Purpose: Soon after its establishment in 1863, the Board of Education -- the body responsible for administering public education in Victoria -- determined that a system of universal mixed (coeducational) schooling would be adopted in the colony. Existing single-sex departments were "encouraged", or compelled, to amalgamate, and no new…

Single-sex schooling is believed to benefit students' academic achievement and girls' engagement in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM). The latter is assumed because single-sex environments are meant to neutralise gender stereotypes. Little is known, however, about longer term effects of such schooling. Therefore,…

Declining enrolments in advanced level mathematics at the school level are noted with concern. Whether school type (single-sex school or co-education) affects participation in mathematics continues to be debated. In this article we examine, by school type and gender, statistical data from 2001 to 2015 on Victorian Certificate of Education…

Exploring why more boys than girls continue to study higher levels of mathematics in senior school when there appear to be no gender differences in achievement in earlier years is worthy of investigation. There are potentially many reasons why this occurs including career aspirations, interest, and attitudes. One factor explored in this study was…

While the issue of boys' dominance of the curriculum has a long history, the article examines this phenomenon in a contemporary context, through an empirical study with female teachers designing English curriculum around girls' media in a coeducational secondary school in Victoria, Australia. In this space, teachers, and the researcher, produce…

Given their ubiquitous presence as witnesses to school-yard bullying, the role of the "bystander" has been studied extensively. The prevalence and behaviour of bystanders to "cyberbullying," however, is less understood. In an anonymous, school-based questionnaire, 716 secondary school students from South-East Queensland…

The gender agenda in many North American, Western European, and Australasian countries has undergone a "boy turn" in the past decade amid growing concerns about boys' apparent "underachievement" relative to girls. One aspect of this turn has been the resurrection of interest in single-sex classes in coeducational public state…

This research investigated social and academic outcomes from single-sex classrooms in a Tasmanian coeducational government primary school. Interviews, observations and surveys formed the basis of the evidence. Teachers, parents and children reported positive benefits from the class organisation, but these differed according to gender. Staff…

Gender disparity in education has usually been experienced as disadvantaging girls. Although this continues to be the case in many places, the phenomenon of boys' underachievement--both in terms of participation and performance--has also become an issue in a number of countries. This book reviews the research on boys' underachievement and presents…

;This study examined the nature and prevalence of bullying/victimization by peers and teachers reported by 1,284 students (mean age = 15.2 years) drawn from a representative sample of 25 South Australian government and private schools. Students completed a self-report survey containing questions relating to teacher and peer-related bullying,…

In this paper, factors that influence academic achievement and self-concept of Year 12 students in their final year of schooling at a Catholic co-educational school in Adelaide, Australia were investigated. The study hypothesised there were differences in attitudes and academic performance due to prior schooling experiences, sex, home experiences,…