Educators have for many years sought to understand why boys underperform in schools and what can be done about it. In Breaking through barriers to boys' achievement, Gary Wilson provides the full picture as to why boys of all ages underachieve and what can be done to start solving the problem. He presents the 28 barriers to boys' learning, including early language development, 'laddish' culture and lack of male role models. His emphasis is very much on turning out respectable young men who have a 'caring masculinity'.
This revised and updated second edition includes new case studies, data and practical tips and advice. You will find tried-and-tested strategies which will help you to:
Breaking through barriers to boys' achievement provides a practical toolkit that will enable every teacher, department, key stage or school to determine precisely which barriers impinge upon their work with boys and to plan a way forward. It also provides a range of whole-school models for developing effective projects for raising boys' achievement.
Appendices
Appendix 1 Storybooks showing males in a positive light
Appendix 2 The story of a boy
Appendix 3 Hearing it from the boys: primary
Appendix 4 Hearing it from the boys: secondary
Appendix 5 The whole-school model (as applied in a Kirklees secondary school in 2006)
Appendix 6 The cluster model
Appendix 7 Subject networks
Appendix 8 A local authority project involving 18 primary schools and one secondary school Bexley Kent 2010/11
Appendix 9 The National Education Breakthrough Programme: the PDSA model
"Gary Wilson provides some challenging ideas about the way education is structured: food for thought and some recipes for action."
- Elaine Hall, www.teachingandexpertise.com, December 2007
"Without doubt the seminal text on this subject."
- Phil Beadle, The Guardian, author of Why Are You Shouting At Us?