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Boys vs girls - vive la difference!
Tuesday 14 September 2010
Categories: Education, Growing up, Media Influence
The findings of a Masters’ degree student at Kent University seem to be surprising the media. Parents and teachers will be less surprised.
Bonny Hartley surveyed 238 children in 2 primary schools and found that at around the age of 7 or 8 both girls and boys think that girls are more focussed, able and successful in school than boys.Numerous scientific studies have shown that boys’ development is more leisurely than girls’ who tend to walk and talk before their brothers. Boys’ learning styles are also different to girls’ – they are more active learners, benefitting from hands-on, practical teaching methods. But they are also more adventurous learners, less fearful of making mistakes. Girls are more likely to be careful, tentative and anxious to please.
The preponderance of female teachers in primary schools will tend to favour girls – like speaks to like. Unfortunately, partly because teaching older children has higher status, fewer men go into primary teaching.
The apparent imbalance revealed in this small study certainly self-corrects by the teenage years when girls’ confidence declines as boys’ soar – a strong argument for separate schooling.There are so many good reasons for teaching girls and boys separately. As well as those outlined above different methods of teaching, more finely tuned expectations and gender-targeted work have been proved to help both boys and girls flourish independently.
The charismatic Gareth Malone who wrought wonders by teaching teenagers to sing in the series The Choir is now tackling the weakness in boys’ literacy in his current series Extraordinary School for Boys. I believe he will need to use exactly the kind of methods which I outlined above. And I expect he will be wildly successful. Let’s hope lessons will be learnt by those who direct the education of our children.
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