Single-Sex or Co-Ed Schools in England

Single-Sex or Co-Ed Schools
Introduction
In the UK, the debate over whether single-sex or co-educational schools are more beneficial for students’ development is one that has seen good arguments from both side of the fence. This paper will examine the advantages of both single-sex and co-ed schools as well as the disadvantages of each. It will show that both types of schools have their benefits, and each has its limitations. However, there is no strong argument one way or another that one is better than the other. At the end of the day, it all comes down to preference.
Advantages
Single-sex schools have several advantages: they provide students with an environment free of distractions from the opposite sex which can help them to improve their learning (Johnson & Winterbottom, 2011), give students an opportunity to bond with peers (Booth & Nolen, 2012), and in the case of women can help them to earn more in the labour markets (Sullivan, Joshi & Leonard, 2011). First, same sex schools can allow students to focus on what matters—education and study rather than members of the opposite sex. This is especially true for students who are older: their bodies are changing and their hormones are strong. Sex can be a very distracting issue for learners, so having an environment free of this distraction can facilitate the educative process (Johnson & Winterbottom, 2011). Second, a same sex environment opens the door to creating better and lasting bonds among peers. These bonds can facilitate the growth and development of character and assist the students later in life as they advance into their careers (Booth and Nolen, 2012). Third, Sullivan et al. (2011) have shown that, at least in the case of women, girls who attend a single-sex school earn a higher wage than girls who attend co-ed schools in the UK. These three advantages serve to make single-sex schools attractive.
On the other hand, co-ed schools also have their advantages: they can provide more diversity of environment which can give extrinsic motivations to students (Mujtaba & Reiss, 2013), they allow schools to focus on gender-relational issues so as to assist in the development of students and in the closing of the gender gap (Younger & Warrington, 2007), and they are generally freer of the type of ceilings that are found in single-sex schools (Malacova, 2007). First, co-ed schools offer more diversity, which is good for students who thrive on external motivations: the more diverse an environment, the more likely the right kind of stimulus or motivation is to be found. Second, gender-relations can be approached more easily in a co-ed school, which can allow administrators to devise effective learning strategies for students and assist in eliminating the gender gap in education (Younger and Warrington, 2007). Third, in single-sex schools, there are various ceilings found when in comes to improvement or getting ahead in education: in co-ed schools, there is generally more opportunity for students to succeed and to rise above the bar (Malacova, 2007).
Both single-sex and co-ed schools have their advantages, therefore. Single-sex schools can foster an environment that allows students to focus on education rather than on intermingling with members of the opposite sex; they can facilitate greater bonding among peers, and they help to prepare girls to earn more in the marketplace (Johson & Winterbottom, 2011; Booth and Nolen, 2012; Sullivan et al., 2011). Boys, on the other hand, can benefit more from co-ed schools in terms of having no ceiling to prevent them from succeeding beyond expectations; students in co-ed schools can benefit more from the diversity of experience, and schools can work to close the gender gap (Mujtaba & Reiss, 2013; Malacova, 2007; Younger & Warrington, 2007).
Disadvantages
Single-sex schools do have their disadvantages at the same time that they have their advantages. For instance, first of all, they keep students from experiencing what it is like to be part of a diverse environment and thus they do not facilitate the development of gender-relations in a way that some advocates would prefer to see. However, it might be that some students and families prefer an environment in which there are no distractions, so what may be a disadvantage to some is more of a pro to others (Johnson & Winterbottom, 2011). Secondly, single-sex schools only help girls to obtain a higher wage in the labour market. The same does not apply to boys (Sullivan et al., 2011), which means that boys do not benefit as much at least in terms of obtaining a better wage in the labour market from single-sex schools as girls do. Thirdly, the single-sex school has been found to have limitations: for example, “pupils with high prior attainment cannot improve as much as pupils with lower initial attainment” in prior levels at single-sex schools (Malacova, 2007). In other words, if students peek early in the educative careers, they will not be able to continue to excel at a single-sex school as much as they would be able to at a co-ed school, according to Malacova’s (2007) study of the educative effects of single-sex schools.
Co-ed schools, however, also have their disadvantages. For example, first, they are full of distractions that come with having an environment that allows for the integration of male and female students. This integration can lead to sexualized situations that can take away from the educative experience for some students (Johnson & Winterbottom, 2011). Second, they do not give girls the same kind of benefits that can be obtained from a single-sex school, such as room for development based on prior learning experience and the potential to earn more money in the workforce based their schooling background and so-called pedigree, which can impact the way companies look at hirers (Sullivan et al., 2011). Third, they do not provide the type of single-focus, tight-knit bonding opportunities that are seen primarily at single-sex schools. Co-ed schools provide more room for freedom of movement, which means that with so many options of how to socialize in the diverse school place, bonds of friendship between same-sex students are less likely to be formed and maintained for years to come (Booth & Nolen, 2012).
Both single-sex and co-ed schools thus have their disadvantages. Both can limit the student’s potential in different ways—the single-sex school in terms of preparation and advancement, the co-ed school in terms of creating lasting bonds and friendships that last a lifetime; the both put limitations on the manner in which education is practiced: for boys at a single-sex school there is less likelihood that they will excel beyond a given set of standards if they have demonstrated accelerated prior learning; in a co-ed school they are more likely to continue to excel based on the competition factor alone; in the single-sex school this factor is likely to be found because of the lack of diversity in the environment. In the single-sex school, there is also the problem of motivation for some students: not every student will find in a single sex school the same kind of extrinsic or even intrinsic motivations that can be found in a co-ed school; on the other hand, some students will benefit from a single-sex school more than they will from a co-ed school because of their own learning needs (Mujtaba & Reiss, 2013; Sullivan et al., 2011; Younger & Warrington, 2007).
Conclusion
In conclusion, there are benefits and limitations to both single-sex and co-ed schools in the UK. These advantages and disadvantages will actually be different for everyone, and there is no general rule that can be applied overall. For instance, some students who do not have a stellar record of prior academic accomplishment will likely benefit more from a single-sex school than a student whose record has shown a great deal of accomplishment. The latter type of student would benefit more from a co-ed school where there is likely to be more competition because of the diverse nature of the co-ed environment and because of the motivation factor which is more likely to be found there. Likewise, the female student who wants to earn more in the labour market is more likely to benefit from a single-sex school environment than from a co-ed environment because of the advantages that are placed on single-sex schools for women in the minds of corporations looking to hire serious candidates. For boys, this applies less so, because companies do not view these types of schools as having the same level of importance for men as for women. This may be a sign that gender inequality still exists, at least in the attitudes of companies hiring workers, but nonetheless that is the finding of researchers. Because of these reasons, there is no one way to look at the debate of single-sex schools vs. co-ed schools: both have their advantages and disadvantages. It is simply a matter of deciding which type of school fits which students best and then making the right choice accordingly. Since every student is different and every student has unique needs, no on can determine which is right but the student and his or her family and teachers.
References
Booth, A. and Nolen, P., 2012. Choosing to compete: How different are girls and
boys?. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, 81(2), pp.542-555.
Johnson, N. and Winterbottom, M., 2011. Supporting girls’ motivation in science: a study
of peer?and self?assessment in a girls?only class. Educational Studies, 37(4), pp.391-403.
Malacova, E., 2007. Effect of single?sex education on progress in GCSE. Oxford Review
of Education, 33(2), pp.233-259.
Mujtaba, T. and Reiss, M.J., 2013. What sort of girl wants to study physics after the age
of 16? Findings from a large-scale UK survey. International Journal of Science Education, 35(17), pp.2979-2998.
Sullivan, A., Joshi, H. and Leonard, D., 2011. Single?sex schooling and labour market
outcomes. Oxford Review of Education, 37(3), pp.311-332.
Younger, M. and Warrington, M., 2007. Closing the gender gap? Issues of gender equity
in English secondary schools. Discourse: studies in the cultural politics of education, 28(2), pp.219-242.