Educators: Fashion new teaching methods for boys
Published:Wednesday | June 30, 2010 | 12:00 AM
Patrina Pink, Gleaner Intern
A high-profile educator has criticised teaching strategies in many Jamaican primary and high schools as counterproductive to optimal learning among boys.
Dr Winsome Gordon, president of the Jamaica Teaching Council, argues that defeminisation of school curricula was key to a range of reforms needed to improve boys' academic performances.
Gordon, addressing a conference last Friday on at-risk boys in the education sector, said schoolteachers, in general, do not adequately stimulate the interest of boys in music, song, dance and other culturally relevant material.
She also said there needed to be a wholescale re-evaluation of teaching time.
"When you look at it, there is actually very little teaching time in the classroom. We designate 190 days for classes, but when you take into account sporting and other activities, we get only 130 out of 365 days," remarked Gordon.
The teaching council boss, whose organisa-tion oversees teacher licensing and standards, said this was hardly enough time to level the playing field between boys and girls. (Girls are considered to be faster on the learning curve up to the initial stages of adolescence).
Time to mix it up
Gordon's stance was supported by Dr Herbert Gayle, lecturer in the Department of Sociology, Social Work and Psychology at the University of the West Indies (UWI), Mona, who urged educators to become more adventurous in their teaching techniques.
"I took my students all over the place, to the university. They learned a lot inside and outside the classroom," said Gayle, a former primary-school teacher, adding that boys thrived on science-based learning.
Gayle agreed with Gordon's analysis that the natural athleticism of young boys was being exploited by some primary and high schools at the expense of academic development.
"The boys are just expected to run and to be good at sports," said Gayle. "The boys sit at the back of the class. Let's be honest: The next time you enter a classroom, look at who is sitting at the back and you'll see that it's mostly boys."
The conference, held at the Mona Visitors' Lodge, was organised jointly by the World Bank, the Commonwealth Secretariat and the UWI.