Exploring the benefits of co-education

A new Greenwood staff working group is exploring the benefits of co-education. The group, which launched in September, will lead research into gender inclusive education to help establish best practices for teaching in co-ed environments.

“Ultimately of course the decision to enroll in co-ed or single-gender education is up to a family,” said Mary Gauthier, Executive Director of Greenwood’s Centre for Teaching, Learning and Research. “What we aim to do with this new working group is further extrapolate the perceived benefits – collaboration, friendships and pluralism – to solidify those and find and share best practices for teaching in all-gender classrooms.”

The working group is looking to gather student voices about their experiences in co-ed environments. A simple survey to gather initial thoughts from students will be shared next week through Adviser. 

“We want to hear what students think,” Mary said. “Our simple survey coupled with the student survey responses from the Fall will help to do that as a first step in our work.”

Mary says there are myths about how boys and girls each learn, and students cannot all be “painted with the same brush based solely on gender”.

“Remembering this is important and in line with our personalization values and goals,” she said.