Posted: January 1st, 2016

What can teachers do to facilitate positive contact between male and female students?

A girls’ school has decided to change its policy and accept boys as well. You are a social psychologist who has a background in designing strategies for reducing tension between groups. The school has asked you to advise on implementing this policy. Your task is to address the following question:

What can teachers do to facilitate positive contact between male and female students?

Develop your advice by outlining and briefly evaluating two suggestions for facilitating positive contact between groups. (550 words)

This assignment includes two process words and so divides into two tasks. First, it asks you to outline two suggestions. The word ‘outline’ indicates that you should give the main features of a subject, emphasizing structure and providing a concise explanation while omitting minor details. You are also asked to evaluate the suggestions you have made. This means that you should appraise the effectiveness of your suggestions – what are the strengths and limitations of each? Do remember, however, that the assignment is not asking for your personal opinion; you will need to provide evidence from the module materials to support your position.
In this assignment, the content words are facilitating positive contact between groups – in this case, of male and of female students. You need to consider which issues might arise that would require attention; that is to say, what could go wrong that you, as an advisor, could help teachers avoid, based on the information listed below on reducing prejudice. Choose two ways of encouraging positive contact which you consider to be relevant to the scenario. Take care to keep your focus directly on the scenario. Outline and evaluate these two suggestions. What strengths or challenges might these approaches have in this particular context?