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Announcements
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Information on IBSC Action Research, 2013‐14: Boys and Character Education
United Kingdom and Europe |
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Reinvigorating English Literature in the Education of Boys,
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The Americas |
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Sharpening the Case for Boys’ Schools - and My School: the Vital Partnership of Admissions, Marketing and Communication, Montgomery Bell Academy, Nashville, TN on May 2-4, 2013.
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Australia and New Zealand |
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IBSC Action Research Report: 2011–12
Teaching Boys at the Coal Face: Mining Key Pedagogical Approaches
(This file is reduced in size for quicker download. For larger file, contact office@theibsc.org.)
The eight action research reports presented here represent an extension of previous research undertaken on behalf of the IBSC by Michael Reichert and Richard Hawley. In their report to the IBSC, Teaching Boys: A Global Study of Effective Practices (2009), and subsequent publication, Reaching Boys, Teaching Boys: Strategies that Work – and Why (2010), Reichert and Hawley debunk the myth that boys are resistant to schooling. Their large-scale, worldwide study of boys and their teachers emphatically reveals that boys want to succeed at school, and that a significant part of leading them to such success is the forging of positive student-teacher relationships. To complement their findings, Reichert and Hawley provide teachers with a comprehensive toolkit of strategies that work effectively with boys. It is a selection of these strategies that the 2011–2012 IBSC action researchers investigated, implemented and evaluated within their own classrooms, under the research theme, Teaching boys at the coal face: Mining key pedagogical approaches.
IBSC 19th Annual Conference Archive
Monday 9 July to Thursday 12 July, 2012
Hosted by: Scotch College, Melbourne, Australia
Theme: Unearthing Creativity
The conference was a great success!
Conference addresses and workshop materials, including a photo gallery, are now posted.
Locating Significance in the Lives of Boys is now available.
During the course of this two-year research project involving 20 schools around the world, Dr. Cox conducted interviews with groups of boys, met with teachers, and made presentations to parents. He listened carefully to boys’ voices, and followed the thread of their thoughts. What emerged was a cluster of “dimensions of significance” where boys find value and meaning – Becoming Myself, Belonging and Influence, Pragmatic Transcendence, “Real-Time” Achievement, and Origins and Traditions.
For boys’ schools, there is much in the report that will both affirm and challenge. These “dimensions of significance” will also give us, we hope, a new lens to sharpen the focus of our work with boys. The report includes a concluding chapter with recommendations – directive without being prescriptive – that should inspire rich discussion.
Locating Significance in the Lives of Boys is available in the following ways:
1. IBSC Members have free access to the publication, and are granted permission to use and distribute the report in any form within their school community.
2. Non-IBSC members may purchase a single eBook with rights for one copy.
Please note that the IBSC asserts copyright, and all rights are reserved.
For those who are not members of the IBSC, the report may be used and downloaded only for personal and non-commercial use.
More details, including IBSC member access to the publication and non-member ordering information is available on the Locating Significance web page.
Reaching Boys, Teaching Boys: Strategies that Work –and Why
Michael Reichert and Richard Hawley
Jossey-Bass
The International Boys’ Schools Coalition is delighted to announce the publication of Reaching Boys, Teaching Boys, based on the IBSC research project, Teaching Boys: A Global Study of Effective Practices.
Challenging the widely held cultural impression that boys are stubbornly resistant to schooling, Reaching Boys, Teaching Boys features more than 100 detailed examples of classroom activities—along with real-world teaching techniques—that have proven effective with male students.
Based on a wide-ranging, worldwide study of more than 1,500 boys and 1,000 teachers, Reichert and Hawley reveal what boys need in order to want to succeed in school and offer tips for forging successful relationships with boys. Woven throughout the book is moving testimony from both boys and teachers that validates the effectiveness of these lessons.
The IBSC is able to offer member schools a heavily discounted price for orders of multiple copies.
Contact office@theibsc.org for details.
Action Research in Boys' Schools, 2009–10
Ready, Willing, and Able: Boys and Writing
Members of the fifth cycle of the IBSC Action Research programme addressed the question: How can we help boys become prolific, powerful and confident writers? A team of 22 teachers from Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Canada, South Africa, the UK and the US worked on a variety of exciting projects during 2009-10.
A number of clear themes are evident in the two volumes of Ready, Willing, and Able: Boys and Writing. The first theme focused on the ways in which Web 2.0 applications such as wikis, discussion boards and blogs can change the way boys feel about writing tasks. A second theme highlighted the importance of audience and feedback for boy writers. The third theme relates to the use of a variety of prompts and stimuli to encourage boys to write, whilst the final area of focus examined the value of collaborative projects in engaging boys in the writing process.
These reports are a treasure-trove of ideas for motivating boy writers, and a celebration of the unique power of action research to generate reflection and change in teaching practice – to the betterment of boys’ education everywhere.
Ready, Willing, and Able: Boys and Writing, Volume I [download pdf]
Ready, Willing, and Able: Boys and Writing, Volume II [download pdf]
Teaching Boys: A Global Study of Effective Practices
During 2008–9, nearly 1000 teachers and over 1500 boys told stories of memorable and powerful teaching and learning in the middle and senior school years. The project involved eighteen IBSC schools in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. Teaching Boys: A Global Study of Effective Practices is the result of this unique world-wide collaboration. Writers are Dr. Michael Reichert, Executive Director of the Center for the Study of Boys' and Girls’ Lives at the University of Pennsylvania, USA and Dr. Richard Hawley, retired Headmaster of University School, Ohio, USA.
The report affirms and celebrates what teachers in boys’ schools do every day, and will generate vigorous discussion and reflection. It extends, often in imaginative ways, the range of effective pedagogy for boys, and signposts new paths for further thinking and research about boys’ achievement and motivation. No simple recipe book, the report invites the reader to listen to and engage in a vibrant conversation about teaching geared to boys.
Teaching Boys: A Global Study of Effective Practices is available in the following ways:
1. IBSC Members have free access to the publication, and are granted permission to use and distribute the report in any form within their school community.
2. Non-IBSC members may purchase a single eBook with rights for one copy.
Please note that the IBSC asserts copyright, and all rights are reserved.
For those who are not members of the IBSC, the report may be used and downloaded only for personal and non-commercial use.
More details, including IBSC member access to the publication and non-member ordering information is available on the Teaching Boys web page.
Journeys into Masculinity: the 2008–09
Action Research Report
The 2008/9 Action Research Team began their work at the 15th annual conference in Toronto, and presented their findings at the 16th annual conference at Lindisfarne College, New Zealand in July.
The reports offer deep insights into the challenges that face boys on their journey into manhood and illustrate the great opportunities that boys’ schools have to assist them in coming to grips with complex and sensitive constructs such as masculinity.
The findings also highlight the vital role that boys’ schools can play in providing safe environments in which boys’ voices are recognised and respected.
Journeys into Masculinity is now available to IBSC members. Please visit the Action Research section of our website for this and other Action Research reports.
Positive Relationships, Positive Learning: 2007/8 IBSC Action Research Report
This collection of reports is the culmination of the creative and inspired work of five educators in the IBSC action research programme for 2007–8. They met at the 14th annual IBSC conference at The Roxbury Latin School, worked on their projects during the year, and presented their findings at the 15th annual IBSC conference in Toronto.
Positive Relationships, Positive Learning is grounded in two principles. Boys learn best in empathy-rich classrooms. And nurturing boys’ social-emotional competency is central to our mission as schools for boys.
The reports explore peer leadership and mentoring initiatives, programmes that promote healthy relationships, and exercises that “engage the empathy muscle for a workout”, in the words of one contributor. Whether on a small or large scale, the projects described here are intriguing and inspiring. These are also vivid stories of the step-by-step process of action research, a brand of inquiry that remains at the cutting edge of educational practice.
For front-line teachers and school leaders alike, the journeys recounted here provide compelling testimony of the power of action research to spark professional growth and school change.
We are grateful to these educators for giving us such a privileged glimpse into the vitality and vibrancy of their schools. And special thanks to Di Laycock, coordinator of the program, for her leadership.
Job Openings at IBSC Member Schools
The International Boys’ Schools Coalition is eager to help all member schools who might have positions to be filled.
Contact Us: www.theibsc.org
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for General Information, office@theibsc.org.
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for Brad Adams, adams@theibsc.org;
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for Kathy Blaisdell, office@theibsc.org.
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for Kellie Baillargeon, accounts@theibsc.org.
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for Beckie Garcia, garcia@theibsc.org.