Single-Gender Teaching Experiment December 18, 2005
Posted by Andy Roberts in : Action Research , trackbackWhile searching for blogs about action research (not just the distributed sort) I found this account from a couple of teachers who experimented with splitting up their combined classes into the boys and the girls. They claim positive outcomes : “nothing short of phenomenal” and they’re obviously aware of the controversy this kind of research has a potential to provoke.
So far we haven’t had any push back from parents or administrators. Our separation is done only twice a week so that may be why no one has complained. My administration is very supportive of action research, so I don’t think that we will have any pressure to cease the practice.
Hypothesising that the two genders may not be identical can be an emotive subject and may become a political hot potato, so the research needs to be founded on good theory. One of the teachers had been to a conference and attended
a fascinating session by Leonard Sax who wrote “Why Gender Matters.” He presented a formidable amount of brain reseach on the differences between boys and girls and its implications for education.
Brain research, hmmm - but that’s what Lozanov and accelerated learning, brain gym are based on as well. Anyway, it’s worth reading the whole article for a number of reasons including just as an account of an action research project in progress and one way to blog it.
TLN Teacher Voices: Our Single-Gender Teaching Experiment
What started as an simple experiment has been so successful that I have now separated the boys and girls in the 5th grade as well with very similar results. I will continue to monitor how this goes and, as Carolyn has said, have decided that this will be my action research project for this year. So I will definitely have more to report in the future.
For those interested in other readings, Why Gender Matters: What Parents and Teachers Need to Know about the Emerging Science of Sex Differences by Leonard Sax and The Boys and Girls Learn Differently Action Guide for Teachers by Michael Gurian are the two books that I have been reading lately to guide my work.
See also a newsweek article: Boy Brains, Girl Brains
Are separate classrooms the best way to teach kids?
In the last five years, brain researchers using sophisticated MRI and PET technology have gathered new information about the ways male and female brains develop and process information. Studies show that girls, for instance, have more active frontal lobes, stronger connections between brain hemispheres and “language centers” that mature earlier than their male counterparts. Critics of gender-based schooling charge that curricula designed to exploit such differences reinforce the most narrow cultural stereotypes. But proponents say that unless neurological, hormonal and cognitive differences between boys and girls are incorporated in the classroom, boys are at a disadvantage.
Most schools are girl-friendly, says Michael Gurian, coauthor with Kathy Stevens of a new book,”The Minds of Boys: Saving Our Sons from Falling Behind in School and Life,” “because teachers, who are mostly women, teach the way they learn.
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is an online professional who initiated DARnet 
The following quote is taken from http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/humanbody/sex/add_user.shtml
“Some researchers say that men can have ‘women’s brains’ and that women can think more like men. Find out more about ‘brain sex’ differences by taking the Sex ID test…used by psychologists in the BBC1 tv series ‘Secrets of the Sexes’.”
I watched this series and segregation should not automatically be assumed to be based on obvious biological differences. I took the ‘brain sex’ test on this link and was scored ‘amongst the boys’ - but I would be educated with the girls, based on my ‘obvious’ gender identity
Thanks for the link to test, it’s an interesting one.
There’s an obvious problem with crudely segregated classes in that it would leave some people who are not typical of their gender in a more isolated position than with mixed genders. That would have to be weighed up against the overall advantages, if indeed there are any.
Hmm… had a go at the test - puts me 25% into the male half - which is no suprise to me - I’m very mathematical, excellent at spatial images etc and can read and memorise maps - I went to an all girls school, with mainly (apart from one!) female teachers - so I wonder what Gurain and Stevens would say about that? was I at a disadvantage as I have a male brain? I don’t think so ..