Single Sex Classrooms

Single Sex Classrooms

Multicultural Issues in Education

By:

Megan Sandbak

. Abstract

I studied the effects on students of separating the genders during the learning experience. I was trying to determine what might be best for the students; single sex classrooms or coed classrooms. I discovered that I found it best if the genders were to be separated for certain parts or their educational career.

Findings

There were not a lot of library findings that have actually been published so I did have to turn to the internet where I discovered a vast wealth of information for and against the separation of genders in the classroom. One of the sites I referred to most while researching this project is; www.singlesexclassrooms.org[->0] . This was a great website with a lot of information supporting the separation of the genders throughout their educational career. This site went off of the philosophy that boys and girls develop at a very different rate and in a very different manner thus it would be more beneficial to separate the genders allowing them to develop at their own speed and learn in an environment where they will feel more comfortable. This site also promoted the idea that then teaching styles can allow room for certain techniques that only work in single sex classrooms. However, one thing this site promoted was that the teachers must be properly trained on how to teach in a single sex classroom and not just sterotype that all boys want to play sports and all girls want to read or play with dolls. This site believes that there are a wide a diversified group of students among the genders themselves and each teacher must be trained in how to recognize the diversity within a gender.

I also looked at another article, Single Gender Classes: Are they better?, to put into perspective what the negative effects would be for having students separate into single sex classrooms. This article suggested that the separation of the genders has nothing to do with...