Boys, girls & learning pocketbook

While there are more similarities between girls and boys than there are differences, there are innate differences in how boys and girls think, feel, behave and learn. These are particularly marked in the early and teenage years.

That said, not all boys and not all girls are the same.

The challenge for education is to avoid the pitfall of gender stereotyping while understanding and exploiting gender differences for better teaching and better learning.

In the cartoon-illustrated Boys, Girls & Learning Pocketbook, Ian Smith argues against 'gender neutral' education, explaining that gender may be as important a factor as age in how we educate young people.

By letting boys be boys and girls be girls we can help them mature into confident adults, comfortable with themselves and capable of relating appropriately and effectively to other men and women.

Using a range of visual devices to support the text, the book begins by outlining our current understandings about gender and learning. There are sections on building effective relationships with both girls and boys; helping them to behave; making learning physically active, ensuring learning is relevant; and helping boys and girls to work together effectively.

To become self-motivated learners boys and girls need a combination of support and challenge.

This Pocketbook provides practical ways to offer that. Ian Smith also wrote the popular Assessment & Learning Pocketbook.

Founder of Learning Unlimited, (part of Cambridge Education), Ian is one of Scotland's foremost teacher educators.

He is well known for his interactive seminars and workshops with large groups of teachers in the UK and overseas.