I'm finding that even with the bulk of the language issue removed, a
multicultural classroom offers some unique opportunities for the
teacher. I came across a notion of Broad context and Narrow context
learning that questions some basic assumptions that I've always made.
Some other reading I've done presents the possibility that our cherished
Socratic method my not be as useful in teaching a culture that may see
that as "confronting" (respect for authority). Other cultures may value
consensus as a more worthy goal than "winning". A woman's traditional
place in another culture certainly affects her behavior in a class.
Some schools are experimenting with learning communities, where subjects
are clustered to one degree or another-for higher context learners this
has been very successful. I think the culture/language/learning style
discussion is worth a lot of attention-and it's probably fairly timely
too!
The following is from the University of Wisconsin at Madison web site,
(http://www.news.wisc.edu/view.html?get=5188).
"Despite 30 years of diversity programs and affirmative action, a
disturbing gap persists between the academic achievements of minority
and majority students on all educational levels.
Robert A. Ibarra, assistant vice chancellor for academic affairs, says
differences in thinking strategies that members of various ethnic groups
typically employ may be fueling achievement-score disparities.
"The problem is with the educational system, not the people in it," he
says. "There's a pronounced discrepancy between the way our educational
system assumes people think, and the ways in which many African
Americans, American Indians, Asian Americans and Latinos actually do
think. Educational institutions are not set up to handle the
differences."
Ibarra makes this case in his forthcoming book, "Beyond Affirmative
Action: Reframing the Context of Higher Education" (University of
Wisconsin Press, February 2001). Drawing upon 15 years of research into
the culture of higher education, he has formulated a completely new take
on diversity issues. Ibarra promises his conclusions have the potential
to revolutionize not only higher education but K-12 instruction and the
corporate world. "Most looked to the German research model of higher
education, which relies upon linear, analytical, step-by-step thinking;
intellectual specialization in undergraduate majors; and knowledge
easily measured through standardized exams and exercises," among other
characteristics, he says.
Anthropologists call this style of information processing "low-context"
culture. In contrast, many minority members, women and some majority
males prefer a "high-context" approach to studying, teaching and
working. For example, high-context learning is people- rather than
idea-oriented. It relies heavily on interaction between students, their
families and teachers. Consequently, high-context learners may be
unprepared for the social isolation that often accompanies structured
learning, with its emphasis on individual rather than group
comprehension, Ibarra says.
"High-context students usually can come to terms with the low-context
system, but their academic achievements often fall below their
potential. Learning to function within a low-context system is like
learning to write with your right hand if you're left-handed: It's never
entirely comfortable or natural. Minorities often have to be
academically ambidextrous in order to function successfully in an
educational setting," he says.
Ibarra uses the term "multicontextual" to describe the way minorities
negotiate the mainstream classroom or workplace. "It's not
'multiculturalism,' which exposes people to bits and pieces of each
others' cultures," he says. "We need to go beyond those tentative
explorations. A truly multicontextual system would accommodate both
high- and low-context styles into the fabric of our academic culture."
And that will present quite a challenge, Ibarra concedes. In addition to
preferring interactive learning situations, high-context people may be
more comfortable working concepts out in their minds rather than on
paper or at a computer screen. High-context thinkers also value accuracy
and thorough understanding, even at the expense of the deadlines that
low-context systems prize.
The prevailing low-context pedagogical norm is a fine model of education
in many respects, Ibarra notes. "We certainly shouldn't abandon it
altogether. However, we do need to expand it to include the intellectual
style of high-context students and faculty," he says. Toward that end,
he suggests educators consider:
Using real-life problems to give high-context students, faculty and
staff the hands-on experience that often helps them learn and teach more
effectively. Ibarra says service learning, in which students offer their
time and talents in the community, is a particularly useful way to flesh
out the abstract theory presented in lectures.
Offering opportunities for the general-to-specific deductive reasoning
that high-context people often favor, rather than relying exclusively on
inductive reasoning, which moves from the specific to the general.
Making greater use of nonverbal communication - facial expression,
gestures, eye contact - to impart information.
Providing opportunities for interactive study and collaborative research
for those who want them. At UW-Madison, for example, Wisconsin Emerging
Scholars each year helps about 150 students, especially minority, women
or people from rural areas, navigate the demanding mathematical terrain
of calculus. Participants work in small groups to solve problems.
University data consistently show higher grade points on average for WES
students than for those who learn calculus the traditional way.
Similarly, UW-Madison's 2-year-old PEOPLE program, which offers
pre-college enrichment for middle- and high-school students in
Milwaukee, Racine, Kenosha, Beloit and Madison, goes to great lengths to
involve entire communities in acquainting families with the benefits of
a college degree from UW-Madison. Faculty and staff on campus can take
advantage of the Creating a Collaborative Academic Environment office to
explore cross-disciplinary learning, teaching and research
possibilities.
John Wiley, UW-Madison provost, agrees with Ibarra that education needs
to go beyond affirmative action. "When affirmative action was first
implemented in the early 1960s, its goal was to remove barriers that had
limited or barred access to higher education. The continuing focus on
these goals, however, has hidden the fact that the culture of higher
education can present its own barriers to participation. This book is a
breakthrough because it shows for the first time why and how cultural
context helps or impedes a person's success within the system."
In the end, educational success is determined by both the individual's
ability to function in a culture and that culture's willingness to
provide opportunities for all, Ibarra says.
"My first career was as a drummer, and at that time, drum kits usually
were set up for right-handed people," Ibarra says. "It wasn't until the
last decade or so drums have been set up for ambidextrous playing, and
now drummers using that setup can coax more complex and interesting
rhythms out of the instrument.
"I think education needs to do develop its own ambidextrous system so we
can look more fully at life in all its dimensions," he says.
Ibarra has just finished outlining his findings at one of the
prestigious Gordon Research Conferences on new frontiers in science and
technology policy. Later this fall he will discuss his ideas for
diversity before conferences in the Washington, D.C., area, and in
Albuquerque, N.M., and San Francisco.
"This country faces a profound demographic change, with the potential
for many more high-context people in the educational system," he says.
"So far we have not yet been able to come to grips with that. We need to
understand what the real barriers to education are and come up with
creative new ways to address them."
-----Original Message-----
From: Koeddermann, Achim ([log in to unmask])
Sent: Tuesday, April 29, 2003 12:34 PM
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Tips for Discussions w/ Multicultural Classroom
Dear Jim, have you been able to get some of our education faculty to
join - since they do this for a living?
Achim
-----Original Message-----
From: Greenberg, James ([log in to unmask])
Sent: Tue 4/29/2003 8:13 AM
To: [log in to unmask]
Cc:
Subject: Tips for Discussions w/ Multicultural Classroom
A reminder that our next Teaching Breakfast is this Thursday,
May 1st at 8
am. The topic is Faculty Peer Review. Please join us if you
can. See you in
Morris Hall.
As our classrooms grow more diverse, I have found some of the
tips in this
recent posting useful so I pass them along to you.
The posting below looks at ways of encouraging and supporting
class
discussions with linguistically and culturally diverse students.
It
is from the section, Resource A, Facilitating Equitable Class
Discussions Within the Multicultural Classroom, in Diversity and
Motivation: Culturally Responsive Teaching by Raymond J.
Wlodkowski
and Margery B. Ginsberg. A joint publication in The Jossey-Bass
Higher and Adult Education Series, The Jossey-Bass Education
Series,
and The Jossey-Bass Social and Behavioral Sciences. Published by
Jossey-Bass. A Wiley Imprint. 989 Market Street, San Francisco,
CA
94103-1741. <www.josseybass.com>. Copyright 1995 by John Wiley &
Sons, Inc., and Raymond J. Wlodkowski and Margery B. Ginsberg.
All
rights reserved. Reprinted with permission.
FACILITATING EQUITABLE CLASS DISCUSSIONS WITHIN THE
MULTICULTURAL
CLASSROOM
Topically focused class discussions potentially offer English
learners rich exposure to new vocabulary and usage in their
second
language, along with opportunities to interact in a variety of
academic situations - reporting information, summarizing,
synthesizing, and debating. Frequently, however, linguistically
and
culturally diverse students remain passive participants in
whole-class discussions for varied reasons, including insecurity
about their listening comprehension, pronunciation, word choice,
and
culturally appropriate interactional strategies. Instructors
may
employ the following strategies to lead carefully orchestrated
class
discussions that provide language-promoting assistance and
facilitate
more active participation for English learners:
1. Create a supportive classroom environment for less confident
English users by encouraging all students to talk in turn, to
listen
actively while others talk, and to offer assistance rather than
impatience and intolerance for classmates who need help in
understanding or responding.
2. Show your students that you expect them all to participate in
oral
activities by consistently inviting every member of the class to
participate.
3. Allow students to first share and rehearse their responses to
a
key question or comments on a topic with a partner to increase
learning and ESL student confidence and motivation to contribute
to a
unified class discussion.
4. Be sensitive to the linguistic and conceptual demands of
discussion questions and activities. Don't inhibit
participation by
pushing students to communicate too far beyond their current
level of
English proficiency.
5. The easiest content for less proficient English users to
handle is
often related to their everyday lives and activities. Make a
concerted effort to build in opportunities for language minority
students to share information about their cultures, communities,
families, and special interests.
6. Pair less proficient English users with a sensitive classmate
who
can ideally clarify concepts, vocabulary, and instructions in
the
primary language and also coach the classmate in responding.
7. Attempt to activate students' relevant background knowledge
on
topics, and provide through "schema"-building activities (e.g.,
brainstorming, mapping, advance organizers) requisite
linguistic,
conceptual, and cultural information that would otherwise
prevent
them from active learning and participation.
8. Move purposefully around the room to enable as many students
as
possible to enjoy having close proximity to the teacher, which
should
also encourage students to remain more alert and willing to ask
and
answer questions.
9. Do not constantly pose questions to the group at large,
allowing a
minority of more confident or impulsive students to dominate the
discussion.
10. Ask a question before naming the respondent to encourage
active
learning by allowing all students to "attend" and decide how
they
would answer.
11. Draw in less confident students by asking them to respond to
an
open-ended question after they have heard a variety of responses
from
their classmates.
12. Call on English learners to answer not only safe yes/no
questions
but also more challenging, open-ended questions that provide
opportunities for thoughtful and extended usage of their second
language.
13. Increase wait time (3-9 seconds) after asking a question to
allow
adequate time for the student to successfully process the
question
and formulate a thoughtful response.
14. When calling on a specific ESL student, it often helps to
first
pose the question and make eye contact with the student while
stating
his/her name; then pause a few seconds and restate the question
verbatim.
15. Discourage classmates from blurting out responses and
intimidating less confident English users from taking risks with
their second language.
16. Do not interrupt a students' thought processes after asking
an
initial question by immediately posing one or more follow-up
questions; these tandem questions confuse rather than assist
English
learners who may not realize that the teacher is actually
rephrasing
the same question.
17. Encourage students to talk through nonverbal means, such as
waiting patiently, smiling, and nodding in approval.
18. Make any corrections indirectly by mirroring in correct form
what
the student has said. For example, suppose a student says,
"Majority
immigrants San Francisco from Pacific Rim." You can repeat,
"That is
correct. A majority of the immigrants in San Francisco come
from the
Pacific Rim."
19. Use these conversational features regularly and in so doing
model
for your students how to use them in class discussions,
lectures, and
small-group work:
confirmation checks Is this what you are saying?
So you believe that . . .
clarification requests
Will you explain your point so that I can be sure I understand?
Could you give me an example of that?
comprehension checks Is my use of language understandable
to you?
interrupting Excuse me, but . . .
Sorry for interrupting, but . . .
Source: Kinsella, 1993, p. 16. Used by permission.
Mr. James B. Greenberg
Director Teaching, Learning and Technology Center
Milne Library
SUNY College at Oneonta
Oneonta, New York 13820
email: [log in to unmask]
phone: 607-436-2701
"Ignorance is curable, stupidity lasts forever"
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