Chapter 4: Teaching Diverse Learners

Part I

America – A Nation of Diverse Learners

• There are more minorities in this country today than there were people in the
U.S. in 1910

• Diversity- The range of race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic

status, cultural heritage, gender, and ability or disability represented in
society

• Socioeconomic Status (SES)- The social and economic background of an

individual or individuals

• Boys and girls are reared and taught differently

• Meredith v. Jefferson County Board of Education:

○ Supreme Court ruled that schools cannot rely on race to segregate
schools
 Even if done voluntarily to achieve a racial balance in public
schools

• Schools in low-income neighborhoods often have a high percentage of

teachers teaching “out of the field”

How Do Racial and Ethnic Diversity Affect Teaching and

Learning?
Cultural Impacts on Teaching and Learning

• Student who come from cultural and language backgrounds have a double
task:
○ To learn the norms of a school environment that are already familiar to
others
○ To learn the same academic content that all students are expected to
master

• Two realities of changing demographics of school populations:

○ You and other beginning teachers will teach minority students
 ○ School districts and colleges of education will have to increase their
efforts to recruit minority teachers

• Native American students will often not respond to questions posed openly
before the entire class

Helping English Language Learners

• English Language Learner (ELLs)- Student whose primary language is not

English

Academic Achievement and Race

• 83 percent of all students is public schools graduate

• 85.5 percent of all white students will graduate

• 74.4 percent of all black students will graduate

• Graduation rates in the Northeast and Midwest are higher than graduation
rates in the South and West

• The state with the highest graduation rate in the nation is New Jersey

• The state with the lowest graduation rate is Nevada

Diversity Issues in School Life

• Multicultural Education- Education designed to ensure that all students

receive equal opportunities regardless of socioeconomic status, gender,
sexual orientation, and racial and cultural backgrounds

• A common issue involving diversity is social acceptance

• School Culture- The collective “way of life” characteristic of a school

○ A set of beliefs, values, traditions, and ways of thinking and behaving
that distinguishes one school from another

• Culturally Responsive Teachers- A teacher who is culturally and socially

aware and who is both responsible for and capable of bringing about
educational change that will make schools more responsive to all students of
all cultures
 • Students with diverse backgrounds sometimes do not do well in school
because the teachers might not be highly qualified or because the facilities
and materials might not support their learning

Diversity Issues in the Curriculum

• Eurocentric- Focusing on European and European-American history and

culture

• Early 1960’s
○ Monoethnic units were added to the high school curriculum to benefit
students from these groups
 Black History
 Hispanic Literature

• Global Education- An effort to ensure that information and perspectives

emanating from outside the United States are brought to bear in the
classroom

What is Multicultural Education?

• Multicultural Education:
○ Designed to ensure that all students receive equal opportunities
regardless of socioeconomic status, gender, sexual orientation, and
racial and cultural backgrounds
○ Looks at academically relevant knowledge and events from the
perspectives of all ethnic or cultural groups
○ Used by teachers to explore the richness of African, Latino, Asian, and
Native American literature
○ In order for it to be effective it must become an integral part of the
curriculum and school life

What are models of Multicultural Education?

• Five Basic Approaches to Multicultural Education:

○ Teaching exceptional and culturally different students
○ Enhancing student self-concept, reducing prejudice, and promoting
positive feelings among students
○ Singe-Group Studies
○ Multicultural Education
 ○ Promoting education that is multicultural and devoted to the rebuilding
or reform of society

Transformative Knowledge

• Transformative Knowledge- the facts, concepts, and themes that challenge

mainstream academic knowledge and revise established theories and
explanations
○ Can be presented in a variety of ways but should always be age
appropriate

The Culturally Responsive Teacher

• Cultural Responsiveness- Ability to perceive and acknowledge cultural

differences among people without making value judgments about those
differences

• Culturally Responsive teachers:

○ Take the time to learn about students’ backgrounds and the cultural
characteristics of their families and community
○ Respect and accommodate students’ individual and culture-based
learning styles
○ Provide accurate and age-appropriate multicultural information and
instructional materials
○ Challenge and avoid using stereotypes
○ Use culture-fair and gender-fair languages and examples
○ Integrate multicultural perspectives throughout the curriculum

How Does Language Influence Teaching and Learning?

Bilingual Education Legislation and Court Cases

• Bilingual Education Act- Enacted in 1968 to provide funds to assist local

school districts in carrying out elementary and secondary programs for
students whose first language is not English

• Lau v. Nichols:
○ Supreme Court decision stating that equal educational opportunities
are denied when non-English-speaking students receive the same
English language instruction as that given to all students

• Bilingual Education- Education in two languages

 • English as a Second Language (ESL)- Instruction in which students with
limited-English-proficiency attend a special English class

• Proposition 227( California)- Passed in 1998, this proposition outlawed

bilingual education in California schools, but did provide for a waiver process
is a school district wished to retain some form of bilingual education

NCLB and English Language Learning

• English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement, and Academic

Achievement Act:
○ Purpose:
 To help ensure that children who are limited English proficient
attain English proficiency and meet the same challenging State
academic content and student academic achievement standards
as all children are expected to meet
Methods for Promoting English Language Learning

• Programs proposed and implemented for teaching ELLs:

○ English as a second language (ESL) programs
 Emphasize learning and using English in the classroom
○ Transitional ELL Programs- English as a second language programs
that use the second language to teach English while using the first
language to teach other subjects
○ Developmental Programs- Transitional ELL programs that also infuse
English into content area instruction with the goal of biliteracy
○ Dual-language education programs

How Does Gender Affect Teaching and Learning?

Academic Achievement and Gender

• Five of the most Promising Interventions for Increasing the Success of Boys in
Reading and Writing (University of Alaska Fairbanks):
○ Education teachers on gender differences in development and learning
○ Delaying school enrollment for slower developing boys
○ Creating “focus schools” that offer nurturing and personalized
education
○ Connecting boys in groups with caring adults
○ Respecting Boys

Gender Issues in School Life

• Gender-Fair Schools- Learning environments in which male and female

students participate equally and respond to similar high expectations in all
subjects

• Title IX- part of the Education Amendments of 1972 that prohibits exclusion
on the basis of sex from participation in or benefits of any education program
or activity receiving federal funding

Providing a Gender-Fair Education

• Providing a Gender-Fair Education:

○ Being aware of your patterns of discussion in the classroom
○ Making classroom arrangements gender fait so that both genders are
represented fairly in books, displays, and study materials
○ Putting into practice gender-fair special education and gifted programs
so that neither boys nor girls are over or underrepresented in special
education programs
 ○ Conducting high-quality programs that help to ensure that all students
graduate from high school

Single-Sex Schools and Classes

• 2006, Bush gave public schools the green light to expland the number of
single-sex classe and schools created under the 2004 regulations