It has been argued that the establishment of single-sex classes for females can increase their motivation and participation in physics. This paper reports on findings from a multi-occasional study among 90 female year 11 physics students across single-sex and co-educational high schools in Australia. The aim of this study was to identify the…

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…

This paper explores the participation of Muslim girls in Health, Physical Education (HPE) and Sports in Brisbane Muslim and non-Muslim schools. The debate of Muslim women's' participation in sports is strongly entwined with firmly held beliefs inherited through culture, religion, politics and tradition regarding the female body. Specifically, this…

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…

A study of the sex role stereotypes held by 538 first-term Australian university students from single-sex and coeducational high schools is presented. Results suggest that coeducational schooling may have some advantages for fostering interactions with the opposite sex. (MSE)

Focuses on two research studies: (1) a 10-year-long investigation of two Australian secondary schools that became co-educational secondary schools over a two-year period; and (2) a two-year investigation of an English co-educational secondary school where single-sex mathematics classes were introduced for five-school terms and then mixed-sex…

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. The findings from a longitudinal case study are…

A survey of students from five elementary schools in four socioeconomic regions found that a recent move from single-sex to coeducational schools was seen as positive, particularly for social relationships, but had changed perceptions of competition and teacher time allocation. Changes in academic achievement are also discussed. (MSE)

Identifies characteristics of good (Australian) senior secondary schools, defined as those providing postschool options for students. The most successful schools were the larger independent girls' schools with predominantly transformational leadership practices that promoted positive teacher perceptions of school organization and of students'…

Subjugated to the anachronistic rhetoric of nineteenth century literature, Australian boarding schools are habitually depicted as the remanence of a pre-colonial era. These images continue to be dominated by the paradigm of cruelty popularised by Tom Brown's School Days. This paper analyses the aspirations and attitudes of a study group of…

Gender differences in mathematics learning continue to attract much research attention. Single-sex settings as the preferred option for improving schooling for girls have evoked fierce advocates as well as critics. This case study, undertaken in response to a specific request from a co-educational state school in the outer area of Melbourne,…

This paper reports learning environment research conducted in Australian Catholic high schools. A two-stage methodology involving quantitative and qualitative data-collection methods was employed. In the first stage, a sample of 1,719 students and 160 teachers responded to a specially developed classroom-environment questionnaire. Results…

Critical reanalysis of a previous Australian study comparing the effects of single-sex mathematics and mixed-sex mathematics instruction on students in grades seven and eight suggests that the randomly assigned class-type intervention had relatively little effect on mathematics achievement or attitudes, and that at least some effects favored…

This study examined the effects of increased computing experience on the computer anxiety of 101 first year preservice teacher education students at a regional university in Australia. Three instruments measuring computer anxiety and attitudes--the Computer Anxiety Rating Scale (CARS), Attitudes Towards Computers Scale (ATCS), and Computer…