjoy longer uninterrupted classes; boys can study for around 20 minutes and then need to have a break. Although developmental differences are greatest at an early age, equality isn’t complete until around the age of 30. Women’s brains are completely physically mature around the age of 23; men around 30 (no great surprises to most women there).Â
This has all kinds of implications for higher education as well as education and training at primary and secondary levels. Career education assumes that the gender divide has disappeared in the classroom - although most tutors will tell you that this is not true.Â
If we are going to take this seriously (and I think that we must if we want a balanced adult population and an effective work force) then we have to do real research into factors such as gender differences for online education, career choice and career education.Â
Who knows, if we do this properly then we may find that men can be educated to put their dirty washing in the laundry basket rather than on the floor.
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May 28th, 2008 at 10:22 pm
You might be interested in checking out the NASSPE (National Association For Single Sex Public Education), http://www.singlesexschools.org/home.php. The organization promotes single sex education as a way to better educated both girls and boys, to increase test scores in both, and to enhance interests in all areas in both (for instance, studies reveal that girls are more likely to take higher math or computer science if they are in an all-girl class). The NASSPE stresses that single sex education won’t be successful if schools simply plop girls in one room and boys in another. They don’t promote gender stereotypes (all girls like Barbie and all boys like football) – they argue that there are vast differences between kids of the same gender.
Their noted differences between the learning styles of boys and girls can be found here: http://www.singlesexschools.org/research-learning.htm. They mention that girls can hear softer tones than boys; standards in the classroom tend to be higher for girls; and girls and boys are often motivated in different ways.