Female Only Classrooms

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Female Only Classrooms

• By Katie, Sarah Jaclyn

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Group Activity

• Three groups
• Male only group
• Female only group
• Coed Group
• Complete a math activity and an language
  activity as a group. You have 10 minutes. Then
  discuss the results as a class.

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Language Activity

• What feelings and other
• thoughts come to your
• mind when you see this
• picture?

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Introduction

• Objective of single-sexed schools/classrooms
  enhance learning through gender specific learning
  abilities and to design an atmosphere to
  encourage participation in ALL subjects.
• HOWEVER advocates of single-sex education do NOT
  believe that all girls learn in one specific
  manner and all boys learn in another.
• Also, educators and parents recognize that
  co-educational settings reinforce gender
  stereotypes through gender intensification.

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Pros Cons of Female Only Classrooms/Schools

• Pros
• Minimize distractions
• More willing to participate ask questions
• Eliminates sexism
• Able to learn at their own pace

• Cons
• Future social interaction issues
• Classrooms too chatty
• Research for female only learning is inconclusive

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Expanded Educational Opportunity

• Girls are more likely to explore
  non-traditional subjects (ie. Math, science
  etc.)
• This type of learning atmosphere suggests to
  girls that it is OK to excel in non-traditional
  subjects and to take more risks in school.
• Findings have been replicated in every age group
  and country where researches have examined this
  question to suggest that female only
  classrooms/schools provide girls with more
  educational opportunities.

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Custom-Tailored Learning Instruction

• Example A study conducted by Underwood for
  computer based language tasks
• Girl-girl pairs obtained the highest scores
• Boy-boy pairs obtained the lowest scores
• Girl-boy pairs obtained a score close to the
  boy-boy pair.
• This shows that instead the girl assisting the
  boy, the boy hindered the girls performance (the
  girls performance was degraded by 50)

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Greater Autonomy

• In relationships
• In a female only classroom your social network is
  at school and a relationship would be outside
  that circle, therefore there would be less
  pressure
• Teenage sex unwanted pregnancy is more common
  at co-ed schools than at single-sex schools

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Discussion Question

• Do you agree with the previous statements about
  relationships??? Why or why not???

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Application to Teaching

• It is important to apply your teaching to the
  students interests and in a single-sex
  school/classroom you have a smaller more similar
  group which will allow you to engage students
  interest more effectively.
• It is important to remember that girls mature at
  different rates than boys, therefore in a
  single-sex classroom teachers are more able to
  choose materials that fit the maturity level.

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Application Continued

• Additional tips
• For math in a female only classroom you may want
  to keep the lessons realistic and relevant to the
  students lives, as it has shown that girls
  understand mathematical problems more easily in
  this manner.
• Girls naturally tend to break into groups,
  therefore, perhaps allow students to work in
  groups whenever possible.
• During a novel study for a female only class
  choose a book that deals with various
  relationships as it has been shown that girls can
  be more analytical about characters motives and
  behaviour than boys are.

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Discussion

• Do you think that the previous suggestions could
  be applied to a co-ed classroom or are the simply
  more beneficial to a single-sex classroom???

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Please Remember

• That this information is general and does not
  necessarily apply to all female learners.
• Also, much the research conducted on female only
  classrooms is controversial and not necessarily
  accurate.

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Final Question

• Do you think that female only school/classrooms
  are even beneficial and relevant to todays
  society?

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Questions????
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References

• http//www.singlesexschools.org/advantages-forgirl
  s.htm
• http//www.socyberty.com/Sociology/Single-Gender-C
  lasses-Argument.22438