1.
Describe
four diversity characteristics that can define an individual’s
group membership, and explain why teachers need to understand
differences between groups.
2. Explain how educational psychology is an important resource for teachers.
Teaching and Educational Psychology
n Opportunities and Challenges of Teaching
n Addressing Assumptions About Diversity
n Educational Psychology: A Resource for Teachers
Educational Psychology: The Science
n Samples
n Measures
n Designs
3. Describe three elements of research studies that help determine which studies are worthy of consideration.
4. Define philosophy of teaching and explain why it is important for teachers to base their philosophy on scientific evidence.
Educational Psychology: The Application
n Developing Your Philosophy of Teaching
n A Case Study Approach
Summary Key Concepts Revisiting the Case Study (Annotated)
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Some
of you who have opened this book may have known you wanted to teach
ever since you can remember. Some of you may not yet be sure that
teaching is the profession for you but are curious and want to find
out more about it. Others of you may be drawn to teaching mainly
because you see it as a job that requires no evenings and no weekends
and has the lure of summers off—think again.
Opportunities and Challenges of Teaching
As a teacher, you have an opportunity to make a positive difference in the lives of your students because you have them as a captive audience day in and day out. The typical elementary teacher receives a new group of students each fall and spends an average of seven hours per day with them—over 1,400 hours over the course of the school year. At the secondary level, teachers have less time with individual students, yet they may touch the lives of as many as 150 students each day. These students will come to your class with diverse life experiences and a range of ethnic, socioeconomic, and language backgrounds. Your students will have differing levels of ability, prior achievement, and motivation. Some also may have physical disabilities that may or may not affect learning, and others may have intellectual, learning, emotional, social or behavioral disabilities that affect their achievement. Students who are intellectually gifted or have creative talents also may need special consideration.
Today’s diverse classroom presents many unique opportunities for learning and personal growth. You will have the opportunity to help students negotiate the challenges they face as they experience physical, social, emotional and cognitive changes. You can help them learn a tremendous amount about themselves by teaching them to evaluate their own thinking processes, identify their strengths and weaknesses, and pay attention to the way they interact and collaborate with peers. You will help students discover new interests, build on their prior knowledge, and even challenge their preconceptions by exposing them to different ideas and perspectives—those in the curriculum as well as those of their peers. You can help students learn to be sensitive to the perspectives of peers with disabilities as well as those with academic and cultural backgrounds different from their own.
Teaching
can be a very rewarding profession, but it requires a high degree of
commitment. In today’s educational climate, teachers are held
accountable for the academic success of each student. That can create
a lot of pressure. Making wise choices about how to teach effectively
is made more complex by the diverse nature of today’s classrooms.
What types of instructional approaches will you use to meet the
individual needs of your students? How will you deal with differing
levels of ability and achievement? How will you adapt your teaching
for students from different cultural and socioeconomic backgrounds?
Moreover, how will you confront your own preconceptions and identify
biases you might not even be aware of?
Addressing Assumptions About Diversity
Effective teachers are aware of the diversity they are likely to encounter in the classroom. Individuals and environments can exhibit a wealth of diverse characteristics. To begin to understand individual and group differences, researchers often ask participants of studies to report their ethnicity or race, sex or gender, socioeconomic status, and disabilities. By grouping people based on these characteristics, researchers can divide any population into subsets for analysis. For example, in the 2000 U.S. Census, respondents were asked to report their race as American Indian or Alaska Native, Asian (including Southeast Asia and the Indian subcontinent), Black or African American, Hispanic or Latino, Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander, or White, or a combination of two or more races.
Some
groups may be considered a minority
group,
a group that has less power than the majority group but is not
necessarily smaller in number. For example, more women than men live
in the United States, but women are considered a minority group due
to their relative lack of power in business (lower-paying jobs),
politics (fewer political positions), and religion (in some
religions, women still are not allowed to hold leadership positions).
Let’s examine group membership further.
n
The
terms ethnicity
and race
are often used interchangeably to express cultural differences, but
they actually have different meanings (Betancourt & López,
1993). Although each term has a complex definition, such that entire
courses are taught to differentiate the two, our purpose here is to
provide a basic distinction. Ethnic
group
includes people who share a similar culture—an environment with a
unique history, traditions, rules, and attitudes and perhaps a
specific language. In contrast, racial
group
categorizes people who share common biological traits (e.g., hair and
skin
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color).
Most often, a person’s ethnicity and racial group overlap, but
because ethnicity is based on environment and race is based on
biology, they can be different. For example, an Asian-born child who
is adopted and raised by a middle-class, White family living in the
rural midwestern United States would be considered Asian in race but
Caucasian in ethnicity.
n
Like
ethnicity and race, the terms sex
and gender
are often used interchangeably but technically are different. Sex
refers to the biological status of male (penis) or female (vagina),
whereas gender
is the social definition including behaviors learned in the
environment about being either male (masculine) or female (feminine).
Sexual orientation is another concept related to sex and gender that
has been used to denote diversity. The term sexual
orientation
denotes homosexuality, heterosexuality, or bisexuality.
n
Many
people believe that socioeconomic status (SES) is based solely on
income, with families with higher incomes considered high SES and
families with low income considered low SES. A more accurate
definition of socioeconomic
status
relies on the education level and occupation of family members rather
than on their level of income. Although in most circumstances
education and occupation are highly related to income (more education
and/or more prestigious occupations lead to higher incomes), in many
circumstances less-educated individuals have higher incomes than
those who are highly educated. The typical example is the college
professor who holds a doctoral degree but whose income is modest.
n
Disability
refers to being unable to perform some behavior, task, or skill. The
term can refer to physical disabilities (hearing impairment, cerebral
palsy), cognitive disabilities (intellectual disabilities, learning
disabilities, language delays), or behavioral or emotional
disabilities (attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety). We
consider disability to be a diversity characteristic because a
student’s disability will result in different learning needs and
perhaps different levels of achievement than those of students
without disabilities.
Effective
teachers attempt to understand the possible causes of differences
among groups.
Teachers who understand why differences exist can learn to be
sensitive to the individual needs of students from various
backgrounds. Typically, environmental differences, not biological or
genetic differences, are the root of group differences.
Consider
SES
as an example. Students from high SES homes tend to score higher
on achievement tests, receive higher grades, and stay in school
longer compared to students in lower SES homes (Gutman, Sameroff, &
Cole, 2003;
McLoyd,
1998). This difference is due to several environmental differences
(Evans, 2004 ; National Center for Education Statistics, 2000):
Achievement
and SES. Achievement
differences stemming from socioeconomic status may be due to
differences in access to resources such as books and computers.
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n poorer nutrition and more exposure to pollution in lower-SES homes;
n
less
exposure to school readiness materials such as books and computers in
lower-SES homes due to lack of financial resources or lack of
knowledge about the importance of reading to children at a young
age;
n
less
parental involvement in lower-SES homes, which may be due to work
schedules or to less education; and
n less well qualified teachers and higher turnover rates among teachers in lower SES schools and preschools.
Knowledge of the research data on SES differences among students can help inform teachers’ practices. For example, teachers may take extra time with students who lack readiness skills, allow students to borrow books from the classroom for use at home, or find creative ways to involve parents in their children’s education.
Effective teachers address and embrace diversity. Their teaching is not guided by assumptions about individuals from diverse groups. Prejudice feelings are rigid and irrational generalizations about a group or category of people. Prejudice feelings appear to emerge very early, with over half of six-year-olds and 85% of five-year-old White children showing signs of pro-White, anti-Black biases (Doyle & Aboud, 1995; Katz, 2003). Almost every individual has some prejudice feelings toward one or more groups but may or may not be aware of those feelings. Teachers themselves may believe that lower-achieving students need to focus on basic skills. They may assume that students from lower socioeconomic backgrounds are lower achievers, that girls are not as capable in math as boys, that Asian-American students are naturally smarter than other ethnic groups, and that gifted students are socially immature. Prejudice feelings tend to become more intense over time due to confirmation bias and belief perseverance. Confirmation bias is the tendency for people to seek evidence that confirms what they already believe to be true, rather than searching for facts that might refute their beliefs (Myers, 2005). Belief perseverance is the tendency to hold onto our beliefs even in the face of contradictory evidence (Andersen, Klatzky, & Murray, 1990).
Prejudice feelings can affect the way a teacher makes decisions about instruction, grouping, motivation, and assessment. Treating students differently based on prejudice feelings or biased beliefs about a particular group is discrimination. Teachers and educators must identify their own feelings of prejudice and educate themselves on the scientific evidence regarding diversity issues. However, even scientific evidence that points to group differences should be interpreted with caution due to individual differences within each group. For example, Figure 1.1 shows that average math scores are higher for boys than girls, but the amount of overlap in scores is great.
Consider
your own experiences and group membership. Have you ever treated
someone differently because of the person’s race, socioeconomic
status, gender, or disability? If you have experienced prejudice
feelings—or been on the receiving end of prejudice feelings—how
and why have those beliefs persevered?
Educational Psychology: A Resource for Teachers
When teachers need help dealing with issues of diversity, motivation, achievement differences, behavioral problems, and other concerns, they turn to the field of educational psychology. Educational psychology links the science of psychology to educational practice and provides teachers with evidence-based knowledge to support their day-to-day decision making in the classroom. Teachers who use research and theory to guide their practices are more deliberate and more thoughtful classroom problem solvers (Bigge & Shermis, 1999; Eisner, 1985; Leu & Kinzer, 1995). Educational research and theory can deepen our understanding of many important aspects of teaching and learning.
People
who work outside educational settings may assume that good teaching
practices are simply common sense. Yet commonsense approaches to
classroom management and instruction often are
0
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Girls
Boys
200 400 600 800
Figure 1.1: Similarities >
Differences.
Comparing
boys’ and girls’ math performance historically has found mean
differences, but the overlap of scores between these two groups is
great, emphasizing the enormous variability within groups.
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Scientific Approaches vs. Common Sense. Re-search informs teachers about how best to approach situations in the classroom, such as children playing with one another rather than completing their work, as shown here. The common sense approach does not always lead to best practices.
ineffective, or even counterproductive. Assume, for example, that an elementary student continues to get out of his seat during a lesson. A commonsense approach would be to politely ask the student to sit down. However, in certain situations this approach might encourage the student’s misbehavior as a way to attract attention from the teacher. Research suggests that a more effective approach would be to ignore the unwanted behavior, depending on the individual characteristics of the student. Hence, scientific evidence helps determine the best practices for effective teaching. As a teacher, you will encounter situations that, despite all your training, you are not prepared for. When that happens, research can help you formulate an informed response.
Although the field of educational psychology has always relied on science, the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001 has lifted the importance of science to a new level. NCLB states that schools and educational programs must use “scientifically based research” in order to receive federal funding. For example, the Reading First program makes federal funds available to help certain reading teachers strengthen existing skills and foster new ones, using instructional techniques shown to be effective by scientifically based research. Following the recommendations of NCLB, we are writing this text to provide theories and empirical evidence you can use to develop a repertoire of skills and knowledge on your path to becoming an effective teacher.
To
get the most out of this text, you first need a basic understanding
of scientific principles (the science) and of how we intend to
assist you in applying these principles to real classroom situations
(the application). In a sense, you will be considering the same major
challenges faced by scholars in the field of educational
psychology:
n The science: formulating theories and conducting research studies.
n
The
application: developing applications of current theories and research
to enhance teaching and learning.
The science of educational psychology involves formulating theories—sets of ideas used to explain a phenomenon and make predictions about behavior—and then conducting research on those theories. The relationship between theory and research is reciprocal. Research findings may support a theory, but researchers also may alter theories or develop new ones based on accumulated evidence. This process is ongoing—scientists today are building on (or tearing down) the work of twentieth-century scientists.
For
today’s teachers, the amount and variety of research material
available can be intimidating. The first step in evaluating research
is to find appropriate resources. Following are some basic
guidelines for obtaining reputable research:
n Don’t use newspaper and magazine articles, because they are not research articles.
n Don’t do Internet searches using search engines, because they may not yield credible sources.
n Do find peer-reviewed articles in scholarly journals at a local university library.
n Do find peer-reviewed articles in databases such as ERIC and PSYINFO.
n Do visit Web sites of professional associations to see if they have links to education research groups such as the American Educational Research Association (AERA) and the American Psychological Association (APA).
After
you have found reputable research articles, how can you determine
which research studies are applicable to your classroom? Also, how
can you evaluate research findings to decide whether they will
benefit your teaching? To determine which studies are worthy of
consideration, you need to understand three elements of every
research study: (1) samples, (2) measures, and (3) designs.
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Samples
Suppose, for example, that researchers want to study how students of different ages respond to the stress of transferring to a new school. Because the researchers cannot observe or survey all transferring students, they rely on a sample, or a smaller set of individuals from the population of interest. The sample needs to be representative of the population such that the gender, ethnicity, and age characteristics of the sample are similar to the population of interest. The best method for ensuring that the sample is representative of the population is to use a random sample, which means that every person in the population of interest has an equal chance of being included. Many computer programs can take a large list of individuals (e.g., all students registered in a school district) and create a random subset of individuals to be included in a study.
Even
when a random sample of individuals within the population is
selected, not all the people selected will agree to participate in
the research study. (How many phone surveys have you declined?)
Volunteer
bias
is the tendency for those who choose to participate in research
studies to differ in some way from those who decline the invitation
to participate. Typically, individuals who have strong feelings or
opinions or who are invested in the outcome of a particular research
study are more likely to participate than are those who do not have a
vested interest. For example, a college student like yourself might
be more willing to participate in surveys and interviews regarding
opinions on the effectiveness of the parking services or the financial
aid office at your university, and less likely to participate in
research on the effectiveness of the university president or
provost.
Measures
Once
researchers have chosen a sample to use, they must decide on a method
for taking measurements, a framework for gathering information. If
researchers are investigating the amount of time students spend
during school hours completing assignments, for example, they must
choose a measure suited to the task. Some measures commonly used in
educational research are these:
n
Observations,
or
watching or viewing the behavior of individuals, might be used to
examine how many times a teacher calls on a girl versus a boy in
relation to the number of students from each gender who raise their
hands.
n
Interviews,
or questions presented to participants, can be highly structured
lists of simple questions (How
many hours do you spend on homework each night?)
or can include open-ended questions (How
do you study for a test?).
Even though open-ended questions allow more information to be
gathered, they often result in less consistency across participants.
Participants might talk about the number of hours spent studying, the
use of a study guide, or strategies they use for reading, note
taking, memorizing, and testing themselves.
n
Tests
and surveys typically
are paper-and-pencil measures that include a number of questions.
Test-and-survey research can be done very easily with large groups of
individuals in a relatively short amount of time. One requirement
for participation in survey research is the ability to read and
write. This might exclude younger children and individuals with
language barriers.
Designs
Researchers also choose a design for their research studies, that is, a method for carrying out research and investigating hypotheses about variables of interest. Variables can be events, characteristics, or behaviors, such
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Research Measures.
Observations allow researchers to view the behaviors of teachers and students during instruction, such as whether boys or girls are called on more frequently by teachers.
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TA B L E 1 .1 Summary of Research Designs Type Purpose Examples Additional considerations
Allows
researcher to make predictions.
Correlational To describe the extent to which changes in one variable correspond with changes in another variable (or other variables).
Experimental
To investigate a cause-effect relationship between variables.
Quasi-experimental To show a cause-effect relationship between variables where the independent variable is not manipulated but is preexisting.
This kind of research has limited generalizability, meaning you can’t apply it to all situations.
Teachers often do this type of “research” in school (e.g., tracking homework patterns or the behavior of children after lunch).
Correlation does not imply causation. Just because one variable is associated with another, it does not mean one caused the other.
This
type of research is limited in generalizability.
To what extent:
n are reading achievement scores correlated with socioeconomic status?
n are science project scores correlated with parents’ level of interest in science?
Descriptive To systematically explain a situation or area of interest factually and accurately.
What
percentage of students passed a state mastery test? Does the
percentage differ by grade level or socioeconomic status?
Students are randomly assigned to either intensive reading training or no additional reading training. Scores on reading achievement tests are compared.
Many research studies cannot use experimental designs due to the impossibility of random assignment.
Researchers can use two third-grade classrooms in the same school for the reading-training and no-training groups.
Researchers
cannot be certain that the results were due solely to the independent
variable.
as age, family divorce, medication, diagnosis of Attention–Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), math scores, or aggression. Let’s examine the four designs commonly used in educational research and summarized in Table 1.1.
Descriptive
designs
provide basic information about variables in a population without
making connections between behaviors, events, or conditions. For
example, a descriptive research study might determine what percentage
of school-age children are diagnosed with ADHD. Two particular
descriptive research designs can provide in-depth perspectives: case
study and ethnographic study. Case
study
research involves an in-depth description of one individual in order
to provide a rich picture of the individual’s psychological
functioning. For example, researchers might observe a child diagnosed
with autism both at home and at school, interview teachers and
parents, and examine test scores, school records, and other sources
of information. Ethnographic
study
research includes an in-depth description of a particular group based
on direct participation within the group. For example, a researcher
might become a participant within a school of Latino students taking
extensive field notes of observations, in order to capture the
unique educational values and social challenges of this ethnic
group.
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Correlational
designs
attempt to move beyond describing behaviors by making connections
between variables with a statistical computation called a correlation
coefficient. A correlation
coeffi cient is
a number between –1.0 and +1.0 that indicates the type and strength
of the relationship between two variables.
n
The
sign (positive or negative) indicates the type of relationship
between the two variables. A positive correlation (+) between study
time and grades means that as study time increases, grades also
increase. A negative correlation (–) between school absences and
grades means that as absences increase, grades decrease.
n The closer a correlation coefficient is to +1 or –1, the stronger the relationship between the two variables. For example, a correlation coefficient of –.56 indicates a stronger connection than a correlation coefficient of +.43 because the absolute number is larger.
Although correlation studies measure the relationships between different variables, they cannot determine cause and effect. Although we may find that study time and grades are positively correlated, increased study time does not cause better grades. Instead, this positive correlation may imply several possibilities: (1) More study time causes better grades, (2) better grades cause a person to enjoy academics and therefore to study more, or (3) some other variable, such as parental involvement, accounts for the high levels of study time and grades. Perhaps children whose parents are highly involved in their education are more likely to study and also more likely to receive higher grades.
When researchers want to understand the cause of a relationship, they turn to experimental and quasi-experimental designs. Researchers use experimental designs to establish a cause-effect relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable. An independent variable (IV) is the variable of interest that is presumed to have an effect on the dependent variable (DV), the outcome of the study. Researchers conduct experimental studies in two steps:
1.
Randomly assign participants to one of two groups, an experimental
group and a control group.
2.
Manipulate the independent variable (a treatment or intervention),
with the experimental group receiving the IV but not the control
group.
Suppose researchers want to determine whether using computers in elementary classrooms (independent variable) affects the academic achievement of students (dependent variable). They might administer an academic achievement test to each student chosen for the sample and then randomly
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Experimental Designs.
Computer use can be treated as an independent variable in an experimental study examining academic achievement, the dependent variable.
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Figure
1.2.
A
Continuum of Research Designs.
Design dictates what inferences we can make from educational research
studies.
No
inferences about cause and effect
Descriptive
Describes
Inferences
about cause and effect
Experimental
Establishes cause-effect relationship
Infers
cause-effect relationship
Describes a relationship
Infers cause-effect relationship
Correlational
Quasi-experimental
assign students to either a computer classroom (experimental group) or a no-computer classroom (control group). The experimental group would use computers in the classroom over a specified period of time, while the control group would not. At the end of the study, researchers would give the same academic achievement test to each student. If the experimental group showed greater improvement over time than the control group, this would show that the independent variable (the use of computers in the classroom) affected the dependent variable (academic achievement).
In instances in which researchers cannot randomly assign individuals to groups or manipulate an independent variable, they use quasi-experimental designs to infer a cause-effect relationship. Obviously, researchers cannot randomly assign children to divorced and nondivorced families, abusive and nonabusive homes, male and female genders, or high and low socioeconomic groups. In other cases, researchers’ actions may be limited by school district rules or by time or expense, making the manipulation of experimental and control groups impossible. As a result, quasi-experimental designs cannot establish that an independent variable directly affects a dependent variable, and therefore they leave open the possibility that the outcome of the study may be due to other variables the researcher could not control. Say, for example, that researchers study an existing group of students in a computer classroom and compare their achievement to that of students enrolled in a no-computer classroom. A rise or decline in the academic achievement of students in the computer classroom may not be due solely to the presence of computers but may also be the result of the computer classroom having more high-level readers, fewer behaviorally challenging children, or a teacher with more teaching experience than the other. When random assignment cannot be used, researchers must employ safeguards to control all other possible variables that might affect the experimental and control groups.
Despite certain shortcomings, quasi-experimental research does allow researchers to examine questions that involve differences between groups or differences over time. Cross-sectional studies examine samples from various groups in order to compare behaviors. For example, researchers might examine whether middle school students have more or fewer hours of homework compared to high school students. Longitudinal designs examine the same sample, or group of people, repeatedly over time in order to provide information about how behaviors change over time and/or how earlier events can be connected to later events. For instance, a study might follow children over time to determine whether family divorce in elementary school correlates to academic difficulties in adolescence.
To use science effectively in decision making, teachers need to be informed consumers of research. When you encounter scientific evidence presented in the media, in journals, or at workshops, you should be aware of the various inferences that can be made with each research design, as shown in Figure 1.2. Experimental studies are the only type that can answer questions about cause-effect relationships. However, correlational and quasi-experimental designs are more common in educational research because they are more practical than experimental designs for investigating many hypotheses regarding teaching and learning. They also provide more information than descriptive designs. Nevertheless, you must be cautious when interpreting correlational and quasi-experimental designs. You cannot make cause-effect inferences in these cases, and you should always question whether other variables not identified in the studies might account for the findings.
Consider
the research scenarios presented in Table 1.2 and see if you can
classify them according to research design.
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TA B L E 1 . 2 Applications of Research to Educational Settings
How would you classify each of the following research designs?
1. There are two sections of a class. Both sections are taught by the same instructor, cover the same content, and have the same number of students. In one class the teacher uses a $150 textbook, and in the other class the teacher uses no textbook. The final exam scores are compared to determine which practice is a better option.
2. An educational psychologist examines how students’ levels of motivation toward studying compare to students’ IQ scores.
3. In an effort to decrease obesity and increase movement among students, a superintendent has all the gym teachers in a district record the average number of hours in a week spent doing cardio work in gym class.
4. A researcher goes to an urban school and a rural school to observe differences. After much study, the researcher writes a report comparing and contrasting the different schools.
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Effective
teachers are confident in their problem-solving abilities and
skilled in meeting the instructional needs of a diverse group of
students (Steffy, Wolfe, Pasch, & Enz, 2000). In order to build
confidence and skill, teachers need the opportunity to develop and
refine their personal educational philosophies and need experience
in problem solving when faced with complex classroom situations.
Developing Your Philosophy of Teaching
Effective teachers develop philosophies of teaching—their views about how they will structure their classrooms, teach their students, and respond to problems. A philosophy of teaching provides a lens or filter through which teachers consider the merits of various teaching strategies before they select or reject them for use in the classroom (Campoy, 2005). Philosophies of teaching should be based on sound scientific evidence and be continually reevaluated as new information becomes available. Essentially, teachers are lifelong learners. Table 1.3 shows the standards set forth by the Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC), used by many education programs at colleges and universities across the country to evaluate competencies of graduates of teaching programs. Notice that the criteria for effective teaching do not state what subject matter to teach or what instructional methods or motivational and management strategies to use. Rather, the criteria address whether the teacher possesses the skills necessary to make informed decisions in these areas.
The skills necessary for informed decision making are just as important as the content and methods that teacher-preparation students learn in their education programs—perhaps even more so. Teachers must make decisions for themselves rather than merely adopting methods, strategies, and techniques because they fit their personal beliefs or may be in vogue at the time. They need to be knowledgeable consumers of scientific information, always ready to evaluate empirical findings and to decide how they can use those findings in the classroom to enhance students’ learning. If you were a physician, would you consider using the best medical practices and equipment of 50 years ago? Of course not. Teachers today cannot assume that the approaches that may have worked well many years ago are equally effective today.
Our
goal in this text is to provide you with the most up-to-date
scientific knowledge on topics important to teachers and the
opportunity to practice evaluating and applying what you learn.
n
In
each module, you will encounter a balanced presentation of the
research literature. Often you may notice that there is no definitive
answer for a particular issue. That’s okay. This ambiguity allows
you to develop your own philosophy of teaching with regard to certain
issues after you have considered the available evidence.
n
As
you read the modules, you will notice that issues pertaining to
diversity among students are integrated into the content and
highlighted by icons in the margins as indicated here. This allows
you to evaluate how diversity will impact your teaching and the
choices you make about teaching methods, techniques, and strategies.
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today’s
diverse classrooms
Best Practices. Teachers need to rely on current resources and up-to-date scientific evidence in making decisions about instructional methods and techniques, rather than techniques used decades ago.
n
Every
module also contains applications that reflect evidence-based
practices. While these applications are based on research findings,
they are not to be taken as the last word on a topic. The
applications suggest the “what” (what methods or techniques are
effective based on the most recent research available), but the
theory and research evidence tell you the “why” (why they are
effective). Teachers need both for informed decision making. As a
teaching professional, you should be able to support the
instructional and interpersonal decisions you make in the classroom
with sound reasoning.
n
Because
pre-service teachers also need practice in decision making in order
to develop skill, we provide four case studies at the beginning of
each cluster: (1) early childhood, (2) elementary school, (3) middle
school, and (4) high school. Let’s take a closer look at how you
can use the case study approach to practice decision-making skills.
A Case Study Approach
When you encountered the opening case study at the beginning of this module, you might have been wondering, Why do I need to read this? How does reading this before I read the content help me? How does this case apply to the students and situations I will encounter in my career? Case studies allow us to apply research and theory to specific classroom situations, giving pre-service teachers a chance to solve problems and reflect on best practices.
The
opening case study provides an example of how the cases will be used
throughout this text. Your instructor may ask you to read one or more
of the case studies in each cluster, depending on which cases are
most relevant to the certification level you are pursuing.
Regardless of how many or which case studies you read, we believe
that reading a case study prior to reading a module will provide you
with a realistic situation to consider as you learn about the
theories, research, and application of topics in the module. In order
to assist you in the case study approach, we have provided questions
in several places to help you become active readers and begin to
apply what you have learned in a realistic context.
PREPARE
Prior
to reading any case study, you should prepare yourself to identify
the relevant pieces of information within the case study. Here you
will be looking for the who,
what, where, and
when
described in each case.
n
Who?
Pay
attention and look for relevant characteristics of teachers,
students, and parents and the relationships among them. Some relevant
characteristics may be the experience level of teachers or diversity
characteristics such as gender, ethnicity, disabilities, or the SES
of the school district or parents.
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module one today’s diverse classrooms 17
INTASC Standards Standard Description
TA B L E 1 . 3
1. Knowledge of subject matter
The teacher understands the central concepts, tools of inquiry, and structure of the discipline(s) he or she teaches and can create learning experiences that make these aspects of subject matter meaningful for students.
3.
Adapting instruction for individual needs
2. Knowledge of human development and learning
Today’s
Diverse Classrooms
Module 1 :
The teacher understands how children learn and develop, and can provide learning opportunities that support their intellectual, social, and personal development.
The teacher understands how students differ in their approaches to learning and creates instructional opportunities that are adapted to diverse learners.
4.
Multiple instructional strategies
The teacher understands and uses a variety of instructional strategies to encourage students’ development of critical thinking, problem solving, and performance skills.
5.
Classroom motivation and management skills
The teacher uses an understanding of individual and group motivation and behavior to create a learning environment that encourages positive social interaction, active engagement in learning, and self-motivation.
6.
Communication skills
The teacher uses knowledge of effective verbal, nonverbal, and media communication techniques to foster active inquiry, collaboration, and supportive interaction in the classroom.
7.
Instructional planning skills
The teacher plans instruction based on knowledge of subject matter, students, the community, and curriculum goals.
9.
Professional commitment and responsibility
8. Assessment of student learning
The teacher understands and uses formal and informal assessment strategies to ensure the continuous intellectual, social, and physical development of the learner.
The teacher is a reflective practitioner who continually evaluates the effects of his or her choices and actions on others (students, parents, and other professionals in the learning community) and who actively seeks out opportunities to grow professionally.
10.
Partnerships
The
teacher fosters relationships with school colleagues, parents, and
agencies in the larger community to support students’ learning and
well-being.
Source:
http://www.ccsso.org/projects/Interstate_New_Teacher_Assessment_and_Support_Consortium/#resource.
n
What?
Attempt to identify the main problem being described in the case
study, such as a behavioral problem, a learning problem, an
instructional problem, or a classroom management problem. Be aware
that more than one problem may be addressed.
n
Where?
Consider the context of where the events described in the case study
take place, such as a traditional classroom, a chemistry lab, an art
room, the gym, the hallway, or the principal’s office. Begin to
envision the context and identify any characteristics that might
contribute to the problem or to the solution.
n
When?
Identify time-relevant information in the case study, such as whether
the story unfolds in the morning or the late afternoon; at the
beginning, middle, or end of the school year, or before or after a
holiday. Begin to consider how these time issues might be related to
the main problem.
ASSESS
When
you have finished reading each case study, you will find three or
four questions to assess your initial understanding and
interpretation of the case. Because you will not yet have read the
modules in the cluster and hence will not have the science and
application to aid your thinking, we will be
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18
introduction
today’s
diverse classrooms
asking
you to use prior knowledge to make predictions or draw preliminary
conclusions. Here the questions focus on the how
and what
presented in the case study.
n
How?
Attempt to use your prior knowledge to determine how likely the
behaviors described in the case study are to occur in a classroom or
school setting or how you might respond to the situation.
n What? Begin to think about what might be important characteristics in the case study, such as what characteristics of the individuals involved contributed to the situation or what behaviors or solutions were described.
After
you have considered the how and what of each case study, you will
read the modules within the cluster and gain new insights into the
case study situation based on theory, research, and suggestions for
best practices.
REFLECT AND EVALUATE
At
the end of each module, you will find four to seven questions that
ask you to use the information presented in the module to formulate a
more educated, scientific-based response to each case study. Here we
again ask about the how
and the what,
but we also include why
and what
if
questions.
n
How?
Use the science and application discussed in the module, rather than
your personal opinions and experiences, to determine how likely the
behaviors described in the case study are to occur in a classroom or
school setting or how you might respond to the situation.
n What? Identify examples of key concepts in the modules.
n
Why?
Move beyond thinking about the what and focus on the why, such as why
certain characteristics of individuals or aspects of the case study
were important or why an approach to the problem did or did not work
well.
n What if . . . ? Consider new aspects of the case study not initially presented. The question may suggest a change in some aspect of the case and ask how that change would result in different problems or solutions.
The questions at the end of each module will help you gauge your level of comprehension of important concepts within that module. In addition, they will encourage you to apply what you have learned to a realistic context and provide you with practice in evaluating how you could effectively apply the concepts, theories, and principles learned in the module to your teaching.
The
enclosed foldout shows the case study from the beginning of the
module, annotated with explanations about the case study approach.
Case Study Approach. Visualizing the context, such as this chemistry lab, while reading the case studies will provide essential information for understanding the problem and the solution.
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Describe
four diversity characteristics that can define an individual’s
group membership, and explain why teachers need to understand
differences between groups. (1)
Ethnic groups share a common culture or environment, while race
denotes a group of people who share common biological traits. (2) An
individual’s sex refers to his or her biology, whereas gender
refers to the social definitions of masculine and feminine.
(3)
Socioeconomic status (SES) is defined by the educational level and
occupational status of family members. (4) Disabilities also can be
used as a characteristic of diversity, because individuals differ in
physical, cognitive, and emotional capabilities. Teachers need to
understand that group differences typically result from environmental
differences and to be aware of their own prejudice feelings, which
may easily be validated by attending to information that confirms
their beliefs and by ignoring information that contradicts their
beliefs or prejudice feelings.
Explain how educational psychology is an important resource for teachers. Educational psychology links the science of psychology to educational practice and provides teachers with evidence-based knowledge to support their day-to-day decision making in the classroom. Teachers’ choices of techniques and strategies should rely not on common sense approaches but on
scientific research. The importance of using evidence-based knowledge is apparent in the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2001, which mandates that school systems use scientific-based practices in order to receive federal funding.
Describe three elements of research studies that help determine which studies are worthy of consideration. First, the sample selection process for conducting research studies should attempt to use randomized samples and minimize volunteer bias. Second, mea sures should be selected based on how well the measure answers the research question. Third, the findings of research studies should be interpreted accurately given the research design used, such as whether cause and effect can be established.
Define philosophy of teaching and explain why it is important for teachers to base their philosophy on scientific evidence. Philosophy of teaching is a broad view about how to structure a classroom, teach students, and respond to problems. Because popular views of appropriate teaching methods have changed throughout history and will continue to change in the future, teachers should base their philosophy on current scientific information by acquiring the skills needed to evaluate research and become lifelong learners.
sample sex sexual orientation socioeconomic status (SES) tests and surveys theories variables volunteer bias
summary 19
belief perseverance confirmation bias correlational designs descriptive designs disability discrimination educational psychology ethnic group experimental designs
gender interviews minority group observations philosophies of teaching prejudice feelings quasi-experimental designs racial group random sample
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