DEBATE: Are single sex schools more effective than co-ed schools?

Arguments around single-sex schooling can be highly emotive. However, perception is not always the reality. To put it simply, there are good single-sex schools but there are also some pretty poor ones. The same applies to coeducational schools.

 

 

 

David Robertson, headmaster at Shawnigan Lake School, a coed boarding high school in BC, says boys and girls ultimately have a more enriching educational experience when they get to learn together. "There's a cross-pollination that goes on in the academic environment," Robertson says. "The diligence and attentiveness of girls positively affects boys, while the liveliness of boys inspires girls. They learn from and are inspired by each other."

Coed schools better prepare girls and boys for post-secondary school and employment by providing ongoing opportunities to work together, he adds. "They learn to work together productively, which is what they will be expected to do throughout their life. So there is good preparation happening for university and beyond."
Since co-education is the norm in North American public schools, most of the research in the field has focused on the efficacy of single-sex education. Single-Sex Education: What Does Research Tell Us?, a 2010 review of several studies on single-sex education in English-speaking countries, found little consensus on whether the option is actually advantageous to girls' and boys' academic achievement.

Additional research shows boys and girls have unique requirements if they're to reach their full potential. Supporters of the single-sex model say that, because studies show boys and girls learn differently, they should be in a school that caters to those needs and single-sex schools consider these differences to create customized programs that optimize success.

"Girls and boys really do learn differently," says Dona Matthews, an author and education psychologist at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education in Toronto. "Girls are more likely than boys to want to learn co-operatively and collaboratively. Boys tend to be more competitive and to get something good from being competitive."

 

 

Perhaps the most revealing research on single sex versus coeducation is Single-Sex Versus Coeducational Schooling: A Systematic Review. This study was commissioned by the federal Department of Education and was released in 2005. What were its conclusions? Basically it seems to conclude that there is not enough evidence to suggest single sex education is better than coeducation or vice-versa.