Another marked difference is the speed with which boys' and girls' brains mature. The maturing of the brain is very complex and subtle and researchers are now certain that the area of the brain responsible for language and fine motor skills matures about six years earlier in girls than in boys, but the area of the brain involved in spatial memory matures about four years earlier in boys than in girls.(6)
The truth of the matter is that in boys and girls, different areas of the brain develop in a different sequence and at different age levels. Therefore, we must conclude that to group boys and girls together and expect the same results or even reasonably equal results is demanding the impossible.
It has also been proven that teenage girls hear up to seven times better than their male counterparts. In mixed classes therefore, that explains why girls will often say: "The teacher yelled at us today", while on hearing this, the boys will shake their heads in disbelief and say: "No he/she didn't". Girls thrive under a quiet environment while (productive) noise actually enhances the boys' educational progress. Another quite incontrovertible fact is that the male species academically thrives under stress! For a variety of medical reasons, the stress gives the boys a "gee-up", but in girls it impairs their learning. That again explains the girls loving a certain teacher because his/her class is "so quiet and calming" while the boys love (usually) Mr. So and So, because his classes are so filled with excitement and action.
An AP newswire story from Atlanta, June 11, 2006 (7) reports that researchers have discovered that girls' vision and thought processes develop over time to respond better to color, while boys are more readily adapted to processing movement and motion. We must therefore again ethically question to what extent are teachers and administrators demanding results from boys and girls in situations ( into which we as adults have placed them) in which it may well be extremely difficult if not impossible for them to achieve success?
For example, when we demand absolute stillness and quietness from boys, we are demanding something they cannot deliver. Boys thrive in an atmosphere of "controlled" or "productive" noise and movement, while girls are much more comfortable in the quietness of calmer surroundings and small group work.
Of course in this debate, we need to be careful that we are not advocating a "blanket-cover" for all educational situations. Yes, there are boys who would rather read or play chess than go out onto the football field. Of course there are girls who thrive on the soccer team (and other sports) and who have no interest in Barbie dolls or crocheting quilts. But the problem is that for too long girls and boys have been stereotyped as being capable of learning the same subjects at the same time in the same way. Now we are discovering the truth that this is not altogether reality and we should allow the facts to speak for themselves. Researchers at Stetson University in Deland, Florida completed a three-year pilot project at Woodward Avenue Elementary School, comparing single-sex class results with co-ed results. All other parameters were made equal ---- the teachers were all similarly trained; class sizes and demographics were identical; teaching methodologies were controlled. While this experiment does describe a "one-of" situation, the results surely warrant further investigation and debate rather than the negative "put-downs" of which many administrators and teachers have been guilty.
On the Florida Comprehensive Assessment Test for fourth grade, the results were as follows:
- Boys in co-ed classes 37% were declared proficient in the test.
- Boys in single-sex classes 86%
- Girls in co-ed classes 59%
Girls in single-sex classes 75%
In June 2005, the BBC in Britain produced a report on the research completed by a Cambridge University team ,led by Mike Younger and Molly Warrington. This team had been commissioned by the Department of Education to complete a project involving no less than fifty schools in an attempt to discover how to close the gap in the variance between girls' and boys' averages in testing situations. This study was no "flash-in-the-pan" type of research. The team took four years and investigated even more than the fifty schools at first advocated. They also included a variety of socio-economic and ethnic groups. In using the strategy of single-sex classes, the researchers discovered that this format produced a dramatic improvement in the boys' performance in English and other languages while the girls' performance improvements were in the areas of math and science.
In 2001, the Australian Council for Educational Research completed a thorough investigation into single-sex and co-ed schools. That study was completed over a six year period, involved around 270,000 students in over fifty academic subjects. The results are staggering to say the least. Both boys and girls educated in single-sex schools scored between 15 and 22 percentile points higher than their co-ed peers. The sad fact about this study is that the results were widely reported in the English speaking world, yet as far as can be discovered, not one American newspaper carried this story.
On July 8th, 2002, the National Foundation for Educational Research in England released the results of their study on single-sex versus co-ed schools. This research examined almost 3000 schools under many of the same headings of the other studies and their conclusions enhance the previous data.
