Chapters 4,5,6 and 8 covered intelligence and the different views, the difference between disabilities and handicaps, language development, teaching English learners, understanding what it means to be gifted, culture and diversity and their effects on education in today's society, the role gender plays in teaching, discrimination and stereotyping, teaching for long-term knowledge and memory, making learning meaningful, the different types of memory and the different ways we develop knowledge.
I enjoyed reading chapter six the most because it discussed culture and diversity. In today's society, we have to be prepared to teach in diverse classrooms from different ability levels to cultural differences. We have to become familiar with the different social classes and how it may affect the way the students learn or their will to learn. There may be students who come from wealthy families and have had everything their entire life but have so many expectations placed on them that are either struggling emotionally and mentally because of all the pressure or simply not doing good for them but for their family. On the other hand we may experience having a student who hasn't had a stable living situation in their life and doesn't know where their next meal will come from, and they either use their experiences and work even harder to become successful or follow that same routine that maybe their parents before them have followed and have low expectations for themselves because they have no one to hold them accountable.
One of the models that stood out to me was Bank's dimensions of multicultural education. The model broke down the meaning of multicultural education and how it's more than about changing the curriculum. It's about the integration of content, using a variety of content from cultures and groups to illustrate different ideas, reducing prejudices, examining the interactions between the staff and students across ethnic lines to create empowerment, matching teaching styles to student learning styles and improving the knowledge construction process.
Tasha,
ReplyDeleteCulture and diversity is so important to understand and knowing that each of our students are going to be so different from one another or that, depending on where we teach, there could be one student who is really struggling in their home and they may feel as though they cannot relate to anyone else in their classroom. There is so much that goes into teaching that is not actually teaching but really getting to know the culture of each of our students and creating a classroom environment where they can thrive and continue their education and reach the goals they have set for themselves.
Caitlin
Tasha.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, we have to become familiar with the different social classes and how it may affect the way the students learn or their will to learn. Also I like the fact that you brought up how students may have things going on outside of school; I think that this very important to realize it and we must be able to communicate with our students on a personal level.
I agree completely that educators have to be familiar with the understanding of their students cultures. There are so many things to be careful these days when it comes to diversity in the classroom, learning to be open minded when going into the teaching profession is a very valuable key.
ReplyDeleteI like that you wrote about knowing the different social classes that our students come from. When educators know who their students are they can better help their students.
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