You have a mixed class of boys and girls. Which method would you adopt to…

Cooperative learning between students is built on positive interdependence — a shared task or goal that can be reached only when every participant's contribution is needed. Merely placing students physically close together, or talking to them about equality, does not create this interdependence; only a task that genuinely requires joint effort does.

In a mixed class, giving boys and girls a task that has to be completed together forces them to plan, divide the work, and combine their contributions to reach one shared outcome. That lived experience of mutual dependence — succeeding or failing together — is what actually builds cooperative habits between them, because the task's success genuinely depends on both groups working as one.

• Asking parents to discuss equality moves the effort outside the classroom onto adults; it does not put the students themselves into any activity with each other.

• Making boys and girls share a bench changes seating proximity only; sitting side by side does not require any joint task, so students can remain socially separate even while seated together.

• Talking about equality in lessons is a one-way classroom discussion the students listen to; it does not require boys and girls to act together toward a common outcome.

Because only a joint, interdependent task genuinely requires the two groups to work together, setting tasks which have to be done together is what builds real cooperation — not mere proximity or discussion.