Adverse impacts on females reported
In Hamburg, a new chapter unfolds in the realm of education as science becomes a compulsory subject. However, concerns about gender equality and the impact on other subjects have sparked debate among educators, policymakers, and the academic community.
The pilot project, launched to integrate science into the timetable and subject framework, has shown promising results. The subject integrates well, and the plans are found to be motivating. No technical problems were encountered during the project. Yet, a subsequent survey revealed a disparity—girls did not perceive the subject as positively as boys.
In response to this issue, the Senate has initiated measures to make lessons "gender-appropriate". Teachers are now being trained to address this imbalance, as proposed by the Left Party inquiry.
The Hamburg Association for Art Pedagogy, however, questions the isolation of science as a subject, advocating for its integration with other subjects such as art and languages.
The specialist group for informatics education in Hamburg and Schleswig-Holstein, on the other hand, is not in favour of abolishing co-education. Instead, they prefer to use differentiation and classroom concepts to ensure equal learning opportunities for girls in science.
The Education Working Group (AfB) of the Hamburg SPD had anticipated this problem and proposed a special school experiment for the 2023-2024 academic year. The proposal aimed to test the "abolition of co-education in the newly introduced compulsory science subject" in every district for one year. However, the party congress rejected this proposal.
The education authority recommends the "PECC model" for informatics education, focusing on play, engagement, creativity, belonging, interest, self-efficacy, and fun. The decision to offer courses separately by gender for science remains with the schools in Hamburg.
Despite the controversy, the education authority supports a pilot project if a school decides to teach science separately by gender. No information is available about which schools will participate in the 2023/24 season.
Criticism from the school sector states that the authority already leaves much to the schools with the compulsory science subject. The Education and Science Union (GEW) calls for a uniform regulation to avoid conflicts among colleagues regarding the compulsory science subject.
The goal of the proposed experiment, as clarified by AfB chairwoman Dora Heyenn, is not to abolish co-education altogether, but to offer selected 7th classes the opportunity to have science taught separately by gender for a limited time.
The introduction of the compulsory science subject has raised concerns about reduced hours for other subjects and schools deciding which ones to cut. In the inaugural year, history was the most frequently affected subject.
Equality is still far from reached in science, according to Dora Heyenn, citing a study by the Nixdorf Foundation. In regions where science is already a compulsory subject in middle school, the proportion of girls in later upper school courses is higher than elsewhere, but still far below the proportion of female students in upper school.
A pilot project in the 2024/25 academic year was conducted at seven schools to test the new compulsory science subject. However, it was found that the project did not reach female students as much as male students. The goal of this experiment was to "equalize the initial IT advantage of boys paired with age-typical dominance behavior by separate initial lessons until learning levels have equalized/stabilized during puberty."
As Hamburg navigates these challenges, the focus remains on creating an inclusive and equitable learning environment for all students in science. The debate continues, with various solutions proposed, as the city strives to close the gender gap in this critical field.
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