Our new Minister of Education, Mr. Tim Gopeesingh, recently commented on the performance of our students in the SEA examination. He was especially concerned about the drop in scores in the Language Arts component of the examination and cited falling literacy levels as one of the contributing factors. This is a continuation of an ongoing debate about the noticeable underachievement of male students, particularly in literacy at the primary level and has drawn the interest of all stakeholders in education.
According to Cole (1997), girls generally perform better than boys in writing, reading and vocabulary reasoning. Many girls indicate that they obtained a great deal of pleasure from reading. They also said that they like to read ‘long thick books’ (Gorman et al., 1988). The boys, on the other hand, expressed negative views of reading and writing. They said that they found reading to be boring.
The implications for best practice seem to be evident or are they? That fact the boys are less interested in reading is clear. We know that their interests differ with regard to their preferences in reading material. Do these facts inform our instructional practices in our nation's schools? I think they should if we are to stem reading failure among our children and create successful readers.
If you can't feed a hundred people then feed just one.
Mother Theresa
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Clevia,
ReplyDeleteI know why you have these thoughts and wish to explore it further. It all stems from our research paper.As teachers, we are concerned about the literacy development of the boys and this is interesting.We know that the same reading instruction will not work for the boys and girls.Gender differences must be taken into account in the classroom. (Smith and Wilhelm , 2002)
Therefore, teachers should assist both groups in selecting what to read, as well as in developing reading strategies.(Hyatt, 2002)
I will follow your post to see the developments on this topic.
Hi Clevia,
ReplyDeleteThe evidence to suggest that there is a vast difference in the performance of boys and girls in literacy is indeed great. I don't believe that this informs teachers' instructional practices to any great extent, possibly, because, their exposure to teaching methods other than the traditional ones are limited.
However, I believe that with the introduction of Information and Communication Technologies into the Reading Curriculum will make a difference since studies have shown the majority of boys to be more adept at using new technologies than girls, because of their willingness to experiment and try new things. The use of ICT's thus would cater more for their learning style, and in fact motivate them to read more.
The following is a set of findings from an experiment to use ICT’s for literacy development.This was carried out on year four and five boys in four inner city London schools.
Funded by the Esmee Fairbairn Foundation, the Mercers’ Company and the Reuters Foundation
Summary of main findings
Quantitative and qualitative data provide evidence that:
targeted boys began to write more and with greater enthusiasm after two terms;
written work by the targeted boys showed a greater sense of reader and audience;
spelling and punctuation improved;
opportunities to email characters in the texts studied particularly appealed to boys and led to texts of greater length and complexity;
the project website proved a useful focus and source of ideas for the cross London project schools; parents could also see children’s work and leave messages in the online guestbook.
This information was sited from the following web site:- http://www.standards.dfes.gov.uk/ntrp/lib/word/OSullivan.doc
Syndy Jahoor
Indeed, in the last few decades, the gender crisis in education has become a matter of grave concern in almost all Caribbean countries, including Trinidad and Tobago. Equality of opportunity between the sexes in schools, the gendered nature of subjects, girls' underperformance and/or boys' underperformance are some of the challenges which have to be addressed.
ReplyDeleteResearchers have discovered characteristics of boys that differ from girls, thus requiring different approaches to teaching in terms of strategies, content, resources and classroom arrangement. Brain research has also shown that the male brain is not suited to the monopoly of words (Gurian & Stevens, 2004), yet conventional teaching tends to assume that one type of teaching will work for all types of students. Clearly, the learning experiences in our nation's classrooms must now accommodate boys' learning styles if there is to be any improvement.
Hi Clevia,
ReplyDeleteAs a true SEA teacher, I see you are keeping abreast with the critics of our education system. However, when you commented that "The implications for best practice seem to be evident or are they?", this echoes the cries of many concerned teachers. I particularly liked and want to add to Syndy Jahoor's comment to your post. It seems to me that the boys are not less interested in reading, but more so that their interests do definitely differ with regards to their preferences in reading materials. Give them a book on something of interest to them and they will spend hours engaged in the activity. I do not think we have a reading problem with the boys, in so much as, an "interests-in" reading problem. We have to try and ascertain what interests the males in reading and so instruct them with such "interests-in" reading materials. It would be interesting to hear what would be said about this issue in the present controversy of the 'Same Sex Schools'.
The whole question remains, "Do we change the Curriculum to reflect the students' interests or do we continue to try to change the students in the interest of the Curriculum?" In the meanwhile, the great debate continues.
The issue of under performing boys is a serious one. Perhaps we are using the wrong material. As you mentioned girls like to read thick books. To a boy that might be a complete turn off. Or perhaps our technique is inappropriate for boys.
ReplyDeleteSince children are generally attracted to social networking, reading instruction using web 2.0 technologies might appeal to boys. After all they are familiar with it and quite comfortable using it. I believe exploring web 2.0 technologies as part of the solution to treating with boys’ reading issues and reading issues in general is a step in the right direction. Word Happy’s comment about using ICT is very instructive.
Dealing with the last paragraph of the original post:
ReplyDeleteHaving an understanding of the fact that boys have different areas of interest and knowing that they should be taught according to their needs is somehow not enough. In a lower school class of 34 students, it is difficult to do the things that we ought to do. Of course, there is no excure for not trying.
Is this then a case ofr same sex schools? Would having a class of all boys make it easier? Would we be more able to attent to their educational needs in a manner more appropriate to their like, dislikes and learning abilities?