Free Essay Sample on Teaching Diverse Learners

Unit 1 intro on my philosophy of education

Through the classes I have taken at Purdue/Penn State and my experiences in the classroom, I have developed a personal teaching philosophy that will be implemented in my future classrooms. Teaching young minds is a task that cannot be taken lightly. It is full of challenges, frustrations, and responsibilities. However, it is a task that is also full of excitement, wonder, and joy. I experienced this working as an office coordinator/teacher and loved my time there. I strongly believe that all children are capable of learning if they have the proper motivation and direction from their teachers. As a teacher, I need to aware of learning, motivation, behavior, and development theories to relate to my students and push them to reach their full potential. They deserve my time and full attention in regards to their education, of course, all without burning out myself in the process, so prep work is key.

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Summary of the Article

The article on 'How to infuse cultural diversity into your psychology classes' by Littleford & Nolan(2013) explains how a student or even tutor can utilize various strategies to handle diverse students. It begins by outlining benefits which emanate from addressing students from different cultural backgrounds. Then, it addresses the concerns that many teachers experience when addressing the issue of diverse infusion. Thirdly, the article offers the ideas which can be utilized when it comes to including students from diverse backgrounds in the course successfully. Finally, it teaches how to diversify the content to accommodate students from various cultures in the classroom.

Three significant questions should guide teachers in matters of multicultural competence. First, does the teacher understand personal, cultural values and biases towards people of diverse background; second, does the teacher know about experience and worldviews of the students and how they affect theory learning? Third, is the teacher utilizing strategies that are inclusive of all these students? The article then recommends the tutors to review various sources which contain teaching recommendations on how to handle students based on their age, gender, race, sexual orientation, social class, language, regionally, nationality among others. The authors encourage teachers to respect this diversity and maintain high standards and expectations for all the students. Teachers should offer a wide range of assessment tasks which students can handle in different techniques and at the same time, meet the teacher's criteria. For instance, assignments that allows students to tackle them either in paragraphs, graphic, presentations, etc. so that they can answer according to their mastery of content. In case the teacher treats students, in the same way, it would eventually lead to unfair treatment because various students have different approaches to a concept.

What steps would you take to ensure that instructional strategies incorporate culture, social class, ethnicity, gender, and language? Explain how these strategies will likely be effective.

There are various steps that I should undertake to ensure instructional strategies incorporate culture, social class, ethnicity, gender, and language. Firsts, maintaining high standards and show high expectations for culturally, ethnically and linguistically diverse students will encourage them to identify issues and adequately involve them in any collaborative activities. The other step is that I should show them I care by ensuring that I know their needs at personal levels, strengths and ensure share their hopes, concerns, and dreams. More so, I should gain an understanding of the culture of various students so that I can be able to contain their personality in and outside the classroom. More so, I would make use of instructional materials and curriculum that is culturally relevant that can not only recognize but also incorporate heritage and contribution of various ethnic groups. These strategies will make each student appreciate and feel that he/she is not discriminated against. It will also motivate each student to work harder.

In what ways can those strategies be built into daily classroom activities? Provide an example.

Maintenance of high expectations in diverse students can be built through personal motivations and guidance. For instance, the teacher can meet face to face with individual students and try to understand them better and inquire about any issues or feelings about the environment and advise them where possible. Also, the teacher should use a professional tone which does not indicate any cultural biases. For example, the teacher's language should remain neutral. It should not be as if he/she is inclined towards a certain tribe by favoring certain students more (Saravia, 2018). A teacher can also incorporate discussions about the contribution of various ethnic groups in the lessons so that all students can understand how important they are irrespective of the fact that they come from diverse cultural backgrounds.

Include personal experiences with teaching diverse students that you have observed in the classroom or from your own school experiences.

Teaching diverse students is sometimes involving, but I learned a lot from experience. I encountered many challenges, frustrations, and many engagements. However, teaching diverse students made me learn a lot especially on cultural diversity and individual needs of various groups. I enjoyed my duty as a teacher because all students were much willing to learn, answer questions and even handle assignments in good time. Even though the environment looked tough for some students, I learned that any student is capable of learning if teachers motivate and guide them well. I also understood that being a teacher requires awareness, motivation, and understanding of various development theories necessary for relating with students and push them to reach their full potential.

Compare your experiences with other learners in the course and discuss the implications for classroom instruction of the diversity of learning experiences that emerge from this analysis.

My peers and I share nearly every experience. The learners agree that handling diverse students require a lot of patience, humility, and hospitality. The task is exciting but quite involving. Sometimes, the teacher has to guide and motivate students at personal levels because some take a longer time to fits the school environment. Generally, diverse students cooperate very well when they share the classroom. However, the classroom instruction can affect the learning of diverse students. The teacher can easily confuse such students if he/she is not very keen when it comes to giving instructions. Their understanding and views vary. Therefore, they should be allowed to exploit their talents and capabilities in expressing their thoughts and skills. For example, the assignments should allow them to utilize graphs, drawings, charts, presentations, formats, etc. It becomes unfair to restrict such students to certain formats because they have different ways of expressing their opinions. Also, diverse students require a lot of attention for them to feel comfortable. Therefore, the teacher should be ready to handle their issues without bias.

References

Littleford, L., & Nolan, S. (2013). Your sphere of influence: How to infuse cultural diversity into your psychology classes. Retrieved from http://www.apa.org/ed/precollege/ptn/2013/05/cultural-diversity.aspx

Saravia, M. (2018). Diverse Teaching Strategies for Diverse Learners. Retrieved from http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/107003/chapters/Diverse-Teaching-Strategies-for-Diverse-Learners.aspx