TEACHING BOYS a Global Study of Effective Practices

TEACHING BOYS A Global Study of Effective Practices Michael Reichert, Ph.D. & Richard Hawley, Ph.D. INTERNATIONAL BOYS’ SCHOOLS COALITION offi[email protected] • www.theibsc.org ©2009 by the International Boys’ Schools Coalition. All rights reserved. THIS VERSION OF THE REPORT IS AVAILABLE ONLY TO CURRENT IBSC MEMBERS. i Table of Contents CHAPTER 1 Introduction.................................................................................................................1 CHAPTER 2 Research Design .........................................................................................................5 CHAPTER 3 Teacher Responses...................................................................................................10 Determining Categories....................................................................................................10 The Ubiquity of Technology ..............................................................................................10 Active Learning Emphasis .................................................................................................11 Effective Lessons: Formative or Merely Fun? .....................................................................11 The Transitive Factor in Effective Lessons ..........................................................................12 ࡯ Product ........................................................................................................................12 PRODUCTS THAT GO PRODUCTS OF USE PRODUCTS THAT ILLUSTRATE PRODUCTS THAT ENGAGE ࡯ Gaming........................................................................................................................27 GAMING FOUNDATIONAL SKILLS GAMING DIFFICULT OPERATIONS GAMING FOR RETENTION GAMING INQUIRY GAMING A PROCESS GAMING THE COURSE ࡯ Motor Activity..............................................................................................................46 EMBODYING A PROCESS EMBODYING CONCEPTS EMBODYING EXPERIENCES THE GENERAL TRANSITIVITY OF MOTOR ACTIVITY ࡯ Role Play/Performance .................................................................................................61 ROLE PLAYING A PROCESS ASSUMING REAL WORLD ROLES ROLE PLAYING CRITICAL DECISIONS EMPATHIC ROLE PLAY ࡯ Open Inquiry................................................................................................................70 OPEN INQUIRY: EXPERIENCE AND THEORY OPEN INQUIRY: DESTINATIONS WITHOUT MAPS OPEN INQUIRY: ENCOURAGING PERSONAL PERSPECTIVE ࡯ Team Work/Competition ..............................................................................................77 TEAM WORK: ENERGIZING COLLABORATION TEAMWORK WITH A COMPETITIVE EDGE TEAM WORK/COMPETITION: PARTS COHERING INTO WHOLES ࡯ Personal Realization.....................................................................................................84 PERSONAL REALIZATION: THE CONSIDERATION OF OTHERS PERSONAL REALIZATION: SELF-DISCOVERY PERSONAL REALIZATION: MASCULINITY ii ࡯ Responsibility for Outcomes.........................................................................................90 ࡯ Intrinsic Subject Matter ................................................................................................95 ࡯ Interactive Technology ...............................................................................................100 ࡯ Boy-Specific Pedagogy ...............................................................................................104 ࡯ Metacognition ...........................................................................................................113 ࡯ Novelty, Drama, Surprise ............................................................................................116 A HINT OF DANGER… VISCERAL EXPERIENCES CROSSING BOUNDARIES, BREAKING EXPECTATIONS CHAPTER 4 Student Responses.................................................................................................128 ࡯ Playfulness.................................................................................................................129 FUN PLAY GAMING SURPRISE ROLE PLAY SCREENTIME ࡯ Adventure and Discovery ...........................................................................................148 BEING ‘FREE’ BEING ‘OUTSIDE’ ࡯ Centering...................................................................................................................155 REACHING IN DRAWING OUT MOBILIZING BEING PHYSICAL VISUAL ILLUSTRATIONS ‘HANDS-ON’ ILLUSTRATIONS MAKING THINGS ࡯ Social Validation.........................................................................................................173 PERFORMANCE AND DISPLAY DEBATE COMPETITION TEAMWORK PEER LEARNING ࡯ Self-Completion .........................................................................................................187 LIFTED TO SUCCESS MEETING THE CHALLENGE ON ONE’S OWN PERSONAL REALIZATION CHAPTER 5 The Relational Context ........................................................................................197 ࡯ Reading the Teacher...................................................................................................198 ࡯ Drawing Attention.....................................................................................................202 ࡯ Incorporating Humor..................................................................................................204 ࡯ Offering to Mentor ....................................................................................................206 ࡯ Demonstrating Mastery .............................................................................................208 ࡯ Offering Inspiration....................................................................................................211 ࡯ Friendly Style .............................................................................................................215 ࡯ Structured, Authoritative Style...................................................................................218 ࡯ Personal Disclosure and Modeling ..............................................................................221 ࡯ Reciprocating Care .....................................................................................................223 iii CHAPTER 6 Convergences and Divergences........................................................................226 CHAPTER 7 Suggestions for Teachers.....................................................................................229 Clear Contours: Active Learning ......................................................................................229 Competition and Collaboration.......................................................................................229 Immediacy ......................................................................................................................230 The Relational Dimension ...............................................................................................231 CHAPTER 8 Implications for Schools.......................................................................................232 Reluctant to be Gender-Specific ......................................................................................234 Categorically Gender-Specific .........................................................................................237 Experientially Gender-Specific ........................................................................................240 Classrooms for Boys........................................................................................................245 Conclusion......................................................................................................................247 References .......................................................................................................................................249 iv 1 Introduction Love goes toward love as a school boy from his books William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet, Act 2, Scene 2 Maybe you have a son like Chance – smart, capable boy – or maybe a teenager who is starting to struggle in school. Possibly, you’ve had a wake-up call like Trina or are experiencing something that is less dramatic but equally troubling: a growing sense that your school-age son is falling out of love with learning. When he talks about his classroom experience, you’ve begun to notice that he seems fearful, bored, or frustrated. Or maybe you see ways in which he’s disengaged from the classroom altogether. Perhaps you’ve begun to see small but persistent signs that it’s gotten harder to be a schoolboy than you remember. Peg Tyre, The Trouble with Boys (2008), p. 2 As the epigrams above suggest, boys for generations have tended to find the experience of schooling aversive. In her historical study of boys, Cohen (1998) captures the classical characterization of boys’ scholastic stance—“a habit of healthy idleness”—as if working hard to read, figure, and master tasks lay somehow outside a boy’s given nature. Tyre, in a recent, balanced review, attempts to steer clear of the politics that have confounded consideration of the problem to remind readers of its scope and social significance. Still, even with the alarms sounded over the past decade, many tend to normalize boys’ problems with schooling. Carol Gilligan (2005), in a forward to one of her students’ books, tells a story of conflicts her two sons experienced with teachers in their schools and of her own initial parental reaction: “Boys will be boys…” But when Gilligan thought more

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