**3.1 Overall attitude**

The authors conducted descriptive statistics to determine the overall attitude of students towards coeducation. The overall mean score of students' attitude is around 3, which means that they have a positive attitude towards coeducation. The authors divided views of students about the effects of coeducation into two categories.

## *3.1.1 Personal effects of coeducation*

The participants stated that coeducation had positive impact on students. Over 84% believed that coeducation improved female and male students' academic confidence, communication skills, and motivation for study (**Table 2**). Moreover, over 83% agreed and strongly agreed that coeducation would improve students' confidence to speak in the presence of the opposite sex, help them do away with their shyness and prepare them for real life situations. Around 76% and 77% stated that coeducation exposed students to various viewpoints and facilitated positive competition between female and male students.

## *3.1.2 Social effects of coeducation*

The participants believed that coeducation had positive social effects. As **Table 3** shows, over 83% agreed and strongly agreed that coeducation promoted girls' and boys' socialization and promoted mutual respect between them. Around 74% and 79% stated

#### *Pedagogy - Challenges, Recent Advances, New Perspectives, and Applications*


#### **Table 2.**

*Students' view of personal effects of coeducation.*


#### **Table 3.**

*Students' view of social effects of coeducation.*

that coeducation would help reduce gender biases and improve girls' and boys' understanding of each other, respectively. Furthermore, most of the participants believed that coeducation promoted gender equality (61%) and reduced education cost (55%).

#### **3.2 Negative effects of coeducation**

The authors utilized descriptive statistics to determine the participants' views about negative effects of coeducation. As **Table 4** shows, 43% stated that coeducation would result in students' distraction and they would not feel comfortable sharing their ideas in front of the opposite sex. Similarly, 42% of the participants stated that coeducation would not meet students' various needs. 40% believed that students would not ask questions openly in front of the opposite sex and boys always dominate the activities in the class. More than a quarter of the respondents (36%) believed that coeducation would lead to illegal relationships between girls and boys. Around 30% and 33% agreed and strongly agreed that students would not be active in the learning process and work well in mixed-sex groups, respectively. A small percentage of the respondents stated that coeducation would result in poor academic performance (24%) and girls' lack of self-esteem and confidence (20%).

*Coeducation in Higher Education of Afghanistan: Students' Perspective DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.100131*


**Table 4.**

*Students' views of negative effects of coeducation.*

#### **3.3 Participants' demographic profile**

The authors utilized Independent Samples *T*-test to examine the differences between participants' responses by their gender. As **Table 5** shows, the p-value (0.000) for gender is less than the alpha level (0.05), which indicates that the participants' gender had a significant impact on their responses. That is, female students (M = 3.17) had a stronger positive attitude than male students (M = 2.85) towards coeducation. Compared to male students, they believed that coeducation was more advantageous. Furthermore, One-Way ANOVA test was run to determine the differences between participants' responses by their ethnicity. The p-value (0.423) for ethnicity is greater than the alpha level (0.05). Therefore, it is concluded that the participants' ethnicity did not have a significant impact on their responses.

In addition, Independent Sample *T*-test and One-Way ANOVA test were used to examine the differences between the participants' views of negative effects of coeducation. The high mean indicates that the participants believe that coeducation


#### **Table 5.**

*Positive effects of coeducation by gender and ethnicity.*


**Table 6.**

*Negative effects of coeducation by gender and ethnicity.*

has more negative effects. As **Table 6** shows, the p-value (0.000) for gender is less than the alpha level (0.05), which indicates significant difference. Compared to male students (M = 2.35), female students (M = 1.9) believed that coeducation had little or no negative effects. The p-value for ethnicity is 0.338, which is greater than the alpha level (0.05). Thus, it is concluded that the participants of different ethnicities have similar views about negative effects of coeducation.

#### **4. Discussion**

The study investigated Afghan undergraduate students' perceptions of coeducation. The findings showed that students had positive attitudes towards coeducation. it can be accounted for by the fact that coeducational classes are almost the only place where Afghan girls and boys have the opportunity to interact with one another and exchange ideas. The vast majority of students experience their first interaction with their female and male peers in coeducational classes. It corroborates the finding of the studies by Payne & Newton [38] and Alanazy [44] who reported that students held positive attitudes towards coeducation. It also supported the findings of the study by Hong et al. [50] who reported that students in coeducational classes had more positive attitudes and higher interests than those in single-sex classes. However, it contradicts those of the studies by Kachero [24] and Rennie and Parker [39] who found out that both teachers and students had negative attitudes towards coeducation and they preferred single-sex classes.

The vast majority of students believed that coeducation had a variety of personal effects. They stated that coeducation would improve students' academic confidence, communication skills, confidence to speak in the presence of the opposite sex, and enhance their motivation for further study. They also believed that coeducation would reduce students' shyness, expose them to different ideas, facilitate positive competition between them and prepare them for real-life. Similarly, they believed that coeducation would bring about social effects such as promoting mutual respect between women and men and gender equality, reducing education cost, facilitating girls' and boys' socialization, boosting girls' and boys' understanding of each other and reducing gender biases and stereotypes. The fact that Afghan girls and boys meet and talk with one another in coeducational classes and learn to treat one another as unique individuals can be the major reason why they believe that coeducation is of a wide variety of positive effects.

However, less than half of the participants believed that coeducation had negative effects. They believed that coeducation would distract students, would not

#### *Coeducation in Higher Education of Afghanistan: Students' Perspective DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.100131*

meet their various needs, result in students' poor academic performance and male students' domination of class activities. This finding corroborates that of the study by McKenzie et al. [51] who reported that male students' interruption of female students in coeducational classes affected their learning and performance. Furthermore, they stated that coeducation paved the way for illegal relationship between girls and boys. It is on a par with the study by Achoka [52] who concluded that early relationship and marriage increased in coeducational environment. The participants also believed that students did not feel comfortable to share their ideas and ask questions openly in the presence of the opposite sex. This finding is consistent with that of the study by Younger and Warrington [53] and Narwana & Rathee [54]. Students also believed that coeducation would result in inactivity in the learning process and mixed-sex groups and female students' lack of self-esteem and confidence.

A number of reasons can account for these views. Afghanistan is a patriarchal society, which greatly affects interaction in coeducational classes where more attention is paid to male students than female ones. Moreover, the vast majority of lecturers in Afghan universities are male who may prefer male students' voices than female ones and may give more chances to male students to speak in the class. Teacher-centered approaches and methods are very widespread in Afghan higher education institutions that rarely address students' various needs [55]. Some lecturers discourage interaction between girls and boys in coeducational classes, and some lecturers form pseudocooperative learning groups made up of girls and boys, but rarely encourage cooperation between female and male students.

The results showed that students gender had a significant impact on their responses. That is, female students' attitude towards coeducation was stronger than that of male students. Compared to male students, female students perceived coeducation to be of more positive effects and fewer negative impacts. This finding is in line with that of the study by Alsaif [45] who reported that female students were more receptive to coeducation than male students. On the other hand, students' ethnicity did not have a significant impact on their responses. In other words, Tajik, Uzbek, Hazara and Pashtun participants were of similar views about coeducation.
