Top Teaching Strategies for Girls

While there is a great deal of variation among girls, the following teaching strategies have been found to be particularly effective for girls, in general:

1. Collaborative group encourages girls to be leaders during instructional time.
   • Groups are assigned by the teacher strategically in order to place leaders with less dominant girls to encourage competition.
   • Provides an opportunity for all girls to experience the importance of the leadership role.
2. Provide a more face-to-face nurturing environment rather than a shoulder-to-shoulder environment found in a coed or boys' room.
   • Constantly provide positive, verbal feedback.
3. Consider removing hard plastic chairs and put in comfortable seating, including sofas and bean bag chairs.
4. In some science classes, teachers may have a tendency to perform the 'dangerous' part of the lab for the girls, such as lighting the bunsen burners. It is important for educators to challenge the girls as much as you challenge the boys.
5. Girls benefit from the context surrounding the curriculum. They get excited about the material!
   • For example, a choir director reported that when he's teaching an all-girls class a new song, he will share a stories about why the composer wrote the piece, who it was written for, and the director's own personal experiences with the piece.
6. When teaching math and science, girls can focus and attend to the material better when the information is tied to the real world.
   • In girls, math and numbers are processed in the cerebral cortex, the same portion of the brain that mediated language and higher cognitive function.
   • For example, when teaching Fibonacci numbers to girls, you might have them read Dan Brown's suspense thriller, The DaVinci Code, and have them consider the claims made in the book about Phi and the Fibonacci series.
7. Some girls find it difficult to keep asking questions until they obtain an answer.
8. Role-playing exercises work well for girls in the context of teaching literature.
   • Allow opportunities for girls to create skits or act out sections from a book.
9. Girls are less likely than boys to be risk-takers, so some girls may be less willing to venture an answer in the classroom setting. Encourage girls to take risks by facilitating an environment of openness and understanding.

1. Duncan, A. & Schmidt, A. (2009). Exploring instructional strategies in single-sex second grade classrooms. Education.com Gender Differences Special Edition.
2. When Good Marks are Not Enough (June 15, 2004). Retrieved February 9, 2009 at http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/06/14/1087065080216.html.
3. National Association for Single Sex Public Education . What are some differences in how girls and boys learn? Retrieved February 19, 2009 at http://www.singlesexschools.org/research-learning.htm
4. Women in Science. Proceedings of Bryn Mawr College National Symposium. Retrieved February 20, 2009 at http://www.brynmawr.edu/womeninscience/workshop2.html
5. MyDaughter.co.uk. Girl Centered Teaching Strategy. Retrieved February 20, 2009 at http://www.mydaughter.co.uk/girlsSchools/whatGirlsSchoolsOffer/girlCenteredTeachingStrategy/