Single-Sex and Mixed-Sex Classes: The Effects of Class Type on Student Achievement, Confidence and Participation in Mathematics

Abstract

Among the intervention strategies designed to increase the participation and achievement of girls in mathematics and science education, the establishment of single-sex classes in Australian coeducational postprimary schools seems to be growing faster than the substantive evidence to justify it. This paper reports the findings from the first three stages of a longitudinal case study designed to examine the effects of single-sex and mixed-sex classes on student achievement, confidence and participation in mathematics, at a large Victorian postprimary school. Despite some limitations in the data, the results indicated nonsignificant gender differences and a putative causal relationship between confidence and achievement. While the change in students' mathematics achievement over time, independent of confidence, was similar for all students, regardless of class type, there was a significant class-type intervention effect on students' confidence in learning and using mathematics, independent of achievement. Moreover, for those students concerned, being placed in single-sex classes was associated with greater confidence which, in turn, significantly increased the likelihood of their subsequent participation in senior mainstream mathematics education.