My sons will go private, single gender. My choice.
I support different schools for different students though.
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My sons will go private, single gender. My choice.
I support different schools for different students though.
I thought the research said that girls do better in girl only schools, but boys do better in co-Ed schools. This is because girls have a moderating influence on the way the boys behave (resulting in better learning outcomes for boys in mixed classes), whereas boys eat up more of teachers' attention (so girls get more teacher attention in girl-only classes).
This is also what I have heard from a friend who is a teacher.:
Maybe we have been reading different research. Steve Biddulph argues that boys benefit from single gender classes especially in language and expression. In one school, 2 years after they separated classes for English most of the classes were achieving much higher results than previously. Apparently boys can concentrate better when girls aren't around....
I don't know if there is a perfect way of doing this. I'm on prac atm on a year 5/6 class and OMG most of the boys are little turds, but I honestly don't think that it would matter whether there were girls in the class or not. Some of them do try to 'show off' to the girls, but there are probably 2 who try to get as much approval from the boys as they do the girls. But they are the same two kids who could not give two hoots if they were at school or not and have such a disgustingly entitled attitude to everything and everyone. I'm not sure what the aim of DS1's school is by having gendered and mixed classes though and it's something I was going to ask during parent teacher interviews just for my own curiousity.:
I can try find out the actual research but it probably just depends on what you measure at what time points and over what time period.:
I'd say so. This is probably a whole other thread on it's own, but I think kid's concentration is getting worse. I mean really bad. In the class I have now and the one I had last year which was a mixed 4/5 class, there would only be a handful of kids that actually concentrated enough that you could explain what they had to do and they would just do it. Most of them don't have a bloody clue what you just said and they are constantly interrupting you 'what do I do miss?' They can look at you while you say it to them, but they just do not take it in. I was talking about it with DH and we both wondered whether increased screen time is responsible? I know that is heading into some pretty murky waters but it's the only thing we could think of to make nearly an entire class not retain information for long enough to perform a task. I also volunteer at the same school and I see the same thing in the 1/2 literacy class I tutor and the 3/4 class I'm doing release work with.:
Yes please. If you have a moment :):
I'm not sold on either system. It's just that most of the literature I've read favours single gender education so I'd be interested to see the arguments for the other side.
Trillian, I'm very suspicious of all those 'learning' toys like leap pads etc. By the time our children reach school we have spent 5 years teaching them to learn from machines nor humans.
This is why my children don't have access to computers at all, and nor do they have more than a couple of hours of "screen time", being either Wii or TV, only on weekends and school holidays.:
I prefer them to be outside playing, or reading, or creating something, than glued to a TV.
It also means when I need a TV "babysitter" it works, completely and utterly!
:
I'm sure if I whipped out an ipad or similar or if I said OK, we're going to do out entire lesson on the computer I wouldn't have as big a problem.
Interesting thread! I don't know much about co-ed vs single gender but interesting reading!
I was just thinking about this a few days ago actually! We were at the beach with my girls and they were literally concentrating for half an hour on constructing a sand castle themselves. We were there for a few hrs late afternoon and the whole time they were busy doing things, concentrating, with no input from us. Anyway, I was contemplating how I'd read that the attention span of a 4 yr old was 5 mins or something and thought that was absurd. I have seen my kids concentrate for ages on things, but only things they love, e.g. craft, imaginary play. Which led me to think that what helps concentration develop is through lots of free time with activities of their own choosing. And that maybe kids don't get enough of this these days with lots of screen time doing the entertaining for them, and also being so over scheduled (I'm always seeing articles about how kids are under more pressure than ever, have more extracurricular activities, even as babies etc etc).:
Wow, sorry for that ramble, I wasn't going to comment on this thread because I didn't know about it but Trillian's comment caught my eye :)
What concerns me the most is that this is exactly what is happening at lots of schools. My DDs (pre primary and Grade 1) do reading eggs on the computer. Grade 1 there is also mathletics and step ladder, both on the computer and both set as daily homework for the kids. Mine doesn't do it - I disagree with both the computer time, the level of home work and the approach to it being here, have a computer and go and teach yourself - but its starting in grade 1 and continuing through. Grade 4s need their own ipad with all the relevant educational apps on it for classwork each and every day. The other two private schools in the area are the same. The public schools not to such a great extent, but that's only because of lack of funding, not lack of wanting.:
If it continues this way, is it really going to make such a big difference where your child goes to school?
My boys are/will do co-ed primary and then single sex secondary, but that has a lot to do with the fact that the local secondary schools are pretty ordinary and also because it's important to DH that they do get a religious education as well. I also think it's horses for courses - I think would have completely underachieved in a co-ed secondary school, boys intimidated me lots when I was a teenager, probably wouldn't have spoken for about 6 years, so it was good for me to be in a single sex environment. I also agree with a PP that not all boys in a single-sex school turn out to be horrible - I have a pretty decent brother too :)
DS1's school has introduced iPads from Prep onwards, which I'm still not sold on, but then I also see it as my responsibility to make sure when/where/for how long it's used. We have put on one additional game app (Fireman Sam), but that's it so far. I just use it as an extra tool for learning, a backup so to speak, not the sole source.
I know some smaller, apparently 'disadvantaged' public schools use ipod touches all the time. My brothers SDD goes to a school like this - less than 20 students and the school has ipods that they use All The Time. They complained about it but nothing was done because the kids were *learning*. I think even if our school had the money, they still wouldn't go down that path because it just doesn't fit in with their ethos. I"m not sure if a school who did use those things all the time or was a very technology based school, whether that would make it a 'better' school or not.
I'm beginning to think that the findings on co-ed/single sed education depends entirely on the bias of the researchers.
Just from today's googling etc I look at studies about boys it says boys thrive in single gender classes but if I look at research about girls it says that girls thrive in single gender classes but boys are better off co-ed. I'm beginning to get the feeling that many of the researchers into girls education are coming from an assumption that girls don't get a level playing field in co-ed schools however I think that assumption might be out of date. Many of the researchers into boy's outcomes suggest that the reason boys are struggling in co-ed situations and that girls are increasingly dominating university entrance is that in order to be more inclusive that pedagogy and testing has shifted to methods that are better suited to ways that girls behave in class. That it's not so much the co-ed environment but the teaching and testing methods in co-ed schools that are less suited to boys whereas a boy's school can tailor it's methods and materials to suit boyishness.
On the subject of using technology to teach...... my concern is that it is so prescriptive. A program can only teach the things a program teaches.
I'm in a similar place Zazou, but with less time to think about it & loads of options. I'm not biased between public/private, but co-ed vs single sex is where I'm stuck. I have to seriously consider price too. Its not really an option here. All kids travel to school, weather they board or stay in hostels, they all travel.
I don't know what's best, but the chances are I'll go with a religious based or public school & hostel, over a $40000 a year private girls boarding school. I just want the best for my DD & I have the school I'd love to send her too picked out, but I just don't think its possible :(
Co-ed is on the back burner for me though while I find out which ones have the best education & programs etc. Most people I know who went to single sex schools went co-ed public at home til year 9 or 10, then went off to the boarding schools.
I went to both and much preferred the single-sex school. I still got to socialise to and from school, school sports and after school.
My family have all sent the kids to co-ed primary and single-sex senior.