Reaching Boys: An International Study of Effective Teaching Practices

Abstract

Despite a continuing stream of concern on the part of researchers, demographers, and cultural pundits about a crisis in boys' social development and schooling, surprisingly little attention has been paid to what is perhaps the richest pool of data: current, observable teaching practices that clearly work with boys. In schools of all types in all regions of the globe, many boys are thriving. Boys of limited, ordinary, and exceptional tested aptitude; boys of every economic strata; boys of all races and faiths -some of them -are appreciatively engaged and taught well every day. Reaching Boys An International Study of Effective Teaching PracticesIf there is a crisis in boys' education, answers are not hard to find. Thousands of teachers around the world have found the secret to making lessons successful for boys. By Michael Reichert and Richard Hawleypdkintl.org V91 N4 Kappan 35 MICHAEL REICHERT is executive director of the Center for the Study of Boys' and Girls' Lives (www.csbgl.org) and on staff as consulting psychologist at the Haverford School, Haverford, Pennsylvania. RICHARD HAWLEY, author of several books about children and learning, is the retired headmaster of Cleveland's University School and founding president of the International Boys Schools Coalition. He lives in Ripton, Vermont.

Miles to go

“…Interestingly, when we compared our findings with those from a similar study of boys (Reichert & Hawley, 2010a, 2010b), we discovered that, in general, the students and their teachers all tended to describe the same types of lessons. Both girls and boys find active learning engaging and are motivated by hands-on lessons, group projects, class discussions and debate, opportunities for performance, chances to be creative, and large-scale multimodal projects.…”

Reaching girls

“…We asked students and teachers to respond to an online survey that had the following prompt — a modified version of Reichert and Hawley’s (2010a):Please tell us a story of a class experience at this school that stands out as being especially memorable to you. By this, we mean that it was especially interesting, engaging, or motivating for you.…”

“…Books such as Why Gender Matters (Sax, 2005) and The Trouble with Boys (Tyre, 2008) provide vigorous, sometimes polemical, commentary about the issues. Such conversations concerning gender differences in educational achievement inspired Reichert and Hawley (2010a, 2010b) to ask what we actually know about teaching boys. In an earlier issue of Kappan (2010b), Reichert and Hawley described the results of their study, which surveyed over 1,500 male students ages 12-19 and 1,000 teachers in all-boys schools in the United States and internationally to explore the lessons and teaching practices that were engaging to boys.…”

“…So far, no one has asked the same question about girls — what do we know about teaching practices that engage girls in learning? Our study addresses this question by using Reichert and Hawley’s (2010a) survey to identify the teaching practices and lessons that are effective and engaging for girls. We believe that we can better situate girls for success beyond high school if educators, practitioners, and researchers begin paying attention to what girls need in grades 7 through 12.…”

Relationships Play Primary Role in Boys' Learning

“…The elements common to these best lessons revealed encouragingly clear contours in examples submitted by teachers of both genders, all ages and experience levels, in all types of schools, and across all teaching disciplines. The common features of these lessons comprised a blueprint for effective practice generally — one adapted to boys in particular (Reichert & Hawley, 2009, 2010).…”