challenging assumptions

1

• challenging assumptions

2

• Raising boys achievement - increasing
  engagement
• for
• school improvement

3

• Practical approach
• consult teachers
• apply research
• strategies for school improvement

4

• ... boys also showed a significantly greater
  tendency to judge topics as easy or very easy ...
  As a general rule, boys perceived the topics to
  be less difficult than their success rate would
  warrant ...

5

• AND therefore strategies that rely on
  self-reporting from boys must be reinforced with
  short diagnostic activities do they really
  understand what they say they do in fact
  opening new topics with short, everyone involved,
  diagnostic tests allow for really efficient
  teaching to follow.

6

• ... significantly more girls than boys believed
  that they had difficulty in remembering formulae,
  in understanding mathematical topics, and in
  applying the work that had been studied in class.
  Almost 20 per cent more girls than boys
  considered themselves lucky if they did well on a
  maths test ...

7

• AND therefore strategies that rely on
  memorisation need to be reinforced with
  opportunities for applied learning, problem
  solving and context rich activities
• AND teachers need to work specifically on
  attributing mathematical outcomes to mental
  strategies (not luck)

8

• more boys than girls are likely to agree with
  the statement that maths is a male domain ...

9

• AND therefore in a boys environment this false
  stereotype can be played to advantage build
  other topics/subjects around areas that the boys
  enjoy e.g. teaching the 'passive voice' in German
  through a study (in German) of the concentration
  camps NOT through yet another round of textbook
  exercises based on domestic life and/or travel
  ("Yawn!")

10

• the outlook (expectation) of the teacher
  remains a significant factor

11

• Experience suggests the Pygmalion effect (i.e.
  the extent to which the expectation of the
  teacher is a determining factor in pupil
  outcomes) has a larger bearing for boys
  (especially lower-achieving boys) than for girls
  whether this is "true" is perhaps unimportant,
  as the message for teachers is certainly
  critical the boys will rise to your level of
  expectation

12

• serialists
• and
• holists

13

• AND this is a really helpful distinction (whether
  valid by gender or not) it explains why some
  students simply switch off when the long-term
  goals of a lesson are explained ("Just tell me
  what to do"), and why others refuse to work when
  simply given a sequence of instructions ("What's
  this for, why do I have to do it?")

14

• AND this thinking leads towards a recommendation
  that instructions are given in reverse order (By
  the end of the lesson , you will so between now
  and then you must giving the first task as the
  last instruction!)

15

• Words such as 'flair', 'sparkle', and 'unique'
  characterised descriptions of a good A Level
  performance which they attributed more to males
  than to females.

16

• boys need to have opportunities to demonstrate
  these features of behaviour think about the
  endless reinforcement of praise that follows a
  deft touch on the football, or a classic goal
  scoring moment the use of competitions, and
  (small) groups (no more than three or a 'coaster'
  will lounge), and chances to 'play up' matter.

17

• inappropriate pace is a source of
• real anxiety for many students, particularly
  girls

18

• AND although this is presented as a 'girl issue'
  here boys too need tasks that achieve curriculum
  coverage through blending learning goals together
  into slower paced linked units, not fast paced
  one thing after another approaches