Single-Sex and Mixed-Sex Classes: The Effects of Class Type on Student Achievement, Confidence and Participation in Mathematics

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Abstract
Among the intervention strategies designed to increase the participation and achievement of girls in mathematics and science education, the establishment of single-sex classes in Australian coeducational postprimary schools seems to be growing faster than the substantive evidence to justify it. This paper reports the findings from the first three stages of a longitudinal case study designed to examine the effects of single-sex and mixed-sex classes on student achievement, confidence and participation in mathematics, at a large Victorian postprimary school. Despite some limitations in the data, the results indicated nonsignificant gender differences and a putative causal relationship between confidence and achievement. While the change in students' mathematics achievement over time, independent of confidence, was similar for all students, regardless of class type, there was a significant class-type intervention effect on students' confidence in learning and using mathematics, independent of achievement. Moreover, for those students concerned, being placed in single-sex classes was associated with greater confidence which, in turn, significantly increased the likelihood of their subsequent participation in senior mainstream mathematics education.