A new paper in Science magazine, coauthored by eight social scientists, claims that single-sex education “is deeply misguided and often justified by weak, cherry-picked, or misconstrued scientific claims rather than by valid scientific evidence.”
The articles asserts that students in single-sex educational programs are more likely to have their gender stereotypes reinforced. The authors claim that “boys who spend more time with other boys become increasingly aggressive and girls who spend more time with girls become more sex-typed.”
The lead author of the study is Diane F. Halpern, Trustee Professor of Psychology at Claremont McKenna College in California. Dr. Halpern, a past president of the American Psychological Association, is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania. She holds a master’s degree from Temple University and a Ph.D. from the University of Cincinnati. She is the author of the books Thought and Knowledge: An Introduction to Critical Thinking, Sex Differences in Cognitive Abilities, and Women at the Top: Powerful Leaders Tell Us How to Combine Work and Family.
The article, “The Pseudoscience of Single-Sex Schooling,” can be purchased here.