News

Single-Gender Classrooms Help Boys Learn in Comfort

December 1, 2009

ANDERSON — The first thing you notice in Laura Jackson’s third-grade classroom at Centerville Elementary School is the noticeable lack of giggling.

It’s loud. Boys are everywhere — talking, moving around, rearranging chairs, writing their names on the whiteboard. There’s a box of gadgets for taking apart and putting back together. The room is covered in sports-themed cubbies with footballs, soccer balls and basketball used as tally markers on the board, and stamped on grade sheets.

There’s not a single girl in sight.

Jackson’s classroom is all-boy, all the time. Part of Anderson-based Anderson School District 5, the classroom is one of several classes and schools that offer alternative programs for students. And as the school’s only single-gender third grade, the classroom doesn’t run like other classrooms.

“With boys, from everything I’ve read, the thing is that they’re much more concerned about not letting down their team,” Jackson says. “They are much more inclined to want to not disappoint their team members, so they work harder. If there is one of them that is not pulling their weight on the team, the rest of the team members will take him aside and tell him to start working harder.”

Jackson has taught for the past 18 years, in co-ed classrooms. This is her first experience with single gender education. But after two conferences on the issue, 25 years of coaching and life with seven adopted sons and one natural son, as well as one natural daughter, she knows how different boys and girls are, in the way they act and the way they learn.

That changes the way she does things in this classroom, as compared with the co-ed classrooms she has taught in.

The boys are up. They are moving. They are engaged physically in the lesson. They learn differently, so Jackson teaches them differently. Lessons involve movement instead of seat-learning, and the boys are grouped into teams.

For instance, instead of a spelling test, they have basketball spelling.

The boys line up on the carpet a few feet away from a wastebasket. Jackson sits in a chair with a list of spelling words. A correctly spelled word means they get one point and a chance to shoot a basketball into the basket for another point. Harder words, or challenge words, mean a point for the word and two shots at the basket, a possible three-point play. And since this is the monthly spelling bee, when you miss a word, you’re out.

Whoever wins gets not only a trophy for himself, but also a prize for his team.

Team members and others in the class cheer each other on.

Joseph Cothran steps to the line. This is the first time the 9-year-old has gotten so close to winning. He’s nervous but also excited at the prospect of his first trophy.

“Come on, Joseph. You might just win this thing,” someone shouts.

“Good job, buddy,” someone else says. “I thought he was going to miss it there for a second,” another says to his neighbor, a running sports commentary marking the moments of a spelling test.

With one final word, Joseph wins, banking a shot into the basket.

He turns and chest bumps a friend, who picks him up and hugs him.

“I didn’t think I was going to win,” Joseph says. “It feels great to know I helped out my team and to know I won.”

With his trophy in hand, he says it was easier for him without the girls.

“I don’t get as nervous,” he says. “I just feel more comfortable.”

Research indicates that single-gender classrooms may help boys in school.

According to the National Education Association, studies suggest that when boys are in single-gender classrooms, they are more successful in school and more likely to pursue a wide range of interests and activities.

Similarly, research indicates that when girls are in single-gender classroomsthey develop a greater interest in and excel at math and science.

According to a report by the NEA, “Girls who learn in all-girl environments are believed to be more comfortable responding to questions and sharing their opinions in class and more likely to explore more ‘nontraditional’ subjects such as math, science, and technology. In addition, advocates believe that when children learn with single-gender peers, they are more likely to attend to their studies, speak more openly in the classroom, and feel more encouraged to pursue their interests and achieve their fullest potential.”

South Carolina Superintendent Jim Rex started pushed the single-gender program as part of his administration beginning in 2007. Now, South Carolina is one of the leaders in the country for single-gender education.

A recent report on a survey of parents, students and educators showed that most of the people involved in the single-gender program across the state are pleased with the program, said David Chadwell, the single-gender coordinator with the state Department of Education.

Girls tended to show more effects than boys, the survey showed. Girls were more likely to see positive effects in their self-confidence, independence and class participation, while boys’ highest increases were in independence, self-efficacy, grades, and making friends.

“I don’t think you can say there’s a big benefit to single-gender education, with big being the key word there,” Chadwell said. “It’s a choice. It isn’t necessarily better than co-ed education, it’s a choice, a choice that might benefit some children more than others.”

Jackson said the boys were in the class because their parents wanted them to be. An all-girl third-grade classroom was not an option, she says, because of the limited number of girls in the third grade at the school.

“There are only 36 girls in the whole third-grade class,” she says. “If we offered an all-girl class, essentially every class in the third grade would be single gender.”

For Jackson, the results speak for themselves.

“What I’m seeing a lot is that they are much less intimidated to participate,” she says. “They try harder because they’re part of the team, and the team depends on them. And that also helps them.”

By Liz Carey
IndependentMail.com