I am told that there is a Year 9 and 10 'boy problem' in schools all over the world.  The problem can be expressed in a question:  How do we engage boys in academic settings in a new way, not just at a crucial time in their educational development, but also at a time when most are passing through a difficult period of their adolescence?  Additional related questions are, How do we support and require teachers to create powerful learning experiences for their students?  Are students the only learners in a classroom?  I believe the following experiences help us answer all of these questions

Research tells us that we need to structure boys' thinking and writing more than we do with girls; that we provide teaching materials with a strong appeal to their interests and preferences; that we value diversity of style and approach; that we commend succinctness as much as elaboration and logical thought as much as expressiveness; that we try to link oral work, reading and writing explicitly; that we give a wide choice as to the content of their writing and exploration with open-ended and multi-disciplinary learning tasks wherever possible; and that we recognize the online world as a natural part of their experience while we make use of it through purposeful tasks that engage real audiences.  Research also tells us that 1-to-1 learning environments enable us to provide these types of learning experiences and environments for our students, both boys and girls.

Aware of these problems and looking for valid solutions, a group of teachers from three State secondary schools and two primary schools in a mid to lower socioeconomic area of Melbourne joined together in a consortium for a series of workshops to seek practical ways of exploring this issue. I was given the opportunity to work with one diverse group of teachers who chose to explore the ways ICT might be used to encourage and engage students, particularly boys. 

We met for twelve hours over four sessions. We looked first at the theory of success factors in boys learning. Then pairs and groups and finally all twenty participants brainstormed ideas for the following term regarding possible units of work that would incorporate dynamic uses of laptops while also building on the theoretical framework that we had developed. In the final sessions, each teacher fleshed out their planned learning module, highlighted the ICT components to show how they might engage boys in particular, and finally wrote specific statements on how the module would be assessed and how the teacher would evaluate whether the learning goals had been achieved.  These teachers then implemented their plans in their classes with their students.

The most valuable part of the final session, and perhaps of the whole exercise, was a 'show and tell' of the plans which led to some good constructive engagement and dialogue from 'critical friends'. It was real and a very valid example of educators learning from one another.

So what did the final modules look like?

One teacher planned to ask her class to complete research prior to the building of a solar car. This included searching the web sites of various electronics suppliers in the area, then setting up an Excel document so that various prices and types of equipment could be compared. Two other teachers planned a class newspaper with a limited time frame and specific tasks for editors, proof readers, designers, etc. and very specific tasks for reporters in sections such as pets, garden, sport, poems, jokes, crosswords, interviews etc. They planned to ensure that there were boys in each of those teams with each team responsible for its own design and lay-out.

One teacher planned a simple poetry unit where pairs of students selected a poem to read to the class. In this case, however, the reading of the poem was to be recorded on their laptops and accompanied by appropriate visual material.

Two mathematics teachers planned an online unit where students were asked to solve linear equations of increasing complexity. The work was to be self monitored and self assessed.

Two teachers of students in their final year at school and in a non-academic stream planned a unit on teenage mental health. They were to start by reading articles and gathering evidence from surveys, then formulating opinions and expressing them visually using an 'Excel' graph and an 'Inspiration' mind map. The goal of all this was to get students to think about and express their opinion without the pressure of speaking, something which is much more of a challenge in Australia than it would perhaps be in the U.S. Students would have visual confirmation of their opinions and a representation of the range of ideas. It was aimed to fulfill one of the State's essential learning goals: "Explore the relationship between texts, contexts, speakers and listeners in a range of situations. In their presentations students are to make effective use of the structures and features of spoken and written language to deal with complex subject matter in a range of situations."

Two other teachers planned a term long unit on human rights combining civics and literature study. The source material included the novel 'Night' by Elie Wiesel, a CD of stories and the film 'Hotel Rwanda'. They related this to the contemporary situation in Sudan, to the exploration of some history of the Holocaust and the 40^th anniversary of the referendum in 1967 that gave citizenship rights to Australian aborigines. Apart from the usual classroom practices of reading and writing, students are required to work in groups to prepare a digital video presentation of one minute about their chosen human rights issue. They are also required to prepare a PowerPoint presentation as a basis for an oral presentation. A rubric was constructed and given to students and teachers taught the basics of digital presentations.

Not all these ideas worked well in practice but it was a 'toe in the water', an opportunity for teachers across faculties to listen to and learn from each other and to take small steps to change a culture of pedagogy. No doubt the girls benefited from these modules as much as the boys, but it was a deliberate attempt to engage boys in a new way.