Group 5: Position Statement of Diversity

Courtney Beck
Amber Kinder
Jing Jin
Ping Song

Diversity

What can our 21st Century classrooms look like ? What will happen if we interpret this
colourful knot as shown on the picture above as our students as far as their diverse background
is concerned? How important is technology in our 21st century classroom? How can teachers use
technology to facilitate understandings among students of diverse cultural backgrounds and
learning styles? Classrooms across the country and in any given grade level consist of an array
of students with diverse backgrounds and with different learning styles. The question is : are we
as teachers facilitating understandings among all of our students?
We can begin to answer this question by looking at the different types of diverse
backgrounds our students are from and the different ways they learn. One factor that is important
Group 5: Position Statement of Diversity

to look at is socioeconomic status of our students. Socioeconomic Status (SES) is an economic

and sociological combined total measure of a person's work experience and of an individual's or
family's economic and social position relation to others, based on income, education, and
occupation. As far as a language classroom is concerned, it mostly means students’ home
environment, students’ formal educational experience, students’ parental interactions as well as
students’ literacy development. Taking the data that I collected from my current student teaching
school as an example, 72% students in this school are enjoying the free lunch program, 11%
students are enjoying the reduced-price lunch program, accounting for a total of 82%
economically disadvantaged students in the school.
Cultural diversity is another factor that relates to the topic of diversity in the classroom.
According to Pat Guild, “Cultures do have distinctive learning style patterns, but the great
variation among individuals within groups means that educators must use diverse teaching
strategies with all students.” Also, “Native-American people generally value and develop acute
visual discrimination and skills in the use of imagery, perceive globally, have reflective thinking
patterns, and generally value and develop acute visual discrimination and skills in the use of
imagery.” (Shade 1989, More 1990, Bert and Bert 1992). As stated in the “Culture/Learning
Style Connection” (Pat Guild), “...Research about the African-American culture shows that
students often value oral experiences, physical activity, and loyalty in interpersonal relationships
(Shade 1989, Hilliard 1989). These traits call for classroom activities that include approaches
like discussion, active projects, and collaborative work.” What’s more, “the observers describe
mainstream white Americans as valuing independence, analytic thinking, objectivity, and
accuracy. These values translate into learning experiences that focus on competition,
information, tests and grades, and linear logic. These patterns are prevalent in most American
schools.”

Also related to diversity is the Social Emotional Learning Model which is the relationship
between emotion and cognition. Michael Lewis claimed that “As cognitions lead to emotion,
emotions can lead to cognitions. The theory implies no status difference”. Giving the interactive
Group 5: Position Statement of Diversity

relationship between cognition and emotion, students learning and academic performance is an
“emergent system” which consists of lots of components such as cognitive thinking, learning
skills, emotional and social aspects. All these aspects are relational and interdependent. Social
and emotional context are crucial for the successful development of cognitive thinking and
learning skills and the latter in turn plays a vital role upon the former. Teachers with a
comprehensive understanding of these issues are more likely to be able to create a learning
environment in which students are more focused, full attention, motivated to do their best so as
to become more confident and more ambitious in their academic performance.

Another important factor teachers should be aware of in terms of diversity is the various
intelligences that students in their classes will have. A theory by Howard Gardner changed how
we understand, talk about, and view a person’s intelligence. Instead of stating that there is one
type of intelligence that people have that can be measured by an IQ test, Gardner discovered
there are actually eight types of intelligences. As we learn about diversity though, it is critical to
understand intelligence vary for students. The eight types of intelligences which include spatial-
visual, verbal-linguistic, logical-mathematical, bodily-kinesthetic, naturalist, musical/rhythmic,
interpersonal, and intrapersonal, all exist at varying levels in a person and students often have
one or two that they are most skilled in. This eye opening theory urges teachers to diversify the
way they are teaching and evaluating students so that each unique learner has reinforcement and
opportunities to grow and demonstrate their learning.
Group 5: Position Statement of Diversity

Howard Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences

Racial diversity is another factor that can impact student’s ability to learn and flourish in
many ways and teachers must be aware of the different lived experiences of their students in
order to help them succeed. Studies have shown that there are differences in stress level in black
and white student, as evidenced by higher levels of cortisol due in part to discrimination. Higher
levels of stress hormones coupled with difficulty sleeping hinders cognition and thus plays a role
in the achievement gap that exists between races. The graphic below displays the racial
achievement gap that exists even in high performing schools, highlighting the importance of
recognizing the diverse needs and challenges students face and working to create classrooms that
facilitates learning for all students.
Group 5: Position Statement of Diversity

Understanding the causes of the achievement gap as shown above is one reason diversity
in the classroom should be understood by teachers so that it can be reduced. Another reason it's
important for teachers to understand the topic of diversity is because of the aforementioned
concept of multiple intelligences has implications in the classroom. In traditional classrooms,
verbal-linguistic and logical-mathematical are often focused on and recognized through the types
of activities and assessments given and students smart in other ways have had less a chance to
express themselves and their learning. In a diverse society, all of the intelligences have a place
and a significant role to play so traditional schooling does a disservice to students and the
community as a whole by basing so much on prevalence on word smart and number smart
activities like essays and written memorization based tests. This explains why it is important for
teachers to understand the diversity and thus design inclusive unit curriculum, where an inclusive
Group 5: Position Statement of Diversity

classroom maybe possible and each student’s sense of belonging can be sustained and promoted.
It also values and practices respect for the talents, beliefs, backgrounds, and ways of living of the
students.

This is also related to the movement of EcoJustice Education and the belief that a
democratic and ecologically sustainable community demands for a paradigm shift in education to
EcoJustice Education. Due to the truth that schools are the institution where those historically-
embedded cultural constructions passed down generations after generations through
institutionalized language and cultural instruction. The majority of the public schools today are
reproducing the culture and economic system which have created a society that dangerously
overshoots the bio-systems. Dualist thinking and value hierarchies are dominant in this system.
This poses huge challenge for teachers. However, teachers can play active role in EcoJustice
Education ideologically and practically by consciously and constantly keep themselves aware of
these issues. With a clear understanding of the situation they are working and living, they will
work collaboratively with students to create inclusive curriculum that seeks to move beyond the
“selective tradition” of knowledge and meaning endorsed by the dominant culture, toward a
wider range of views and voices. This curriculum has clear goals, result in student understanding
of important content, engage students in the process of learning.

So, how can tech and inclusion give voice to youth instead of silencing in real world of
our classroom? How can we conduct an inclusive classroom environment by the help of
technology? There are actually many ways to integrate the topic of diversity into curriculum.
Integrating diversity into the classroom is an important tool for making your students feel
welcome and to succeed in school. It is important to start the off with basic introductions. This
can be a class meet and greet where you can have the students use technology to create a short
video recording themselves talking about who they are and getting into their cultural
backgrounds. This will be important information for all the class to know about one another as
well as for the teacher to keep a record on their students and what might work best for that
Group 5: Position Statement of Diversity

student. As the teacher it is important to celebrate all the little holidays in your classroom
because it would not be fair to leave out any of your students cultural beliefs because every
student beliefs are just as important. Creating a classroom bulletin board online will be a great
way for the students to add different things coming up for their backgrounds that the other
students can look at and learn more about. It would be a great place to ask questions and all the
students will have access to it all the time. Setting up the classroom to be a safe place for all
students to feel welcome is the number one priority. It is important to remember to always ask
open ended questions to your students allowing their own personal opinions to come into play. It
is important to make sure that the whole class is doing this when asking questions so that way all
the students can feel heard and respected.

As for a language teacher who has the intention of using tech in the classroom,
understanding the diversity of one classroom will hint the success in this multicultural
classroom, which requires teacher to design the unit curricular as well as lesson’s content in a
good shape taking care of all students: the topic should be students-friendly, the context should
be related to their different background, the activity should be more inviting and not too easy or
too difficult. One positive example of tech in the classroom that facilitates learning for students
of diverse backgrounds and intelligences is a lesson on public service announcements. For this
lesson, students are tasked with choosing a topic to create a public service announcement (PSA)
about, research and create the PSA, and share it with their school. The lesson allows students to
choose a topic that is relevant to their lives, an important factor in supporting diversity and
helping students feel heard. It also touches on the 21st Century Learning Goals such as real
world contexts for learning and visualization and analysis tools as they create the storyboard for
their PSA. Because the lesson allows for choice in what to include in the PSA and how, it also
appeals to different intelligences such as musical/rhythmic since students choose music for the
video. Below is a graphic that shows more ideas for teaching and accommodating the different
Group 5: Position Statement of Diversity

intelligences.

Multiple Intelligences Resources

According to the research did by one of our team members in her current student teaching
high school, the data show that nearly 28% students can not get free lunch among those 874
students in the school each day. Those students may also facing the embarrassment of having no
lunch or bring their own lunch but eat alone during lunchtime. They may facing high possibility
of lower self-confidence with class social life as well as school activities. There are some
specific activities that we think might include in the Curriculum that would cut across the
Language class . For example, we would design an online Students’ Interest Survey as the first
step to get to know my students before we design the first lesson, which also requires them to
finish in class using the classroom’s chromebook, considering there might be lots of student
don’t eve have computer or wifi at home.; another example is that we will need to keep different
cultural taboos in mind while design activities, especially for the majorities students (African
Group 5: Position Statement of Diversity

American students). For example, there is one Chinese phrase “na4 ge4”, which means “that” in
english, it sounds very similar with the english word “Negro”, which may cause big
misunderstanding or trouble if we didn’t explain it or check with students ahead while
conducting the activity. We will also need to address diverse learner needs through differentiated
instruction in activities. For example, using backward design to make sure each student can reach
a same goal via activities that take care of all their capacity and readiness.

All in all, what we future teachers should keep in mind is that technology can be used in

many different ways to promote learning at different classroom levels. Technology can be used

to facilitate students’ understanding considering their diversity. However, at any level, “students

do not learn from technology, they learn from thinking” (Jonassen, Howland, Moore, & Marra,

2003, p. 11). Only by making students learn from thinking can the use of technology be a real

success in a diverse 21st century classroom.

Citations:
Group 5: Position Statement of Diversity

CCD Public school data 2014-2015, 2016-2017 school years

https://nces.ed.gov/ccd/schoolsearch/school_detail.asp?Search=1&DistrictID=2614460&
ID=261446005082
Socioeconomic Status
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Socioeconomic_status#Main_factors
School stats: Racial achievement gaps exist even in Washington’s highest-performing schools,
Dahlia Bazzaz, January 10,2017

https://www.seattletimes.com/education-lab/school-stats-racial-achievement-gaps-exist-
even-in-states-highest-performing-schools/

Scholastic,https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/lesson-plans/teaching-content/story-starters-
teaching-guide/
Teacher's Guide to Performance-Based Learning and Assessment, 1996,

http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/196021/chapters/What_is_Performance-
Based_Learning_and_Assessment,_and_Why_is_it_Important%C2%A2.aspx
Teaching Diverse Students, CHAPTER 2
https://www.sagepub.com/sites/default/files/upm-binaries/39272_2.pdf
Instructional Technology, WIKIBOOKS
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Instructional_Technology/Utilizing_Technology_for_Mean
ingful_Learning#High_School
9 Types of Intelligence in the classroom
https://www.theodysseyonline.com/multiple-intelligences-in-the-classroom
Americas Institute For Learning and Human Development
www.institute4learning.com/resources/articles/multiple-intelligences/
ASCD Supporting Educators Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
http://www.ascd.org/publications/books/196021/chapters/What_is_Performance-Based_L
earning_and_Assessment,_and_Why_is_it_Important%C2%A2.aspx
Using Flexible Technology to meet the needs of diverse learners
https://www.wested.org/online_pubs/kn-05-01.pdf
Schools Should Help Students see Learning Task as Meaningful and Relevant
https://www.coursehero.com/file/p4fk5s8/school-should-help-students-see-learning-
tasks-as-meaningful-and-relevant-and/
Strategies for Teaching Culturally Diverse Children
https://www.teachervision.com/teaching-strategies/strategies-teaching-culturally-diverse-
students
Group 5: Position Statement of Diversity

4 Ways Supports Technology and Learning Styles and Digital Communication

http://blog.vingapp.com/education/4-ways-technology-and-learning-styles/