Teaching in Single Gender Classrooms

"Single-gender education in the United States has existed for a long time; however, it was found mostly in private and parochial schools. Public school single-gender education did not fully emerge until 2001, under The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act. This change in federal legislation allowed for the opening of various single-gender public schools and single-gender programs in recent years. According to the National Association for Single Sex Public Education (NASSPE), in 2002, only about a dozen public schools offered single-gender education; in the 2011–2012 school year at least 506 public schools were registered as offering single-gender educational opportunities. Single-gender public education has adopted several different operational models. One is the classic model, which serves either boys or girls only; another is the dual academy model, in which boys and girls are in a coeducational school but attend classes separately (Riordan,

2008). In 2011, NASSPE reported that out of the 506 public schools registered to offer singlegender education, 116 operated under the classic model, and 306 operated under the dual academy model. The benefits of single-gender education are ambiguous (Herr & Arms, 2004; Hubbard & Datnow, 2005; Younger & Warrington, 2006). In the United States, most research studies on the effects of single-gender education have been conducted in private and parochial
schools; thus, results may not be generalizable to public schools. As more public singlegender schools emerge in the country, research conducted in these settings will become more reliable and valid for this population" (https://www.austinisd.org/sites/default/files/dre-reports/11.09_Best_Practices_in_single_Gender_Education.pdf).

Single gender education has been debated since its introduction to the public sector in the early 2000s. Originally introduced so as to provide female students with more equitable opportunities in the classroom, many have come to believe that single gender education only further encourages gender norms and stereotypes and maintains the differences that emerge between male and female students. This course is meant to provide educators who are either already teaching in single gender classrooms or who are interested in teaching in these environments an opportunity to learn about the history and meaning behind single gender classrooms as well as strategies to use in these settings. Often times schools will establish this style of learning but will not provide the appropriate professional development to make it worth while. This course is meant to provide support in teaching in single gender classrooms.

The objectives of this course are threefold:

Understand what single gender education is and isn’t
Understand the pros and cons of single gender education
Learn tools and strategies for teaching in a single gender setting or for simply teaching directly to male or female students

Students in this course will come away with a better understanding of single gender education along with greater knowledge of the reasons for and against it. Using this knowledge, students will also learn strategies to utilize in their single gender classrooms.