The Benefits of Single-Sex Education - Essay Example

Of late, there has been increased interest in educational research on the concept of single-sex education. Single-sex education entails providing learning with the male and female students in separate classes, or schools (Sax, 2005). Proponents of single-sex education argue that this arrangement of providing education has more benefits for the students as opposed to the coeducational ones (Diane & Halpern, 2007; Hughes, 2007). On the other hand, those in favor of mixed schools argue that coeducation enables students of either gender to learn to communicate and socialize with each other, and in this way, they can talk out challenges in marriage in the future (Jill, 2000).

It has also been stated that coeducation enables the boy gender to work harder in order to appear good before the girls. The girls will also work hard in order to prove that they can be as good as the boys and so the competitive environment leads to better school performances. The mix of gender also enables students to learn from different viewpoints and thus widens their knowledge (Jill, 2000).   However, I am of the opinion that single-sex education is way much better for students and this has been supported by scholarly research.

  Research conducted by Diane and Halpern (2007) shows that girls and boys learn differently as they have varying brain development.  Furthermore, girls seem to mature faster than boys. This requires that the educators adapt teaching styles that are specific to the two groups and this can be done easily when the school is using the single-sex education model. Another reason why single-sex education is better is that it allows the student to be themselves in their gender (Sax, 2005). The aspect of trying hard to impress is not good for psychosocial development and this can be avoided in a single-sex education setting (Hughes, 2007).