CHAPTER 2................................................................................................................................... 16
2.8. Teaching boys writing
3. Mobilize the power of parents
4. Create more display platforms in schools 5. Strengthen the development of the curriculum
6. Form flexible and effective mechanisms of process evaluation to keep boys’
interested in learning
7. Develop boys’ good learning habits in a planned way
As can be seen, there are many possible reasons and strategies suggested by researchers to account for the boys’ academic crisis. However, the background, experiences and contexts of SA is different so there is still a need for reasons and strategies to privilege SA boys and help empower them academically.
Gxilishe (1993, p.18) states that girls may be performing better than boys in language learning because in SA the societal norm views languages as “feminine” (a view that is reinforced by the fact that women teachers increasingly dominate language teaching), personality, motivation, verbal fluency and attitude. More recently, in a study conducted by Olivier and Olivier (2016) amongst tertiary students, it was found that there was no difference in attitude towards writing between males and females. The same finding was made in a study conducted by Reddy (2017) into the attitudes of Grade 7 boys and girls toward Mathematics. This could indicate that boys have improved their attitude towards learning, but their continued underperformance would suggest that more than a change in attitude is required to bring about a noticeable improvement in their results.
Internationally, in studies conducted on middle school learners (approximately between 12–15 years old), Sax (2005) found that boys may be achieving lower results in language because they need different types of instruction due to biological differences. For instance, boys do not hear as well as girls do, their visual systems are better at seeing action and they are more energetic. In addition to this, King and Gurian (2006) state that researchers have identified more than one hundred structural differences between the male and female brain, hence they may need different writing instruction. These structural differences include verbal and spatial differences, which could explain why girls use more words on average and tend to think more verbally.
Also, a boy’s frontal lobe develops slower than a girl’s, and at a later age. Thus, girls are less impulsive, can sit still, and read and write, and they learn to read and write at an earlier age, so they are generally better at literacy. Furthermore, girls’ brains generate more crosstalk between hemispheres, which means that they are better at multitasking. On the other hand, boys take more time to transition between writing tasks and become irritable when teachers continually move them from task to task.
Thus, it is suggested that teachers should balance multitasking when developing boys writing skills with project-driven and depth-driven learning (King & Gurian, 2006).
Because of these differences, Weil (2008) motivates for separate classes for boys and girls, and Sax (2005) for separate schools. In the selected city in KZN where this study was conducted, most single sex schools are either ex-Model C or private schools. Due to contextual factors like a lack of resources, not enough male teachers or learners,
or a shortage of space, it may not be possible for public schools to have separate sex classes.
In order to assist teachers who teach mixed sex classes, based on the connection between brain science and classroom differences, King and Gurian (2006) suggest that teachers use same sex seating arrangements in the classroom and provide the following strategies to make the writing classroom more boy-friendly. One approach is to increase experiential and kinaesthetic learning opportunities by planning activities which keep boys energised and attentive and promoting healthy competition and movement around the classroom. Another approach is to address boys’ visual-spatial needs with activities like story boards or drawing pictures as part of the planning stage in the writing process will help them to put down on paper what they are thinking.
Opportunities providing options and letting them choose their own writing topics would address the different interests, boys and girls have and suit boys’ stronger desire to choose their own (Higgins, 2002). Moreover, educators could make writing purposeful by connecting it to real-life situations. A last suggestion is to seek out male role models, which may also include older respected male learners, to visit the class and share their writing experiences.
Gurian and Stevens (2010, p.1) provide the following ten practical strategies, based on research and on a practical baseline for success to close gender gaps and raise student performance.
1. Teachers increase the use of graphics, pictures and storyboards in literacy-related classes and assignments.
2. Classroom methodology includes project-based education in which the teacher facilitates hands-on, kinaesthetic learning.
3. Teachers provide competitive learning opportunities, even while holding to cooperative learning frameworks.
4. Classroom curricula include skills training in time, homework and classroom management.
5. Approximately 50 percent of reading and writing choices in a classroom
are left up to the students themselves.
6. Teachers move around the classroom as they teach.
7. Students are allowed to move around as needed in classrooms, and they are taught self-discipline in their movement.
8. Male mentor systems permeate the school culture, including use of parent-mentors, male teachers, vertical mentoring (e.g. high school students mentoring elementary students), and male peer mentoring.
9. Teachers use boys-only (and girls-only) group work and discussion groups in core classes such as language, arts, maths, science and technology.
10. Teachers and counsellors provide skill building for sensitive boys (approximately 20 percent of males fall somewhere on the “sensitive boy”
spectrum), and special education classes are taught by teachers trained in how to teach boys specifically.
These strategies increase motivation, diminish rates of acting out and failure and may increase girls’ performance. Adding to this, Pavy (2006) states that boys prefer content that is relevant to their lives, purposeful activities and progress indicators to show what they have achieved and how far they are from achieving their goals. Other factors that promote an improvement in boys’ writing include confident teachers who are able to make the writing curriculum relevant and create a writing culture in their classrooms by improving the learners’ attitude, purpose and motivation (Barrs & Pigeon, 2002).
Furthermore, teaching must be structured with tools for learning such as visual and diagrammatic ways of organising information, writing templates and genre samples (Frater, 1998). Also, boys will be more motivated if any planning and drafting has clear aims (Barrs & Pigeon, 2002). Penny (1998) found that boys benefitted from reading and hearing their own and their peers’ drafts. Lastly, discipline must be maintained by using non-confrontational approaches such as praising learners in public and rebuking them in private. Boys also respond positively to receiving merits or awards, which can
encourage good behaviour and more effective writing (Frater, 1998). It could be argued that the above suggestions could possibly be applied to girls and benefit them in the writing classroom as well but if these strategies are specifically aimed at the boys it could be a starting point towards developing more tailored strategies to assist SA boys.
Pattman and Bhana (2006) provide some insight in this regard and recommend that the role of the teacher is crucial in working with young black males, so teachers must be caring, sympathetic, young person centred, and treat them with respect. The reason for these recommendations is that they found that black boys in SA have a bad reputation of being violent, sexually violent and disruptive. However, Pattman and Bhana (2006) found that the “bad” boys who participated in their study were good as they had a strong work ethic and attached a high importance to education. These boys also stated that working with girls was better as they helped them to concentrate and were less noisy. In their study, Pattman and Bhana (2006) highlight the plight of young black males in SA, who are not only negatively stereotyped, but also come from impoverished backgrounds. This means that many must seek part time employment at a young age, whilst still in school, and have the burden of being potential breadwinners in communities characterised by high unemployment rates (Pattman &
Bhana, 2006).
The boys in their study also explained that they were always viewed as suspects and were often not given the opportunity to explain any action that was perceived as wrong by their teachers and principal. For instance, if something went missing, the black boys were singled out, or they were punished for arriving late for school when in fact their lateness was as a result of the poor transport many of them rely on (Pattman & Bhana, 2006). To add to their challenges, they are still learning English, and many are learning through the medium of English in a schooling system that does not accommodate their specific needs and challenges. The recommendations that Pattman and Bhana (2006) suggest go some way in catering for boys in the classroom, but they are not specific enough to assist SA IP boys improve their writing skills, and possibly their overall academic performance. In fact, there seems to be a gap in SA literature in this regard.
This is significant for my study because out of the 39 boys who participated, 23 were black. Understanding how the challenges described above may impede their writing
development and analysing the strategies that their teachers may use to help them overcome these challenges, could contribute to the dearth of research in this area.