Boys as writers: perspectives on the learning and teaching of writing in three primary schools

Boys' attitude to writing is widely perceived as an issue in English primary and secondary schools. Prior research has identified a link between negative attitudes to writing and lower achievement and raised the issue of the stereotyping of boys as underachievers in literacy. The study reported here suggests that if we are to understand the problems associated with the underachievement of boys, we should take into account boys' perspectives on their experiences as literacy learners. In this study, boys aged 8–11 drawn from three London schools in the UK, were interviewed in small groups annually over 3 years of their primary schooling. The boys' teachers were also interviewed separately. These interviews generated insights into the teachers' views of the boys and the boys' views of themselves as literacy learners, especially as writers. The data indicated the boys were highly sensitive to the social situation in the classroom. The boys responded best to their literacy learning when their teachers treated them as individuals, valued their ideas and incorporated strategies for developing learner agency into their daily classroom practice. This article concludes that a teaching approach that includes consulting children about what helps or hinders their learning and a fresh teacher focus on gender issues would increase gender awareness.     

Ethnic Masculinities in Australian Boys’ Schools: Scots and Irish secondary schools in late nineteenth‐century Australia

Recent research into the cultural construction of masculinity has shown it to be not a monolith, but multi‐faceted, contested, and changing over time. Masculinities are institutionalised and practised in many arenas of social life, but schools are especially important in endeavouring to shape and inculcate particular models and codes of masculinity. Historians of education in Britain and Australia have examined how Victorian boys' schools instilled an ideal of manliness, which changed markedly in the late nineteenth century. The English public school code of masculinity was a key feature of Australian boys' schools conducted by the Church of England and other English‐oriented churches and agencies.

This article examines some schools established by Scots through the Presbyterian Church, and by the Catholic Church which was overwhelmingly Irish. The period from the 1880s to the First World War is focused upon, to ascertain what distinctive ideals or models ofmanhood may have been transplanted through these ethnic traditions, and the extent to which they differed from, resisted, or adapted to, the prestigious Arnoldian English code, supported as it was by the popular cultural ideal of British Imperial manhood. The question of whether a distinctively Australian model of masculinity was emerging at this time, and which ethnic traditions contributed most to it, is also explored.     

Gender,Behaviour and Achievement: A preliminary study of pupil perceptions and attitudes

This article reports on one element of a project undertaken in Leeds Local Education Authority (LEA) during the academic year 1995/96. The article makes some preliminary observations based on questionnaire data gathered in one of the project's schools. The data provide some useful insights into boys' and girls' attitudes towards their academic work, their behaviour, their perceptions of the relationship between the two and gender-related differences in these areas. The data also provide evidence of changes in these perceptions and attitudes with age. The analysis of the results and subsequent discussion suggests 'affective factors' which may be useful both in terms of helping to explain individual differences in performance and in the continued search for strategies which improve boys' and girls' performance.     

Boys Bonding: Same-sex friendship,the unconscious and heterosexual discourse

This article aims to explore some of the ways in which the cultural meanings and practices of gender, sexuality and relationships intersect with and are reworked in the same-sex friendships of children aged nine to eleven. Using material from an ethnographic study, it focuses on two boys, Ben and Karl, who identified themselves as best friends. The article argues that, while the boys clearly knew, positioned themselves in and deployed heterosexual discourse, their relationship to this was complex. In particular, they appeared to use it to distance themselves from the feminine and to build their friendship as a pleasurable, intimate and exciting space. The article uses psychoanalytic arguments to explore this material, tentatively suggesting that the boys' access to the cultural practice of 'best friendship' mobilised identifications that both reinforced conventional versions of heterosexual masculinity and questioned these. In particular, the article suggests that the boys' friendship may have involved 'over-inclusive' gender identifications - ones that indicate the existence of boyhood masculinities that are more capacious and flexible than those hegemonic in teenage and adolescent cultures.     

Changing standards? Children's awareness and knowledge of features of written standard English at ages 10–11

This paper reports the findings of a small‐scale research project, which investigated the levels of awareness and knowledge of written standard English of 10‐ and 11‐year‐old children in two English primary schools over a six‐year period, coinciding with the implementation in the schools of the National Literacy Strategy (NLS). A questionnaire was used to provide quantitative and qualitative data relating to: features of writing which were recognised as standard or non‐standard; children's understanding of technical terminology; variations between boys' and girls' performance; and the impact of the NLS over time. The findings reveal variations in levels of recognition of different non‐standard features, differences between girls' and boys' recognition, possible examples of language change, but no evidence of a positive impact of the NLS. The implications of these findings are discussed both in terms of changes in educational standards and changes to standard English.     

档案袋评价在英语口语教学中的运用

档案袋评价以其独特的优势,成为现代教学评价的典型代表。档案袋评价与英语口语教学相结合能促使教师全面掌握学生口语情况,帮助学生从学习过程中掌握学习方法策略,使师生共同完善英语口语的教与学。本文主要介绍档案袋评价产生的背景、内涵、特点,对当前档案袋评价争议较多的问题提出见解,并且分析档案袋评价应用于英语口语教学的意义以及具体实施方法。档案袋评价的实施对英语口语教学有积极作用。     

“I've got to do this in a Southern”: Stylized spoken literary quotation in the ELA classroom

This article investigates whole‐class discussions of literature in the English classroom and the pragmatics of teacher interpretation in and through the voices of characters. In particular, it focuses on the whole‐class oral reading and discussion of the Tennessee Williams' play A Streetcar Named Desire in an ethnically and linguistically diverse rural Canadian classroom, and the teacher's stylized “Southern” oral performances of significant characters as part of her responses to student answers in whole‐class talk. Using extensive audio data from a 12th‐grade English class and drawing from the analytic tools of the linguistic anthropology of education, this article raises questions of the potential functions of stylized characters' voices in literary critical talk. This research contributes to ongoing conversations regarding the pragmatics of voicing, stylization, and the intersections of teacher talk and literacy learning in classroom discourse, with specific attention to the pedagogic work of enregistering bundles of linguistic features with particular teacher‐driven interpretive perspectives on literary characters.     

英语口语学习策略浅论

本文主要根据英语学习者的特点探讨英语口语学习的策略问题。主要论述的内容是:学习者要积极创造练习英语的条件和环境;学会倾听,敢于开口;以听带说、听说结合;通过各种活动形式进行练习;有效地运用交际策略,练就一口自然、流利、地道的英语。     

Oatmeal facials and sock wrestling: the perils and promises of extra-curricular strategies for ‘fixing’ boys' education

Advocates for boys' education have forwarded numerous ‘fixes’ for boys' supposed educational woes, including both academic and non-academic programs and strategies. This article focuses on the lesser-discussed non-academic, extra-curricular means suggested, specifically outdoor education. Using qualitative analysis of an Australian school's outdoor education program, I demonstrate that outdoor and other non-academic sites and strategies for addressing boys' education have particular gendered dangers alongside progressive possibilities. The dangers include reproducing dominant masculinist gender regimes through social interaction, requirements for gendered self-disclosure, and philosophies of the ‘uses’ of nature. Progressive possibilities, conversely, include re-imagining outdoor education as a space for explicit resistance to gender or reimagining the uses of nature to eschew gender altogether.     

Using Film Text to Support Reluctant Writers

This article is the result of working with several schools concerned with improving achievement in boys' writing. It begins by describing a range of effective teaching and learning strategies, observed in my role as a Literacy Consultant, which had a positive influence on writers especially boys. The article goes on to explore how a small group of boys, described by their teacher as ‘reluctant writers’, were encouraged by the use of film text to make the most of their preferences for action‐driven narratives to improve story writing. It suggests that ‘slowing down’ this action in the author's eye gives pupils, and boys in particular, an opportunity to consider detail to enhance composition in the same way that a film director uses camera angles to capture the viewer's attention.     

Gender differences in the strength of association between motivation,competency beliefs and reading skill

Background:?There is concern in the education community regarding gender differences in reading, as girls regularly outperform boys. There is also concern about the consequences of low motivation for children's engagement in reading and learning. An important question is whether boys' motivation is more closely linked to their attainment compared with girls.

Purpose:?The aim of the study was to examine how closely children's reading skill correlates with their intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and competency beliefs. There was a particular focus on gender.

Sample:?There were 492 children (240 boys) aged 7–11 in this study from four primary schools in England, UK.

Design and methods:?Children completed a reading comprehension assessment and a questionnaire examining intrinsic and extrinsic motivation and competency beliefs relating to reading and schoolwork. For analysis, children were split into a younger (age 7–8) and older (age 9–11) age group.

Results:?In both the younger and older groups, the boys' competency beliefs in reading and intrinsic motivation for reading and schoolwork were significantly more closely associated with their level of reading skill, in comparison with the girls.

Conclusions:?The closer reciprocal relationship between boys' intrinsic motivation, competency beliefs and reading skill could be interpreted in at least two ways. Firstly, boys' motivation and beliefs in their ability may be more dependent on their success in reading. Alternatively, boys' motivation and competency beliefs may play a more significant role in the effort they put into reading.     

Illuminating the ‘boy problem’ from children's and teachers' perspectives: a pilot study

The apparent educational underperformance of boys has received phenomenal attention worldwide for many years. In the UK, it has led to various government reports and policies aimed at raising boys' achievement. This small-scale qualitative-interpretive pilot study, undertaken in one urban primary school in North Wales, reports the findings from exploring boys', aged six to seven years, perceptions of education. It also presents teachers' perceptions of how boys' learn and what they regard to be visible gender differences in the classroom. The research suggests that although many boys within this age group seemed generally positive about school and learning, certain issues were emerging for some boys that, if not addressed, could result in disengagement and/or underperformance. Factors include: issues related to boys' reading and literacy; boys' preference for screen-based, digital devices; gender binaries in relation to learning styles and behaviours; gender-specific syndromes; and teacher concerns about the impact of a ‘feminised’ education sector. The objective of this paper is to examine, after decades of research studies and government reports, what do we really know about the perceptions of young male learners and their experiences within the context of the primary classroom?     

Lads and English

This article explores some of the issues raised by the perennial ‘Boys and English’ debate. It questions whether stereotypically masculine or ‘laddish’ behaviour and the apparent ‘feminisation’ of English hinders the achievements within the subject of all boys. A study of a selective independent boys' school reveals that social context greatly influences how boys relate to the subject, suggesting that it is unhelpful to make generalisations about ‘boys’ and English. The analysis frames the fieldwork with reference to media debate, Ofsted reports, and the literature on gender and English.     

Boys into Modern Languages: An investigation of the discrepancy in attitudes and performance between boys and girls in modern languages

It is widely acknowledged that girls outperform boys across the curriculum in the GCSE examinations which are taken at the end of five years' compulsory secondary education. However, the gap in performance between boys and girls in modern languages is very marked and may suggest a need to reassess patterns of teaching and learning. This paper examines the differences in attitudes between boys and girls in modern languages after five years' study in an attempt to give some explanation for the considerable discrepancy in performance. Although previous research findings relating to boys' and girls' attitudes to their studies were confirmed, the significance of teacher personality and classroom practices emerged clearly from pupil interviews with both sexes. The article recognises the changes in the nature of the modern languages curriculum brought about by the introduction of GCSE and the on-going implementation of the National Curriculum, but points to the limitations and frustrations posed by these new agendas. Drawing extensively on pupil interviews, factors are highlighted which significantly affect pupils' perspectives and attitudes towards modern languages, and tentative suggestions are made which could help to improve the performance of both boys and girls in this traditionally 'female' subject.     

Peer group cultures and social identity: an integrated approach to understanding masculinities1

Sociological research investigating boys' masculinity performances has commonly recognised the importance of peer group cultures in identity construction. Whilst such work has undoubtedly offered important and useful frameworks for interpreting and understanding boys' behaviour in schools, the article argues that social psychological theories of intergroup relations also proffer important insights. Drawing upon interview and survey data, the article focuses on the existence of intergroup bias between peer groups in two secondary schools and demonstrates how a social identity framework can assist in providing a fuller and more complex understanding of boys' masculinities than sociological insights alone. Furthermore, it is suggested that gender work strategies designed to address and ultimately help some boys restructure their constructions of masculinity, which recognise the range of complex sociological and social psychological processes at work, are likely to more effective than those that offer partial insights. As such, strategies that draw upon work on masculinities and upon social psychological theories of intergroup relations may be particularly effective.     

‘We Decided to Give it a Twirl’: single-sex teaching in English comprehensive schools

This article reports the recent experiences of single-sex teaching in 31 co-educational English comprehensive schools, often implemented because of the perceived need to raise boys' achievement. Since it was often undertaken on a short-term basis, its effectiveness is difficult to evaluate, although some positive aspects were noted in some schools in terms of raised achievement levels and increased confidence and participation in class. In other schools, however, single-sex teaching appeared to have little impact on achievement levels and led to increased problems of behaviour management in boys' classes, with male bonding between male teachers and male students reinforcing the qualities associated with hegemonic forms of masculinity. The authors conclude, therefore, by suggesting that single-sex classes can provide a positive and successful experience for girls and boys where there is strong commitment from staff, a willingness to evaluate and to diffuse good practice, but crucially where gender reform strategies are in place to challenge any practices and behaviours that reinforce stereotypical gendered roles.     

Boys' Lack of Interest in Fine Arts in a Coeducational Setting: A Review of Sex‐Related Cognitive Traits Studies

Fine arts teachers' concerns about male underachievement in a Quebec coeducational high school, and a related survey showing boys' negative perceptions of fine arts motivated this interdisciplinary literature review. Referring to biology and cognitive science, the article explores concepts of sex‐related cognitive traits to help in designing sex‐adapted approaches to individual learning in art education. The nature‐nurture controversy still surrounds sex‐based cognitive differences studies, though science agrees that natural and socio‐cultural factors are somehow closely interwoven in the complex gender identity construction process. Sex‐related biological predispositions influencing cognition are proposed notably in ‘instrumentality‐expressiveness' and ‘empathising‐systemising (E‐S)’ theories. The article suggests that in the context of art education, these sex‐related cognitive models deserve study, because they could initiate sex‐adapted teaching strategies with the necessary flexibility and wider scope to overcome gender‐stereotyped biases and stimulate boys' interest in the arts. This suggested approach should not be confused with stereotype‐based pedagogy, which merely strengthens learned gender characteristics, producing or maintaining academic underachievement.     

'Spice Girls', 'Nice Girls', 'Girlies', and 'Tomboys': Gender discourses,girls' cultures and femininities in the primary classroom

The past decade has seen a growing political and academic concern with boys' underachievement. Drawing on the case study of a London primary classroom, this article argues that contemporary gendered power relations are more complicated and contradictory than the new orthodoxy that girls are doing better than boys suggests. The girls in this case study took up very varied positions in relation to traditional femininities. Yet, despite widely differentiated practices, all the girls at various times acted in ways which bolstered boys' power at the expense of their own. While peer group discourses constructed girls as harder working, more mature and more socially skilled, still the boys and a significant number of the girls adhered to the view that it is better being a boy. The article concludes that in this particular primary school, girls and boys still learned many of the old lessons of gender relations which work against gender equity.     

Lads,Lasses and (New) Labour: 14-16-year-old students' responses to the 'laddish behaviour and boys' underachievement' debate

The responses of secondary-school students to the claims of ex-Education Minister Stephen Byers concerning 'laddish behaviour' on the part of boys are examined. The data is drawn from an ESRC-funded study of 14-16-year-old students' constructions of gender, learning, and future educational and occupational pathways. The extent to which boys' classroom behaviour was constructed as 'laddish' by students is discussed, and the discourses pervading these constructions are analysed. It is reported that the majority of students supported Byers' argument that boys' 'laddish' behaviour is impeding their learning, and that girls and boys drew on different gender discourses to support their arguments.