Boys are in decline for attending college with females outnumbering males on the huge majority of college campuses. Boys are far more likely to be in the resource rooms in elementary and middle schools. Males are also more likely to be sent to the principal’s office, drop out of school, be suspended and far more likely to be sent to jail. Has educational style contributed to this recent trend with males in education? What can be done? Research is now present to turn this trend around.
Teaching Boys: A Global Study of Effective Practices—A 2009 Study
The evidence is very clear that there is great concern about the performance of boys in schools. The concern is not just in the United States but world-wide. Richard Hawley and Michael Reichert made the commitment to find why some boys learn and others do not. Hawley is the retired headmaster of the University School in Cleveland, Ohio and the founding president of the The International Boys’ School Coalition. He has also authored over 20 books about children, schools, and learning.
Michael Reichert is a consultant to schools and a clinical psychologist. He is also the cofounder and director of The Center for the Study of Boys’ and Girls’ Lives. Reichert and Hawley are coauthors of Reaching Boys/Teaching Boys: Strategies that Work and Why (Jossey-Bass, 2010). The book is based on their 2009 study, Teaching Boys: A Global Study of Effective Practices.
Location of the Reichert and Hawley Study
Reichert and Hawley decided to find schools where boys do well and compare these schools to traditional schools. Therefore, they selected schools for boys and began documenting common characteristics of effective practices and consider how they could be applied to schools in general. (Single-gender schools for both boys and girls were popular in the past and gaining in popularity today.) Reichert and Hawley formed a partnership with The International Boys’ Coalition in which boys and teachers from 18 schools would be observed on what methods work to engage boys to maximize learning.
The schools were located in
- United States,
- Canada,
- Great Britain,
- New Zealand,
- Australia
- South Africa.
These schools submitted data on practices that they determined effective. Approximately, 1,000 faculty members and 1,500 students submitted narratives that could hold common patterns.
The faculty members submitting narratives were not only “star” teachers. The faculty was a combination of beginning, mid-career and highly respected veteran teachers. The staff was a combination of men and women, various disciplines, teachers with experience in co-ed and single gender classrooms. Some schools were highly-selective, some were not. A few were government-supported. Some schools had student populations in the low hundreds and some were in the thousands.
8 Methods That Work with Boys
After reviewing the data submitted from over 1,000 middle school and high school faculty, Hawley and Reichert divided “what works” into eight general categories.
- Lessons that produced products
- Lessons structured as games
- Lessons requiring vigorous motor activity
- Lessons requiring boys to assume a role of responsibility for promoting the learning of others
- Lessons that required boys to address “open,” unsolved problems
- Lessons that required a combination of teamwork and competition
- Lessons that focused on boys’ personal realization (their masculinity, their values, their present and future social roles)
- Lessons that introduced dramatic novelties and surprises
Nearly every effective lesson included common components: competition, games and teams. [1]
When the boys were asked what qualities about teachers helped be effective. Without hesitation, they listed the following qualities of a good teacher:
- Light-heartedness
- Good humor
- Patience
- Commitment
- Confidence in them as students
Some boys became emotional talking about their teachers that were caring and effective in teaching them. [1]
Planning an Effective Lesson
Teachers stated when planning a lesson, they remained flexible. If the boys disengaged during the lesson, the teachers quickly made adjustments on how that lesson could become better. Lessons are in a continual state of adjustment using positive statements from boys to judge effectiveness. A lesson that engages boys will not result in disruption, which is a subliminal message stating, “I’m not interested.”
Another salient point discovered in the study is that boys are relational learners…boys must connect with their teacher. Andrew Martin (2003) did research on school motivation. He concluded, “Particularly critical to students’ engagement and motivation a particular subject was their relationship with their teacher.” The top characteristics of a good teacher listed in this study were:
- Structured
- Demanding
- “No-nonsense” teacher
- Fair
These boys also reported that the most inspirational teachers had a great sense of humor, passion and showed personal care about them. [1]
Interviewing Successful Teachers Produced Surprising Comments
When the teachers were interviewed, the comments were surprising. No one spoke as an expert. “Teachers frequently reported their effective approaches grew out of adjustments made to unsuccessful efforts. In none of the teachers’ narratives was there any hint of wise and all-knowing practitioners applying time-honored and proven techniques. To the contrary, many teachers acknowledged earlier frustration and even outright failure. Successful adjustments more often revealed a feedback dynamic in which ineffective practice disengaged boys, which caused teachers to adjust pedagogy until student responsiveness and mastery improved.” [1]
Martin’s study also concluded, “Consciously or not, teachers of boys tend to modify what they teach and the way they teach in response to what engages the boys in front of them. Intentionally or not, those teachers find themselves “experts” at teaching boys.” [1]
The study by Hawley and Reichert is one of many showing concern about boys in our schools. Peg Tyre has voiced her concerns in TIME magazine, Michael Thompson, PH. D. in Speaking of Boys , (Ballentine Books, 2000) and Kindlelon and Thompson in Raising Cain , (Ballentine Books, 1999) have stated similar concerns and data. The evidence is mounting that schools are not serving boys at the levels they deserve.
Sources
[1] Hawley, Richard and Reichert, Michael. “Successfully Teaching Boys: Findings from a New International Study,” ASCD Express, Vol. 6, No. 4, 2010.
Barbara Pytel - Email me Experience Although I was never particularly fond of going to school as an ELL student, I ironically became a teacher, ...
