Educ 201 Individual Differences PDF

REVIEWER FOR EDUC 201 INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES FACTORS THAT BRING ABOUT STUDENT DIVERSITY 1. SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS  The millionaires’ lifestyle differs from that of the middle income or lower income group. 2. THINKING LEARNING STYLE  Some of you learn...

REVIEWER FOR EDUC 201 INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES FACTORS THAT BRING ABOUT STUDENT DIVERSITY 1. SOCIO-ECONOMIC STATUS  The millionaires’ lifestyle differs from that of the middle income or lower income group. 2. THINKING LEARNING STYLE  Some of you learn better by seeing something; others by just listening, and still others by manipulating something. 3. EXCEPTIONALITIES  In class there maybe one who has difficulty in spoken language comprehension or in seeing, hearing, etc. HOW STUDENT DIVERSITY ENRICHES THE LEARNING ENVIRONMENT 1. Students’ self-awareness is enhanced by diversity.  Exposing students to others with diverse backgrounds and experiences also serves to help students focus on their awareness of themselves. When they see how others are different, students are given reference points or comparative perspective which sharpen assessment of their own attitudes, values and behaviours. 2. Student diversity contributes to cognitive development.  The opportunity to gain access to the perspective of peers and to learn from other students, rather than the instructor only, may be especially important for promoting the cognitive development of learners.  “The learning is enhanced by exposure to others from diverse backgrounds. Student diversity in the classroom brings about different points of view and varied approaches to the learning process.” Supreme Court Justice, William J. Brennan. 3. Student diversity prepares learners for their role as responsible members of society.  Susanne Morse stresses one competency that has strong implications for instructional strategies that capitalize on diversity. “The capacity to imagine  situations or problems from all perspectives and to appreciate all aspects of diversity.”  Furthermore, she argues: “The classroom can provide more than just theory given by the teacher in a lecture. With student diversity, the classroom becomes a public place where community can be practiced”. 4. Student diversity can promote harmony.  When student diversity is integrated into the classroom teaching and learning process, it can become a vehicle for promoting harmonious race relations. Through student-centered teaching strategies, diverse students can be encouraged to interact and collaborate with one another on learning tasks that emphasize unity of effort while capitalizing on their diversity of backgrounds. SOME TIPS ON STUDENT DIVERSITY 1. Encourage learners to share their personal history and experiences.  Students will be made to realize that they have something in common with the rest. They also differ in several ways. 2. Integrate learning experiences and activities which promote student’s multicultural and cross-cultural awareness.  You can encourage or even initiate co-curricular experiences that are aimed at promoting diversity awareness. These activities could be held to coincide with already-scheduled national weeks or months which are designated for appreciation of diverse groups: Disability Awareness, Linggo ng Wika, Indigenous People’s Week and etc. 3. Aside from highlighting diversity, identify patterns of unity that transcend group differences.  Clyde Kluckhohn, an early American anthropologist who spent a lifetime studying human diversity across different cultures, concluded from his extensive research that, “Every human is, at the same time, like all other humans, like some humans, and like no other humans”) cited in Wong, 1991). His observation suggests a paradox in the human experience, namely: We are all the same in different ways. 4. Communicate high expectations to students from all subgroups.   Make a conscious attempt to call on, or draw in students from diverse groups by using effective questioning techniques that reliably elicit student involvements. 5. Used varied instructional methods to accommodate student’s diversity in learning styles.  Diversify the sensory/perceptual modalities through which you deliver and present information (e.g. orally, in print, diagrammatic and pictorial representations, or “hands-on” experiences).  Diversify the instructional formats procedure you use in class. Use formats that are student-centered (e.g. class discussion, small group work) and teacher- centered (e.g. lectures, demonstrations)  Use formats that are unstructured (e.g. trial and error discovery, learning) and structured e.g., step-by-step instruction.  Use procedures that involve both independent learning (e.g., independently and completed projects, individual presentations) and interdependent learning (e.g. collaborative learning in pairs or small groups. 6. Vary the examples you are to illustrate concepts in order to provide multiple contexts that are relevant to students from diverse backgrounds.  Specific strategies for providing examples and varied contexts that are relevant to their varied backgrounds include the following:  Have student’s complete personal information cards during the first week of class and use the information to select examples or illustrations that are relevant to their personal interest and life experiences.  Use these ideas, comments, and questions that students raise in class, or which they choose to write about to help you think of examples and illustrations to use.  Ask your students to provide their own examples of concepts based on experiences drawn from their personal lives.  Have students apply concepts by placing them on a situation or context that is relevant to their lives. (e.g. “How would you show respect to all persons in your home’). 7. Adapt to the students’ diverse backgrounds and learning styles by allowing them personal choice and decision-making opportunities concerning what they will learn and how they will learn it.   Giving the learners more decision-making opportunities with respect to learning tasks: (a) promotes positive students’ attitude towards the subject matter, (b) fosters more positive interactions among students, and (c) results in students working more consistently with lesser teacher intervention. 8. Diversify your methods of assessing and evaluating student learning.  You can accommodate student diversity not only by varying what you do with your teaching, but also by varying what you ask students to do to demonstrate learning.  In addition to the traditional pencil-and-paper tests and written assignments, students can demonstrate that learning in a variety of performance formats, such as: (a) individually-delivered oral reports, (b) panel presentations, (c) group projects, (d) visual presentations, (e.g. concept maps, slide presentations, Power Point Presentations, collages, exhibits), or (e) dramatic vignettes--- presented live or on videotape. 9. Purposely, form small-discussion groups of students from diverse backgrounds.  You can form groups of students with different learning styles, different cultural background, etc. Small peer-learning groups may be effective for promoting student progress to a more advanced stage of cognitive development. LEARNING/THINKING STYLES  It refers to the preferred way an individual processes information. SENSORY PREFERENCES 1. VISUAL LEARNERS  These learners must see their teacher’s actions and facial expression to fully understand the content of a lesson.  Visual-iconic  Those who prefer this form of input are more interested in visual imagery such as film, graphic displays, or pictures in order to solidify learning.  Visual Symbolic  This who prefer this form of input feel comfortable with abstract symbolism such as mathematical formulae or the written word. 2. AUDITORY LEARNERS   They learn best through verbal lectures, discussions, talking things through and listening to what others have to say.  Listeners  They are the one who prefer to listen.  Talkers  They are the one who prefer to talk and discuss. 3. TACTILE/KINESTHETIC LEARNERS  They benefit much from a hands-on approach, actively exploring the physical world around them. They may find it hard to sit still for long periods. GLOBAL-ANALYTIC CONTINUUM ANALYTIC  They tend toward the linear, step-by-step process of learning.  They tend to see finite elements of patterns rather than the whole; they are the “tree seers” GLOBAL  Global thinkers lean towards non-linear thought and tend to see the whole pattern rather than the particle elements.  They are the “forest seers” who give attention only to the overall structure and sometimes ignore details. MULTIPLE INTELLIGENCES HOWARD GARDNER (1983)  described multiple intelligence in Frames of Mind 9 DISTINCT FORMS OF INTELLIGENCE 1. VISUAL/SPATIAL INTELLIGENCE (PICTURE SMART)  Learning visually and organizing ideas spatially. Seeing concepts in action inorder to understand them. 2. VERBAL/LINGUISTIC (WORD SMART)  Learning through the spoken and written word. 3. MATHEMATICAL/LOGICAL (NUMBER SMART/LOGIC SMART)  Learning through reasoning and problem solving. Also highly valued in the traditional classroom, where students were asked to adapt to logically sequenced delivery instruction. 4. BODILY/KINESTHETIC (BODY SMART)  Learning through interaction with ones environment. It promotes understanding through concrete experience. 5. MUSICAL (MUSIC SMART)  Learning through patterns, rhythms and music. This includes not only auditory learning, but the identification of patterns through all the senses. 6. INTRAPERSONAL (SELF SMART)  Learning through feelings, values and attitudes. This is a decidedly affective component of learning through which students place value on what they learn and take ownership for their learning. 7. INTERPERSONAL (PEOPLE SMART)  Learning through interaction with others. This intelligence promotes collaboration and working cooperatively with others. 8. NATURALIST (NATURE SMART)  Learning through classification, categories and hierarchies. It is not simply the study of nature; it can be used in all areas of study. 9. EXISTENTIAL (SPIRIT SMART)  Learning by seeing the “big picture”: “Why are we here?” “What is my role in the world?” This intelligence seeks connections to real-world understanding and application of new learning.