Overview

last updated:November 2002

Why is the issue important?

Concern about the slower rate of improvement of achievement of boys than girls has grown among teachers, parents and the government over recent years. Schools face a range of problems when tackling boys’ underachievement, such as maintaining equal opportunities, ensuring strategies are implemented effectively and deciding on efficient monitoring systems.

What did the research show?

The study identified three types of interventions that were followed by improvements in learning:

• teaching single-sex classes or groups at secondary level
  
• mentoring and role modelling by adults, including teachers within the school, and other pupils, at secondary level
  
• additional literacy support from adult volunteers from outside school at primary level.

Most teachers were supportive of the type of intervention implemented in their school, particularly when they had been closely involved in the decision to adopt the policy.

How was this achieved?

Single-sex classes: Teachers modified their lesson structures and teaching methods to meet the needs of their pupils when teaching single-sex classes. For example, when teaching Macbeth, an English teacher first gave the pupils a questionnaire to find out their preferred learning style, then chose appropriate teaching styles, such as: setting short, written tasks, often in the form of games or quizzes, using ICT to proofread, edit and display, presenting some of the text in tabulated form, and breaking Macbeth into recurring sections of horror, humour, fantasy and action.

Mentoring: A member of staff usually mentored pupils individually in sessions lasting 15-30 minutes. Areas of discussion included: planning of homework and coursework tasks, time management and meeting deadlines and revision techniques. Mentors directed the discussions, commenting positively about progress made and areas of weakness or difficulty.

Literacy support: The programmes usually consisted of adult literacy supporters (from eg. Business Partnership Schemes) coming into school for a half term block. Each supporter worked with three children individually for 15-30 minutes.

How was the research designed to be trustworthy?

The researchers selected nineteen sc

hools from a list of schools identified by eighty-three LAs as representative of good practice. The criterion for inclusion was that the school was implementing one of three chosen strategies to address boys’ lower rate of improvement in achievement. They collected and analysed a range of data to evaluate just how successful their specific approaches were, including: interviews with teachers and pupils, reading tests, Key Stage tests and GCSE results, questionnaires completed by pupils and teachers observation of teaching and mentoring, pupil monitoring records and pupils’ option choice data.

What are the implications?

The study showed the importance of teachers:

• identifying and investigating all data that may be relevant to attainment in order to identify gender issues
  
• developing teaching styles which harmonize with students’ preferred ways of learning
  
• teachers extending the range of approaches they use in order to engage as wide a range of students as possible
  
• planning activities carefully and ensuring support staff are clear about what they have to do when asking other adults to mentor students or provide pupils with additional reading support.

What do the case studies illustrate?

The case studies show how:

• teachers implemented single-sex teaching at one school as a way of raising the achievement of boys
• a school raised the achievement of Year 11 boys and girls on the borderline of five or more A*-C grades at GCSE  through mentoring in small groups
• primary schools provided additional literacy support particularly for boys and encouraged boys to develop a more positive attitude towards learning
• a secondary school helped boys improve their performance by identifying and implementing individual strategies for addressing their weaknesses
• science teachers identified a range of important factors they needed to consider when teaching low ability single-sex groups.