Poles Apart? An exploration of single-sex and mixed-sex educational environments in Australia and England

This paper contributes to debates on the benefits of single-sex and co-educ ational school environments by considering both single-sex versus co-educat ional schools and single-sex versus co-educational classes in co-educationa l schools. Two research studies provide the empirical basis for this discus sion. One study was a 10-year-long investigation of two Australian secondar y schools which had been single-sex schools and became co-educational secon dary schools over a two-year period. The second study involved a two-year i nvestigation in an English co-educational secondary school where single-sex mathematics classes were introduced for one cohort of pupils for five scho ol terms, after which mixed-sex classes were reintroduced. Evidence relatin g to academic self-concept, pupil, parent and staff perceptions and academi c achievement are discussed. Overall, the evidence suggests that co-educati onal environments create possible social/interaction disadvantages for girl s, but that academic self-concept is not adversely affected by transferring from single-sex environments into mixed-sex ones.