Boys learn better when they have an effective relationship with the teacher, while girls are more focused on their relationship with other girls. These were some of the findings made by Dr Michael Reichert and colleagues involved in a study of how girls and boys learn best in the classroom.

Dr. Reichert is the Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Boys’ and Girls’ Lives, a research consortium of independent schools operating in partnership with the University of Pennsylvania. He is also the author of Reaching Boys; Teaching Boys and I Can Learn With You: Boys as Relational Learners. He will be speaking on Monday, at the Big Ideas Educators Event being hosted by Somersfield Academy and the Bermuda Education Network.

“I will be talking about research that shows how boys and girls succeed in learning,” said Dr Reichert. “I will also be talking about studies my Centre was contracted to do including one commissioned by the National Coalition of Girls Schools on best practices in teaching girls. That study included about 1,200 adolescent female students in 18 different schools and 800 different faculty members. We did a similar study for the International Boys’ School Coalition.”

The boys’ research study identified practices described by over 1,000 boys and a 1,000 teachers as being particularly effective with boys. One successful practice identified involved the boys being able to give feedback to the success of the lesson. Another important feature involved the way the teacher captured the boys’ attention.

“We had teachers who would surprise the boys,” Dr Reichert said. “We had chemistry teachers who would create explosions in the laboratory, English teachers who would have the boys re-enact a scene from Moby Dick or Hamlet. They had competitions or role plays and performances.”

Dr Reichert said researchers were a bit puzzled by a third success element. They found that while teachers talked about the technical aspects of a class, the boys would talk about their relationship with the teacher. They also found that teachers greatly underestimated the importance of this with boys.

Boys also liked lessons that involved competition, physical movement and discussion of masculinity. They learned well in lessons that emphasised individual exploration.

“These are some of the qualities that didn’t show up in the same way with girls,” said Dr Reichert.

He said it was important to look at boys’ learning styles, because communities around the world were having trouble engaging boys in education.

“A lot of stereotypes and myths have obscured our understanding,” he said.

But he said he was not suggesting that an approach to working with boys should recenter boys at the expense of girls.

“In my presentation I will also be talking first strategies for improving girls education,” he said. “It is always important for schools to be ensuring that girls are supported and combat and resist gender stereotypes that might steer them away from full access to educational opportunity.

“For the sake of gender equality, we need to be fine tuning our understanding of boys and girls and the impact of gender on their development. We can’t pretend gender isn’t effecting boys and girls. We have to understand how to use gender as a resource for engaging boys and girls. How do we understand the ways that gender is playing out and use it as a resource rather that seeing it as an enemy.”

He said there was a lot of dubious claims toting brain differences in boys and girls. He recommended a great book by neuroscientist Lise Eliot called Pink Brain, Blue Brain: How Small Differences Grow Into Troublesome Gaps — And What We Can Do About It.

“She argues that almost all of those claims based on brain science are not in fact based on science at all,” he said. “They are misreading and misrepresenting scientific findings. Our brains are very plastic and allow us to adapt to our experiences. If we offer girls rich curricula in the sciences we can expect to find more female scientists. With boys, if we emphasise competition and science at the expense of literature and the arts, you will find more boys specialising in one thing and not in the other.”

Big Ideas is a two-part seminar: the first half will be dedicated to math education with workshop presenters from the University of British Columbia, Warwick Academy, Victor Scott Primary and Whitney Institute and is focused on teachers. The second half will be about strategies that engage boys and girls in their schooling and is geared towards parents and educators.

Workshops like ‘Making Math Meaningful’ presented by University of British Columbia educator Traci Baillie will give teachers an opportunity to explore new activities, games and challenges that are designed to ensure that math is meaningful for every student, every lesson. Dr Reichert will be speaking at Somersfield Academy on Monday, at 6.30pm. The event is sponsored by KPMG and Aspen Re. For a full schedule or to sign up see www.ben.bm or call contact Tracy Astwood at 505-7935 or e-mail tracy.astwood@ben.bm. The conference is free.