ADDRESSING STUDENT DIVERSITY

 INTRODUCTION

Students have always had individual differences in learning preferences and strategies, influenced by sociocultural factors such as ethnicity, culture, educational background, gender, geographical location, and socioeconomic status. The more culturally homogenous student bodies of the past tended to mask this fact. However, the increasing diversity of today’s students has brought those differences more clearly into focus. So too has the increase in off-campus - sometimes even offshore - enrolments. Educators therefore need to respond to diversity in abilities, experiences, and learning strategies if they are to support students to become confident, self-directed, and independent learners (Venter, 2003). The challenge, then, is how to achieve that goal. What are the individual and sociocultural factors that influence how individual students perform? How can teachers recognise the impact those factors can have on student learning? What changes can be made to the teaching and learning environments they provide to cater for these factors and ensure that all students have the optimum chance to succeed?

Key Points about student Diversity

• Diversity means more than just ethnic and cultural differences. It encompasses a wide range of characteristics, including (among others) gender, linguistic background, socio-economic situation, family life, religion, interests, physical or emotional challenges, skills and abilities, and life experiences.
• Even the most homogenous-appearing group of students reflects wide diversity.
• Diversity is an important contributing factor in the envisionment-building classroom.
• Instruction designed to allow learners to draw on their own circumstances when interacting with texts provides the group with a rich array of personal and unique perspectives.
• For teachers, the diversity present in all classrooms provides both challenges and exciting opportunities for instruction.
• Multiple perspectives in response to a text generate multiple interpretations. In turn, multiple interpretations generate deeper and more thoughtful responses than occur when each student reads in the isolation of his or her own circumstance.
• Envisionment-building teachers make sure students know their unique perspectives are appreciated. Additionally, they may plan activities to foreground or enhance those perspectives in order to enrich discussion and broaden understandings.
• Envisionment-building teachers encourage students to share their various interpretations, explore them, and use them to enrich one another's interpretations of a text. In this way, when students recognize and understand the different viewpoints presented by their classmates, they learn from one another.
• Readers rely on their individual backgrounds as they make meaning from texts. As they share their meanings with others, their initial understandings can be enhanced or reinterpreted.
• Recognizing and exploring multiple perspectives leads students to challenge their existing beliefs and broaden their world views.
• Because it presents a vast array of human experiences, literature provides an excellent avenue for exploring human diversity, particularly in communities with somewhat homogenous backgrounds.
• Diverse texts and students' responses to them can help students discover commonalties between themselves and others who, superficially, may appear very different.
• Because of differing life experiences, everybody has opportunities to connect with texts in different ways. As a result, students working in mixed-ability groups hear many ideas that help them develop their own thinking.
• Inclusion classrooms present teachers with particular challenges as they seek to meet the intellectual, emotional, and physical needs of each student while promoting deeper understandings for every student.
• Many teachers use reading aloud to help all readers understand ways in which texts might be read while enabling them to participate fully in literature discussions.
• Buddy reading, or peer tutoring where two or three students of varying abilities work together, is another tool to blend students into a single community of learners.
• Conversation around a text that includes all students develops a classroom into a community.
• Readers' theater (story theater) is another strategy for supporting struggling readers and enabling their participation in the conversation.
• Reading aloud can help students develop their comprehension.
• Tag reading (also known as jump-in reading, or popcorn reading), allowing students to choose how to share the reading task and when to stop, is a useful way to have students read.
• Envisionment-building classrooms offer learning experiences that are broad enough and thought-provoking enough so that every student can participate and have their own thinking pushed beyond where it was when they came to class.
• Modifying texts for weaker readers is rarely an effective strategy.
• Inclusion classrooms with students with special needs benefit from additional personnel to offer needed support.

As anybody with the opportunity to know identical twins well might attest, external appearances can be deceiving. Closer scrutiny forces superficial similarities aside, and each twin presents a wide range of differences when compared with his or her sibling. So it is in our schools. Even in locations where similarities of ethnicity and geographic background create classroom populations that look homogenous, closer acquaintance invariably reveals an abundance of diversities not readily apparent to the casual eye. Even though every human being on the planet shares 99.9% of his or her DNA with every other human, different cultural or economic backgrounds, ability levels, physical or emotional challenges, interests, and life experiences generate the multiple perspectives that typify our complex society and enrich our interactions with one another.

Certainly the many different points-of-view students bring to the classroom present a number of challenges for teachers. How can both curriculum and instruction be designed and presented to meet the needs of such diverse populations? In full-inclusion classrooms, how can teachers ensure that every student will be able to participate fully in the instructional experiences offered? What support will students need to help them understand, accept, and appreciate the multiple perspectives they encounter, both within the classroom and in their larger society?

RESPONDING TO STUDENT DIVERSITY

General Principles

Treat students as individuals whose identities are complex and unique.

For example, you can ask open-ended questions to solicit students' reports of their experiences or observations without calling on a student to speak for his or her race/gender/culture. Also, learning to pronounce all of the names correctly shows respect for varied backgrounds.

Encourage full participation while being aware of differences which may influence students' responses.

For example, you can make eye contact with everyone, increase your wait time to include less assertive and/or more reflective students, ask questions that draw out quieter participants or challenge dominant students in small groups, or talk with students outside of class to provide encouragement.

Vary your teaching methods to take advantage of different learning styles and to expand the repertoire of strategies tried by each student.

For example, you can foster peer relationships with in-class collaboration, include concrete examples whenever possible, use visual or dramatic presentations, or value personal knowledge and experience when students share it.

Promote a respectful classroom climate with egalitarian norms and acceptance of differences.

For example, you can encourage student projects involving diverse perspectives, discuss guidelines or "ground rules" for good participation, and monitor language use for implicit assumptions, exclusions, or overgeneralizations.

Be aware of possible student anxiety about their performance in a competitive environment such as Carnegie Mellon's but try not to "overprotect."

All students - including those whose personal or cultural histories may include being a target of stereotypes and discrimination - need clear standards and evaluation criteria, straightforward comments on their work delivered with tact and empathy, and early feedback so that they can change their learning strategies or get help if needed.

AVOIDING COMMON PROBLEMS

Avoid highly idiomatic English.

Idioms are especially confusing for non-native speakers of English or any student who may have been raised in another country or another region of the U.S. While the expressions may be colorful, many students may miss an important concept if the phrase in unfamiliar (e.g. "once in a blue moon," "between a rock and a hard place").

Provide some linguistic redundancy.

Many students, particularly non-native speakers of English, benefit from both seeing and hearing language (e.g. through the use of the blackboard or overhead projector) and from hearing key ideas stated in different ways.

Use diverse examples rather than ones which assume a particular background or experience.

Examples that come easily are often those which come from our own experiences. Make sure you aren't consistently assuming all your students share that experience. For example, notice when many of your examples are based on cultural or regional knowledge, hobbies favored predominantly by one gender, or political or historical knowledge unfamiliar to those from other countries.

Don't assume that students who don't talk don't know the material.

Being quiet in the classroom and not "showing off" are considered respectful in many Asian cultures. For some women and people of color, silence in the classroom may have been learned in response to negative experiences with participation (e.g. being interrupted by others, not getting credit for their ideas, having others talk to them in a condescending or dismissive way).

Watch the type of humor that occurs in your classes to be sure it denigrates no one.

A surprisingly large number of jokes involve putting down people who are different in some way and who may already feel marginal because of those differences. For more about classroom humor, see page 30 of Collected Wisdom.

TALKING ABOUT DIVERSITY WITH STUDENTS
To prepare for successfully raising issues of diversity and bias in the classroom, teachers should attempt to make the following practices an integral part of their daily practice. 

1. Self-Exploration
Examine your own cultural biases and assumptions. Explore your perceptions and understanding of situations by developing an awareness of your cultural "filters."

2. Comprehensive Integration
Integrate culturally diverse information/perspectives into all aspects of your teaching. Consider moving beyond the constraints of a cultural history month by incorporating multiple perspectives into all aspects of the curriculum.

3. Time and Maturation
Allow time for a process to develop. Introduce less complex topics at first, and create time to establish trust. Begin discussions by developing ground rules that allow for honest discussion within a respectful context. Recognize that the long history of mistrust between people in different groups will influence classroom discussions.

4. Accepting Environment
Establish an environment that allows for mistakes. Since most of us have been unconsciously acculturated into prejudicial and stereotypical thinking, we may not be aware that certain attitudes are hurtful to others. Acknowledge that intolerant thinking will surface from time to time in others and ourselves. Model non-defensive responses when told that something you said or did was offensive to someone. Assume good will and make that assumption a common practice in the classroom.

5. Intervention
Be prepared to respond to purposely-directed acts of bias. Students will carefully observe how you intervene when someone is the target of discriminatory or hate-based behavior. Silence in the face of injustice conveys the impression that prejudicial behavior is condoned or not worthy of attention. Make it clear to students and their families that you will not allow name-calling in the classroom. Your appropriate and timely intervention is critical in establishing a safe classroom environment where all students can succeed.

6. Life-long Learning
Keep abreast of current anti-bias education issues and discuss them with students. Clip articles from newspapers and magazines and post them in the classroom. Let students know that you consider yourself a learner, and that you see yourself as part of the learning process.

7. Discovery Learning
Avoid "preaching" to students about how they should behave. Research indicates that exhortation is the least effective methodology for changing prejudiced attitudes; in fact, it often produces a result opposite from the desired effect. Provide opportunities for students to resolve conflicts, solve problems, work in diverse teams and think critically about information.

8. Life Experiences
Provide opportunities for students to share life experiences; choose literature that will help students develop empathy. Make your classroom a place where students’ experiences are not marginalized, trivialized or invalidated. Prejudice and discrimination have a unique impact on each individual. Students and their families develop a variety of coping strategies based upon the type and frequency of discrimination they have experienced. It is never fruitful to engage in a debate over who has suffered the most. Oppression is harmful to all people in all of its forms.

9. Resources Review
Review materials so that classroom displays and bulletin boards are inclusive of all people. Insure that supplemental books and videos do not reinforce existing societal stereotypes. When you see such examples in textbooks, point them out to students and encourage students to think about them critically and to challenge them.

10. Home-School-Community Connection
Involve parents, other family members and other community members in the learning process. Understand that families and others in the community provide the context in which students are motivated to learn. We cannot view the school and the home or school and the community as isolated from one another; we must examine how they interconnect with each other and with the world.

11. Examine Your Classroom Environment
What is present and absent in the school classroom, provides children with important information about who and what is important. Every effort should be made to create a setting that is rich in possibilities for exploring cultural diversity. Such an environment assists children in developing their ideas about themselves and others, creates the conditions under which children initiate conversations about differences and provides you with a setting for introducing activities about diversity. It also fosters children’s positive self-concept and attitudes.

 REFERENCES

http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/trynew/checklist-studentdiversity.html

http://www.adl.org/education/brown_2004/brown_911.asp

http://www.learner.org/workshops/makingmeaning/makingmeaning/student/index.html

http://eprints.usq.edu.au/755/

UNDERSTANDING LEARNER: Characteristics and Learning Styles

Given the wide range, background and interests of the learners, it is important to know our learners so that we understand their:

1.    educational and social background;

2.    present knowledge level;

3.    learning needs and their learning styles;

4.    values, attitudes, and their cultural background;

5.    motivation and desire for learning.

Information about our learners would be useful in defining our learning objectives.

Learning Styles

Here are some of the main learning styles. Most people are predominantly one type of learner, but usually they can adapt to another style. Learners do tend to look for their preferred style in each learning situation because they associate that style with learning success. A online course that provides learning experiences for a variety of learning styles will increase the likelihood of learner success in the course. 

Learning Styles	Characteristics	Teaching Strategies
Visual Learners	process new information best when it is visually illustrated or demonstrated	graphics, illustrations images demonstrations
Auditory Learners	process new information best when it is spoken	lectures discussions
Kinesthetic Learners	process new information best when it can be touched or manipulated	written assignments, taking notes examination of objects participation in activities
Environmental Learners	process new information best when it is presented in surroundings that match learner preferences (room temperature, lighting, seating, etc.)	online learners can control their own learning environment to a larger extent than on-campus students!

A Look at the Three Learning Styles

Visual Learners - Visual learners are those who generally think in terms of pictures. They often prefer to see things written down in a handout, text or on the overhead. They find maps, graphs, charts, and other visual learning tools to be extremely effective. They remember things best by seeing something written. 

Auditory Learners - Auditory learners are those who generally learn best by listening. They typically like to learn through lectures, discussions, and reading aloud. They remember best through hearing or saying items aloud.

Kinesthetic Learners- Kinesthetic, also called tactile, learners are those who learn best through touching, feeling, and experiencing that which they are trying to learn. They remember best by writing or physically manipulating the information.

Learning Style Assessments

There are many tests available to help you and your students discover your best learning style. Generally speaking, however, if you are someone who is more likely to think in pictures, prefer to meet with someone in person, and are more likely to want visual diagrams when completing a project you have tendencies towards visual learning. Similarly, if you are more likely to think in terms of sounds, prefer to speak on the phone with someone, and want verbal instructions then you tend towards auditory learning. Finally, if you are more likely to think in terms of moving images like mini-movies in your mind, prefer to participate in an activity when you meet to speak with someone, and tend to jump right into a project without reading directions you tend towards tactile/kinesthetic learning.

How to Effectively Use Learning Styles in Class

In the best of all possible worlds, you would incorporate all three learning styles into each of your lessons. However, this is just not possible in the real world of teaching. In truth, it is often not hard to include both auditory and visual learning styles in your lessons. For example, you can have instructions written on the board and say them out loud. However, it is not always as easy to include the tactile/kinesthetic learning style into your lessons. The sad truth is that many students have this as their strongest learning style. It is best to not force the issue but instead find natural places to include kinesthetic learning. If your class warrants it, you could include simulations, role-playing, debates, or the use of manipulatives.

REFERENCES

http://cemca.org/EMHandbook/Section4.pdf

http://712educators.about.com/od/learningstyles/a/learning_styles.htm

http://online.rit.edu/faculty/teaching_strategies/adult_learners.cfm

THEORIES OF MOTIVATION

WHAT IS MOTIVATION?

            The focus here will be on one aspect of emotion, namely; MOTIVATION. Some have said that Motivation is emotion in motion. Motivation is a core construct in human behaviour. Sufficiently motivated, an individual will experience physiological changes. Apparently, everything we do, from getting out of bed in the morning to answering a phone call, is motivated by something. We may be motivated by hunger, fear, or the desire for self-fulfillment. As educators we would love to have students who are intrinsically motivated, that is, who provide their own motivation for learning. We wish that students were driven by curiosity and the natural desire to know and understand the world around them. However, we know that this often is not the case. 

According to Groccia, (1992), motivation is that which influences the arousal, selection, direction and maintenance of all human behaviour. Students require some form of stimulus to activate, provide direction for, and encourage persistence in their study and learning efforts. Motivation is this energy to study, to learn and achieve and to maintain those positive behaviours over time. Motivation is what stimulates students to acquire, transform and use knowledge. 

We begin by examining ‘valuing the task’. How do we enhance the value of the task to the students? Show students that their work is important to them. Importance arises from the value placed on the process, on the product, on what the product begins, or what other people value. For example, a student completes her history essay because it is important to her or she sees the value of doing so. Completing her essay will win praise from her history teacher. Valuing the task involves four types of motivation, namely; extrinsic motivation, social motivation, achievement motivation and intrinsic motivation.

a) EXTRINSIC MOTIVATION

            A child does not misbehave because her father promised to buy her a toy. When a person is motivated extrinsically, he or she does something because of the value or importance attached to what it brings, such as getting rewarded or avoiding discomfort for not doing it. The focus is not on the process or on the product itself, but on what is associated with the product. In other words, the task is incidental.

            Extrinsic motivation is based on the operant conditioning by B.F. Skinner. Simply put, if you want people to do something, you make sure it is worth their while; a principle well known to parents and teachers. If you want them to stop doing it, you stop making it worth their while or you make it worth their while to do something else. Sometimes, we are not consistent and we end up rewarding people for doing the very things we do not want them do.

           Positive reinforcement involves following a desirable behaviour with a reward. Also important is the timing of the rewards and if delayed too long will result in the behaviour weakening. Negative reinforcement is where the consequences of the desired behaviour removes distress and are consequently rewarded, not punishing as it is  often thought. The reward is relief at not being punished. Punishment is widely used to stop undesirable behaviour. Punishment is unreliable, because sometimes it works and other times it actually increases the unwanted behaviour.

b) SOCIAL MOTIVATION

            Students learn in order to please people whose opinions are important to them. In other words, the opinions of these people are valuable to the learner. Some examples would be parents, members of the family, classmates and teachers. Motivation here is not focused on material rewards but the approval of others. For example, praise from someone admired by the student helps the student internalise, to take ownership of the task. “Gee, I must be good at this if Ms. Wong says so!”

            An important mechanism of social motivation is modelling which refers to the tendency of people to imitate each other in the absence of direct reinforcement. Modelling occurs throughout life with the model changing at various points in a person’s life. In the 60s teenagers imitated Elvis Presley and in the 90s teenagers imitated Michael Jackson. In the classroom, students might be motivated to learn because of the behaviour of certain teachers. So teachers have a psychological as well as moral responsibility to practice what they preach.

c) ACHIEVEMENT MOTIVATION                                                                                

            Students learn to show that they can perform better than other people. The motivation here is based upon the ego boost that comes about through social competition. It is the struggle to get to the top, beating others in open competition; it is not so important to gain material rewards as such (although it helps). Neither is it important what the task is; it can be selling cars, getting lucrative contracts, winning votes and so on. This is called achievement motivation and was first described by McClelland, Atkinson, Clark and Lowell in 1953.      Two major motives are involved in achievement motivation:

• the motive to achieve success; in particular, the ego enhancement that success brings;
• the motive to avoid failure, which involves the fear of losing face.

 

People in whom achieving success is a stronger motive than is avoiding failure are called high need-achievers (their actual ability is a separate question). For them the greatest glory in winning comes when the chances are about 50-50. If the chances are 80% of winning, they will consider it a waste of time as they are sure of winning. It is like Manchester United playing against the MPPJ football team! People in whom the motive to avoid failure is stronger than the motive to achieve success are called low-need achievers. These are people who will compete against someone who they are certain to beat or defeat. They will take on a stronger opponent so that they can “fail gloriously by competing when the odds are hopeless”. 

            High need-achievers thrive on competition; low need-achievers adopt any tactic to avoid it. High need-achievers are bored with tasks with high success rate, such as mastery learning or programmed instruction. Low need-achievers like these methods because of the higher success rate which is what they need to produce better feelings of self-efficacy.

d) INTRINSIC MOTIVATION

Intrinsic motivation is the natural tendency to seek out and conquer challenges as we pursue personal interests and exercise capabilities. When we are intrinsically motivated, we do not need incentives or punishments, because the activity itself is rewarding. For example, Maznah studies chemistry outside school simply because she loves the activity; no one makes her do it. To enhance intrinsic motivation, the tasks need to be potentially meaningful, the tasks need to be at an optimum level of difficulty (see Table 9.1) and the tasks need to be presented in a way that enables multiple levels of processing.

Demand	Motivational	Consequence
Too little	Familiar with all the content	Boring, been there, done that.
Just right	Mixture of familiar & unfamiliar	A challenge, motivating
Too much	Unfamiliar with all the content	Cannot cope

                                   Table 9.1 Degree of Intrinsic Motivation

The degree of intrinsic motivation experienced by a student depends on the match between current ability and learning new material. When the material to be learned is familiar and can be handled without too much effort, there is no challenge and the task is seen as boring. Intrinsic motivation increases when students are placed in a ‘slightly difficult’ situation involving conflict between what they know and what they are going to learn. When the material is unfamiliar and the student cannot cope, intrinsic motivation decreases.

REFERENCES

http://www.aeu.edu.my/programmes/master/master-education-med

http://www.innovativelearning.com/educational_psychology/motivation/index.htm