Boys need it ‘rich, real and relevant’ in the classroom

Principals are being encouraged to re-think how best to teach boys as they continue to fall behind in national education statistics.

The issue has become a major focus of Principals Digest, an online journal dedicated to keeping teachers up to date with education issues.

A 2007 Education Review Office report found boys learn better in structured lessons, prefer practical activities, are motivated by praise and learn better in relevant contexts and competitive environments.

Otonga Primary School principal Linda Woon says teaching practices need to change for boys to begin achieving better results

“Teachers in primary schools are 80 percent or more female, and those females predominately had female teachers.

“We tend to teach in the way we were taught which means boys may be disadvantaged in the majority of classrooms.

“Girls have a greater facility with language, and classrooms are predominately based around language. Boys don’t learn best by language, they prefer to see and do.

“They need less talk and shorter instructions.”

Teaching patterns that work for boys are also effective at teaching girls, says Woon.

“If you run a classroom suited to boys, it will also suit the girls. Boys suffer if they are in a classroom which is predominately female orientated.”

Witakerei Poinga has been teaching the boys-only class at Rotorua Intermediate for two years and agrees boys need to be taught differently.

Poinga believes the dominance of female teachers has created a feminised curriculum that doesn’t relate to boys.

“When boys don’t relate, disengaging comes into it and they need a different way of learning.

“In my class I try and make my lessons rich, real and relevant. I find out what they know and make my lessons relevant to that.

“For example some of the boys where having trouble with measurement, so I went to a local tire shop and borrowed a rim and when I took it back to school one of the boys piped up and said, ‘Matua that’s an 18’.

“I think real world examples make learning for boys easier.”

Poinga says boys are often misunderstood by teachers when it comes to learning.

“Teachers give up too easily on some boys. They see them as lost causes so let them sit at the back of the class and focus on the good kids.

“We need to get educationalists out of that frame of mind.

“Teachers need to relate to the kids environment, and by going that they can actually connect with them and connect them with learning.”

The 2007 ERO report found that boys are more likely to have reading and writing problems, be disengaged in school and are less likely to achieve qualifications in secondary school.