Chapter 4 - Student Diversity

Front 1

What is the impact of culture on teaching & learning?

Back 1

Culture profoundly affects teaching & learning. Many aspects of culture contribute to the learner's identity & self-concept & affect the learner's beliefs & values, attitudes & expectations, social relations, language use & other behaviors.

Front 2

How does socioeconomic status affect student achievment?

Back 2

Socioeconomic status- based on income, occupation, education & social prestige - can profoundly influence the learner's attitudes toward school, background knowedge, school readiness & academic achievement. Working-class & low-income families experience stress that contributes to child-rearing practices, communication patterns & lowered expectations that may handicap children when they enter school. Low-SES students often learn a normative culture that is different from the middle-class culture of the school, which demands independence, competitiveness & goal-setting. BUT! Low achievement is not the inevitable result of low socioeconomic status.

Front 3

How do ethnicity & race affect students' school experiences?

Back 3

Diversity in the U.S. increases as minority groups are growning dramatically. Students who are minorities tend to have lower scores than European & Asian Americans on standardized tests of academic achievement. Lower scores are thought to correlate with lower socioeconomic status & reflect in part a legacy of discrimination against minorities and consequent poverty. School desegregation, long intended as a solution to educational inequities due to race & social class, has had mixed benefits. Continuing issues include delivering fairness & equal opportunity, fostering racial harmony & preventing segregation.

Front 4

How do language differences & bilingual programs affect student achievement?

Back 4

Bilingual education addresses problems of students with limited proficiency in English - for whom it's a 2nd language. Research suggests that bilungual ed. can have benefits for students. Problems with that are: shortage of bilingual teachers, inadequate transition programs for students entering English-only classes & conflict btwn. goals of bilingualism & desegregation. Recent legislation (Calif.) has had a chilling effect on bilingual ed.

Front 5

What is multicultural education?

Back 5

Multicul. Ed. is a philosophy=having instructional & curriculum recommendations, calling for the celebration of cultural diversity & promotion of educational equity & social harmony in the schools. Mult. Ed. includes: content integration, knowledge construction, prejudice reduction, equity pedagogy & empowering school culture.

Front 6

How do gender & gender bias affect students' school experience?

Back 6

Many differences btwn. males & females are clearly linked to early socialization - when children learn sex-role behoviors regarded as appropriate. Ongoing research shows very few genetically based gender differences in thinking & abilities. Gender bias in the classroom, including subtle teacher behaviors toward male & female student & curriculum materials that contain sex-role stereotypes, has clearly affected student choices & achievement. One outcome is a gender gap in mathematics & science, though this gap has decreased steadily.

Front 7

How do students differ in intelligence & learning styles?

Back 7

They differ in their ability to deal with abstractions, to solve problems & to learn. They also differ in any number of specific intelligences, so accurate estimations of intelligence should probably on rely on broader performances than traditional IQ tests allow. Therefore teachers should not base their expectations of students on IQ test scores. Binet, Spearman, Sternberg, Guilford & Gardner have contributed to theories & measures of intelligence. Both heredity & environment determine intelligence. research shows that home environments, schooling & life experiences can profoundly influence IQ. Students differ in their prior & cognitive learning styles. Field-dependent people tend to see patterns as a whole & do better with people & social relationships. Field-independent people are more likely to see parts that make up a large pattern & do better with subjects such as science. Individual preferences in learning environments & conditions also affect student achievement.

Front 8

culture

Back 8

The language, attitudes, ways of behaving & other aspects of life that characterize a group of people.

Front 9

socioeconomic status

Back 9

a measure of prestige within a social group that is most often based on income & education.

Front 10

ethnic group

Back 10

A group within a larger society that sees itself as having a common history, social & cultural heritage & traditions, often based on race, religion, language or national identity.

Front 11

ethnicity

Back 11

A history, culture & sense of identity shared by a group of people.

Front 12

race

Back 12

Visible, genetic characteristics of individuals that cause them to be seen as members of the same broad group (e.g., african, Asian, Caucasian).

Front 13

minority group

Back 13

An ethnic or racial group that is a minority with a broader population.

Front 14

language minority

Back 14

In the U.S. native speakers of any language other than English.

Front 15

limited English proficient
(LEP)

Back 15

Possessing limited mastery of English.

Front 16

English as a second language
(ESL)

Back 16

Subject taught in English classes & programs for students who are not native speakers of English.

Front 17

bilingual education

Back 17

Instuctional program for students who speak little or no English in which some instruction is provided in the native language.

Front 18

multicultural education

Back 18

Education that teaches the value of cultural diversity.

Front 19

content integration

Back 19

Teachers' use of examples, data & other information from a variety of cultures.

Front 20

knowledge construction

Back 20

Helping students understand how the knowledge we take in is influenced by our origins & points of view.

Front 21

equity pedagogy

Back 21

Teaching techniques that facilitate the academic success of students from different ethnic & social class groups.

Front 22

empowering school culture

Back 22

a school culture in which the institution's organization & practices are conducive to the academic & emotional growth of all students.

Front 23

prejudice reduction

Back 23

A critcal goal of multicultural education; involves development of positive relationships & tolerant attidues among students of different backgrounds.

Front 24

sex-role behavior

Back 24

Socially approved behavior associated with one gender as opposed to the other.

Front 25

intelligence

Back 25

General aptitude for learning, often measured by the ability to deal with abstractions & to solve problems

Front 26

intelligence quotient
(IQ)

Back 26

An intelligence test score that for people of average intelligence should be near 100.

Front 27

multiple intelligences

Back 27

In Gardner's theory of intelligence, a person's eight separate abilities: logical/ mathematical - naturallist - spatial - bodily/kinesthetic - interpersonal & intrapersonal.

Front 28

learning styles

Back 28

Orientations for appraching learning tasks & processing information in certain ways.

Front 29

field dependence

Back 29

Cognitive style in which patterns are perceived as a whole.

Front 30

field independence

Back 30

Cognitive style in which separate parts of a pattern are percieived & analyzed.

Front 31

aptitude-treatment
interaction

Back 31

Interaction of individual differences in learning with particular teaching methods.