Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Aussiekimchi]

I just finished reading an article where the author believes that all high school and older classes should be single sex rather than co-ed.
Her reasoning was that discussion can be muted as the students are more concerned with "being cool" in the eyes of the opposite sex, rather than contributing in class.
She stated that teenage girls are more prone to keeping their opinions to themselves if in the company of males students.

It made me think of my teaching days at a University here and I now give the argument some merit. There I had young freshmen/sophomore girls in the same class as boys a few years older.
Consistently, the girls, who did have a higher level of English, would remain tight lipped.

Thoughts?

[Billy Pilgrim]

If encouraging students to feel comfortable speaking English is a range of situations is not part of our job, then whose job is it?

I much prefer a mix of boys and girls. Sure, some students are quiet, but its my duty to try and bring them out of their shells in the presence of the opposite sex. I suspect that people who advocate single sex classes merely prefer to have an easier go of it.

[SuperHero]

I've read research that shows that boys perform better in coed classes but girls perform better in single gender classes.

[ella]

Women and men can live and work and learn together. Separating them as children in the classroom only fosters divisive "us vs. them" thinking, which we hardly any need more of.

[Aussiekimchi]

I grew up in a COED education system. I have taught for 11 years in a COED education system.
But, for all those uni teachers out there, how many times has a female student come to your office to see you, and speak one on one. You thought she was just the average Korean uni student who couldn't speak English. But you suddenly realise after she starts speaking that her English is quite advanced.
"Why don't you speak like this in class?" you ask her.

Now maybe it is not because of the boys in the class....I don't know. But this article's author claims it is.

[Hotpants]

I agree that students can be more reserved in co-ed classrooms. However, if you continue to keep genders segregated, it just makes it harder for each gender to interact in the outside 'real' world. Communication transcends gender, and as teachers, we need to find a way to make male and female students interact amongst each other and not against each other as in the perpetuation of the 'boy vs girl' game teams. The 'cool' factor is one that often wears off the longer the students are in a class together. Co-ed can work well as long as the lesson is structured properly.

[crazylemongirl]

[crystal]

all my hogwan classes but one are mixed and the boys are generally the louder and the first ones to volunteer answers. The girls are much less inclined to answer - at first I would have to repeatedly call on them to get them to participate, but they are getting better. Boys seem just naturally louder and more boisterous, they like to show off and be the top dog. I have always gone to mixed schools and it never did me any harm, and sometimes I just got along better with the boys anyway. I think its good for students to have friends of both sexes.

[Hyeon Een]

I grew up with single sex education until university, and wish I hadn't.

Now I teach freshmen at a University. My classes are segregated by their major. With my 'food science' majors I have about 60 girls and 6 guys. With my engineering and car mechanic majors I have 50 guys and no girls. With my maritime police majors I have about 30 of each.

My first two groups of classes are effectively segregated. I find that the girls (aka 'food science') classes are super keen and try really hard to get involved. Of course there are a few slackers, but on the whole their attitude is excellent and they are delightful to teach, despite the fact they are mostly as dumb as a bag of bricks.. (my uni is one of the least prestigious..)

I find that with the guys there are about two guys per class who genuinely make an effort, and will volunteer answers etc. There are a few other 'funny' guys who make myself and the rest of the class laugh from time to time, but they aren't actually making any effort in their studies. The rest of them might as well be mannequins unless I specifically call on them.

With my mixed classes.. I find there is about a 50% mix between guys and girls who make an effort. THESE are the classes where I am surprised to find out someone actually can speak some English when I've thought for ages that they had no clue.. I guess they were more shy to 'show off' in front of the rest of the class their English ability. It really has been in the mixed classes that I've found 'secret' English Geniuses. In the non-mixed ones it's been so much more obvious who is trying/learning/a natural genius ... or not.

So my opinion: Girls alone rock; Boys alone mostly suck; Mixed classes are 50% good(and thats both the boys and girls, not just the chicks)

[Yu_Bum_suk]

At the middle school level I think it's a great idea. My friends who teach at my school district's English camp seem to concur, and find mixed classes the most difficult. They also find that sometimes the girls take the back seat. At the high school level I think it's not that healthy socially. At my high / middle school we have 22 classes of girls (very convenient for a FT's contractual schedule, isn't it?) and while a couple are a little too quite I generally have no trouble getting them to participate. Every class has students who really want to interact with me and in some of my middle school classes I have hoards of girls clamouring for my attention. I don't know how different they'd be if the mix were 50/50, but in terms of learning, single-sex seems to be working very well. I just wonder how it effects their social development when they're at school all the bloody time and never interact with the opposite sex. Most of the middle schoolers at least go to mixed hogwans but I have high school students who are 18 who I don't think have ever had any sort of experience relating to boys their own age, which really can't be good.

[kermo]

[Billy Pilgrim]

[Yu_Bum_suk]

[Billy Pilgrim]