Gary Wilson 2014

Contact: Wilson.gary@talk21.com

Website www.garywilsonraisingboysachievement.co.uk

publications “Breaking Through the Barriers to Boys’ Achievement” and “Raising Boys’ Achievement – Pocket Pal” Bloomsbury press

Gary Wilson 2014

Gary Wilson 2014

Gary Wilson 20144

Gary Wilson 2014

FOUNDATION STAGE PROFILE (met or working beyond Early Learning Goals)

• Disposition and attitudes G 65% B 52%

• Social Development G 53% B 42%• Emotional development • G 59% B 46%• Language for communication

and thinking • G 52% B 42%• Linking sounds and letters

G 38% B 28%• Reading • G 40% B 32%• Writing G 35% B 23%

• Numbers as labels and for counting

• G 54% B 50%• Calculating • G 39% B 36%• Knowledge and understanding

of the world • G 48% B 47%• Physical development • G 66% B 54%• Creative development • G 52% B 35%• Shape, Space and Measure

G 45% B 41%

Gary Wilson 2014

Because girls develop facility with language more quickly than do boys, this leads them to be more experienced at articulating their feelings and more skilled than boys at using words to explore and substitute for emotional reactions such as physical fights.

“Boys for whom the verbalisation of affects is de-emphasised, may become largely unconscious of their emotional states, both in themselves and in others.”

Brody and Hall “Gender and Emotion”

Gary Wilson 2014

and so….

“Girls become more adept at reading both verbal and

non verbal emotional signals, at expressing and communicating their feelings and boys become adept at minimising emotions having to do with vulnerability, guilt, fear and hurt.”

Brody and Hall

Gary Wilson 2014

Professionals

• 40 years of research shows that teachers dominate classroom talk – “Why bother talking, the teacher will do more than enough for the both of us!”

• The most effective way of improving children’s language is by changing the way we approach language

Nigel Hall (Communicating Matters) “Parents AND practitioners are at fault.”

Gary Wilson 2014

Social class?

• Recent research in America showed that a 3 year old in a middle class family has an equivalent vocabulary to an adult from a “welfare family”.

Gary Wilson 2014

And…..

• Professional parents spoke more than 1,500 more words per hour than those of unemployed parents

• The children of professional parents received 700.000 words of encouragement and 80.000 negatives

• The child from parents on benefit heard 60,000 words of encouragement and 120,000 negatives

Hart and Risley

Gary Wilson 2014

“School for many boys represents a system of hostile authority and a series of meaningless work demands”

Mike Younger Homerton College

www-rba educ.cam.ac.uk

Gary Wilson 2014

“Right boys – time to write.”Sir, do we have to….again?Can’t we just talk about it instead?Sir, can I borrow a pen?Can I have some paper sir?I left my book at home last nightHow do you start?How much do you have to write?What if you don’t finish?Do you write on both sides of the sheet?Does the spelling matter?Does it have to be neat?Do you have to copy out the question?Can’t we just have a rest?My arm hurts sir, I’ve got crampDo I have to copy it out in best?Can I go and work in the library?Can I do it on the computer instead?Sir, do I have to read it through?I know what it is I said.You’re not going to read it out are you?I don’t want it displayedWhat’s it for? Does it count?Is it part of our final grade?Gary Wilson

Gary Wilson 2014

Literacy strategy and RBA?

• No focus on speaking and listening• Average pupil contribution to literacy hour 3

words• Over emphasis on grammar (York 2005)• Reduction of literature to a series of gobbits• Over emphasis on non fiction• Tended to remove real books from the menu• Plenaries not sufficiently used

Gary Wilson 2014

Pre school:

Daughters are six times more likely to use the word love, twice as likely to use the word sad..but just as likely to use the word mad

Gary Wilson 2014

“If the culture of cruelty thrives on boys’ fears of vulnerability, then the challenge is to replace their fears with a greater understanding of their own emotional struggle and in so doing diminish their need for cruelty and their tolerance of it.”

“Raising Cain”

Gary Wilson 2014

Developing emotional intelligence in our pupils means starting with

ourselves

Gary Wilson 2014

• What do you really want?

• What do you really want?

• What do you really want?

• What do you really want?

• What do you really want?

Communication:

• Words chosen and used = 7%

• Tone of voice = 38%

• Non-verbal accompaniment= 55%

Gary Wilson 2014

“The heart of the issue is the day to day relationship between teacher and pupil.

The essential theme is that teachers must rethink the language they use when communicating with boys inside and outside the classroom.”

Peter Downes

Gary Wilson 2014

“I am the decisive element in the classroom. It is my personal approach that creates the climate. It is my daily mood that makes the weather. As a teacher I possess tremendous power to make a child’s life miserable or joyous. I can be a tool of torture or an instrument of inspiration. I can humiliate or humour, hurt or heal. It is my response that decides whether a crisis will be escalated or de-escalated, a child humanised or dehumanised.”

Ginott 1972

Gary Wilson 2014

“Trying to learn without reviewing is like trying to fill the bath without putting the plug in”

Mike Hughes

Gary Wilson 2014

.

Reading

Audio Visual

Demonstration

Discussion groups

Practice by doing

Teach others – immediate use of learning

6.5%

10%

20%

30%

50%

75%

90%

Lecture

Gary Wilson 2014

Why do boys underachieve?

34 reasons……still working on it

Gary Wilson 2014

Barrier to Boys' Learning 

Priority 

Ideas to Remove Barriers

 Action

Who / How / When?

Lack of independence prior to starting school

5   4   3   2   1     

 

Reading perceived as a female province

5   4   3   2   1     

 

Less developed linguistically on entry to school

5   4   3   2   1     

 

Playtimes for boys tend to be hyper physical and boy(!) sterous  

5   4   3   2   1    

Many writing activities in school perceived as irrelevant and unimportant  

5   4   3   2   1    

Low self-esteem   

5   4   3   2   1     

 

Teachers' expectations 5   4   3   2   1     

 

 Barrier to Boys' Learning

 Priority

 Ideas to Remove Barriers

 Action

Who / How / When?

Gender biased resources 5   4   3   2   1     

 

Teacher talk (gender bias)  

5   4   3   2   1     

 

Lack of parental involvement 5   4   3   2   1    

 

Over emphasis on non-fiction for boys 5   4   3   2   1     

 

Mismatch of teaching and learning styles to boys preferred ways of working

5   4   3   2   1     

 

Lack of opportunities for reflective work 5   4   3   2   1     

  

Peer pressure (anti-swot culture) that begins at the top end of primary school and festers in the early years of secondary schools

5   4   3   2   1    

 Barrier to Boys' Learning

 Priority

 Ideas to Remove Barriers

 Action

Who / How / When?

The model of masculinity presented by the boy culture within a school

5   4   3   2   1     

 

Stereotypical perceptions of extra-curricular activities

5   4   3   2   1     

  

The influence of street culture 5   4   3   2   1     

 

Pupil grouping:  particularly setting in language based subjects

5   4   3   2   1     

 

Inappropriate reward systems 5   4   3   2   1     

 

Lack of positive achievement culture 5   4   3   2   1     

 

Reduction of interest in reading in secondary schools

5   4   3   2   1     

  

 Barrier to Boys' Learning

 Priority

 Ideas to Remove Barriers

 Action

Who / How / When?

Inappropriate seating arrangements  

5   4   3   2   1    

Teachers' responses to boys' behaviour  

5   4   3   2   1  

   

Boys' difficulties with written evaluations  

5   4   3   2   1    

Boys' reticence to spend time on planning and preparation 

5   4   3   2   1    

Boys' difficulties with structuring written work  

5   4   3   2   1    

Large pieces of coursework with long term goals 

5   4   3   2   1    

Teachers' lack of awareness of issues related to gender and achievement 

5   4   3   2   1   

  

 Barrier to Boys' Learning

 Priority

 Ideas to Remove Barriers

 Action

Who / How / When?

    

     

    

     

    

     

    

     

    

     

    

     

    

     

Gary Wilson 2014

Over emphasis on non-fiction for boys 5 4 3 2 1

Gender biased resources 5 4 3 2 1

Teacher talk (gender bias) 5 4 3 2 1

Lack of parental understanding of issues related to boys’ underachievement

5 4 3 2 1

Lack of opportunities for reflective work 5 4 3 2 1

Mismatch of examinations to boys preferred styles

5 4 3 2 1

Mismatch of teaching and learning styles to boys preferred ways of working

5 4 3 2 1

Homophobic bullying 5 4 3 2 1

Peer pressure (anti-swot culture) 5 4 3 2 1

Gary Wilson 2014

The lack of positive male role models 5 4 3 2 1

The model of masculinity presented by the boy culture within a school

5 4 3 2 1

Stereotypical perceptions of extra-curricular activities

5 4 3 2 1

The influence of street culture 5 4 3 2 1

Pupil grouping: particularly setting in language based subjects

5 4 3 2 1

Inappropriate reward systems 5 4 3 2 1

Lack of positive achievement culture 5 4 3 2 1

Reduction of interest in reading in secondary schools

5 4 3 2 1

Gary Wilson 2014

Recreational drug use 5 4 3 2 1

Inappropriate seating arrangements 5 4 3 2 1

Teachers’ responses to boys’ behaviour 5 4 3 2 1

Boys’ difficulties with written evaluations

5 4 3 2 1

Boys’ reticence to spend time on planning and preparation

5 4 3 2 1

Boys’ difficulties with structuring written work

5 4 3 2 1

Large pieces of coursework with long term goals

5 4 3 2 1

Intervention occurs too late 5 4 3 2 1

Teachers’ lack of awareness of issues related to gender and achievement

5 4 3 2 1