Effective Pedagogies for Girls’ Learning

Gender issues have been a focus for many educational research studies in recent decades, sparked by the differential responses of girls and boys to schooling. Differential retention rates, an apparent gender gap in achievement between girls and boys, subject choices at GCSE and A level, access rates to University, have all been scrutinised, with ambivalent outcomes.

This research review focuses on one aspect of this gender debate: effective pedagogies for girls’ learning. In so doing, an attempt is made to consider whether girls and boys are best taught in single-sex classrooms, whether learning is better facilitated in such classrooms, whether girls and boys have different learning styles, whether there are girl-friendly pedagogies which are distinct from pedagogies which support boys’ learning.

The essence of the review, however, is to support teachers: to help teachers to identify, within their own contexts, those learning and teaching strategies which enable girls to maximise their own potential, and to succeed in their education, without sacrificing the essence of their own self.