Working out what works in girls’ education

The GDST is a founding member of the International Coalition of Girls’ Schools (ICGS). ICGS started life as the National Coalition of Girls’ Schools (NCGS), established in the United States in 1991 as the leading advocate for girls’ schools, connecting and collaborating globally with individuals, schools, and organisations dedicated to educating and empowering girls. In June 2022, it became the International Coalition, currently a network of 342 schools from 17 countries. It will shortly include the schools of the Alliance of Girls’ Schools Australasia which will merge with ICGS over the coming year, bringing the member school count to over 500.

GDST teachers are among the fellows appointed each year to the Global Action Research Collaborative (GARC), which seeks to encourage action research reporting the impact of specific educational initiatives in a girls-only setting. The current international cohort is exploring the theme of ‘Building Problem-Solving Capacity, Confidence, and Skills in Girls’. Current GARC research projects in GDST schools include:

■ Battling perfectionism: examining the impact of a “pencil principle” scaffold on Year 9 girls’ confidence to engage with unfamiliar problems in the physics curriculum

■ The effect of teaching Polya’s problem solving steps on Year 5 girls’ ability to solve non-routine problems in mathematics

■ Out with the old, in with the digitally bold: using a computer-assisted argument mapping system to build Year 10 girls’ boldness in problem solving in philosophy and ethics

■ ‘But what can I do about it?’ How using Design Thinking in the classroom can increase advocacy in Year 11 girls

■ We can work it out: how teaching primary school girls to collaborate can impact their scientific enquiry skills

■ Problem solved: developing confidence in Year 5 girls through collaborative problem-solving

■ Examining the impact of a project-based learning approach to teaching French: how does it encourage confidence and self-efficacy in girls’ independent problemsolving?

■ “The classics can console, but not enough”: The impact of self-reflexive exploration of postcolonial fiction to help year 13 girls build confidence in engaging with complex social problems of race.

■ How do structured viva-style interviews develop post-16 students’ confidence in solving open-ended, multi-step problems in physics?

GDST teachers are reflective practitioners who seek to optimise the advantages of girlsonly learning environments. In recent years, GDST has contributed its own research findings to this cause, including a large-scale survey of students’ perspectives on what makes great teaching, and a research programme conducted in association with the University of Cambridge.