Keywords
Coeducation -- South Carolina, Single sex classes (Education) -- South Carolina, United States -- No Child Left Behind Act of 2001
Abstract
Educating male and female students in separate learning environments has been a common practice since the early inception of educational programs. However, this practice was heavily debated in the 20th century for its perceived inequalities in the treatment of students based on their gender resulting in today's coeducational classroom structure. Recently, interest in single-sex classrooms returned as an alternative for educating America's youth. Political support for this educational approach was evident in modifications to the 2006, No Child Left Behind Act which in turn led to increased availability and popularity of this educational venue. Despite same-sex classrooms' acceptance, research results on the effectiveness of single-sex classrooms have been mixed contributing to inconclusive findings that do little to support the use of public funds for such initiatives. The purpose of this research is the analysis of data to clarify the outcomes of single-sex classroom environments and their effects on students. South Carolina Department of Education survey results (2008) were examined using ANOVA analysis to identify differences in the group means between the male and female students and regression analysis was used to test the influence of the control (independent) variables on the dependent variables. The statistical analysis did not find significant differences in how the single-sex classrooms impact males and females in terms of academic achievement. However, motivation and self-esteem were found to have significant differences for male and female students in single-sex classrooms. Notably the analysis results iv indicated 4th, 5th, and 6th grade levels demonstrated the greatest disparities between the genders. Regression results highlighted the inability of the independent (control) variables of grade level, gender, or ethnicity in explaining the variation in any of the dependent variables, failing to confirm the model used in analysis. Likewise, grade level was generally found to have a greater impact than gender or ethnicity on the academic achievement, motivation and selfesteem dependent variables. It is recommended that additional research be conducted to further consider these variables and their effects on students utilizing a wider range of control (independent) variables.
Notes
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Graduation Date
2011
Semester
Spring
Advisor
Martin, Lawrence
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
College
College of Health and Public Affairs
Format
application/pdf
Identifier
CFE0003599
URL
http://purl.fcla.edu/fcla/etd/CFE0003599
Language
English
Length of Campus-only Access
None
Access Status
Doctoral Dissertation (Open Access)
Subjects
Dissertations, Academic -- Health and Public Affairs, Health and Public Affairs -- Dissertations, Academic
STARS Citation
Gleason, Paul, "Gender Segregated Learning Environments An Analysis Of The Perceived Impact Of Single-sex Classrooms In South Carolina" (2011). Electronic Theses and Dissertations. 2039.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/etd/2039