Transcript Cultural Diversity

Dimensions of Diversity
Culture
Language
Gender
Ability differences
Exceptionalities
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Culture
The knowledge, attitudes, values, customs,
and behavior patterns that characterize a
social group.
Cultural Diversity
The different cultures that you’ll encounter
in classrooms and how these cultural
differences influence learning.
2
Cultural Attitudes, Values, &
Interaction Patterns
Learned at home and in neighborhood
Influence school success, both
positively and negatively
Require both teacher sensitivity and
adaptability
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Educational Responses to
Cultural Diversity
Multicultural education: salad bowl or
mosaic versus melting pot
Culturally responsive teaching
Accepting and valuing cultural differences
Accommodating different cultural interaction
patterns
Building on students’ cultural backgrounds
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Language Diversity
Maintenance language programs: use
and sustain the first language
Immersion programs: emphasize rapid
transition to English
English as a Second Language (ESL)
programs: focus on English in academic
subjects
Transition programs: maintain first
language while students learn English 5
Bilingual Education
Controversial because critics fear the
loss of English as U.S. language
26 states have official English language
legislation
De-emphasized by No Child Left Behind
Proponents claim it is effective,
humane, and practical.
Critics claim it is divisive, ineffective,
and inefficient.
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Gender
Gender influences career choices.
Gender-role identity creates differences
in expectations and beliefs about
appropriate roles and behaviors.
Stereotypes create rigid and simplistic
caricatures of groups of people.
Single-gender classrooms and schools
separate male and female students.
Brainstorm: Gender Stereotypes
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Multiple Intelligences
Gardner’s theory:
Suggests that intelligence is not unitary but
multidimensional
Suggests that classrooms should attempt
to develop different kinds of intelligence
While accepted by teachers, is
controversial because of a lack of a firm
research base
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Responses to Differences in Ability
Ability Grouping
Places students of similar aptitude and
achievement together for instruction
Between-class ability grouping divides students
for all subjects.
Within-class ability grouping divides students
only in certain subjects, such as math and
reading.
Tracking
At the secondary level, divides students across
the curriculum.
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What do you think? What does the research say?
Learning Styles
Describes students’ personal
approaches to learning
Popular with educators, viewed
skeptically by researchers, and difficult
to implement
Suggests we should develop
metacognition—students’ awareness of
how they learn most effectively
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Students with Exceptionalities
Individuals with Disabilities Education
Act (IDEA)
Passed in 1975
Guarantees a free, appropriate, public
education (FAPE) for all students with
exceptionalities
Mainstreaming: moves students from
segregated settings into the regular
classroom
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Students with Exceptionalities (continued)
Inclusion: more recent and more
comprehensive approach, advocates a total,
systematic, and coordinated school-wide
system of services
Least restrictive environment (LRE): places
students in as normal an education setting
as possible
Individualized Education Program (IEP):
individually prescribed instructional plan
created and implemented by multiple
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stakeholders
Categories of Disabilities under IDEA
Specific learning
disability
Communication
disorder
Intellectual disability
Emotional
(behavioral)
disturbance
Other health
impaired
Autism
Multiple disabilities
Hearing impairment
Orthopedic
impairment
Developmental delay
Visual impairment
Traumatic brain
injury
Deaf-blindness
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Students who are Gifted and Talented
Students who are at the upper end of
the ability continuum who need special
services to reach their full potential.
Controversy about Gifted and Talented
programs in the era of NCLB
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Exceptionalities: Implications for
Teachers
Collaboration: working with other
educational professionals to create an
optimal learning environment for
students with exceptionalities
Your role:
Aid in identification process
Collaborate on IEPs
Adapt instruction
Maintain communication
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