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Module 4. Individual Differences

This document discusses student diversity in the classroom and strategies for teaching diverse students. It identifies different types of individual differences among students, such as physical, intellectual, racial, personality, and emotional differences. It emphasizes that student diversity enriches learning by exposing students to different perspectives and experiences. Some tips for teaching diverse students include encouraging students to share their backgrounds, using varied instructional methods to accommodate different learning styles, adapting assessments to student diversity, and forming discussion groups of students from varied backgrounds. The goal is to promote an inclusive learning environment where all students feel respected and able to succeed.

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Hania Abdul
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696 views5 pages

Module 4. Individual Differences

This document discusses student diversity in the classroom and strategies for teaching diverse students. It identifies different types of individual differences among students, such as physical, intellectual, racial, personality, and emotional differences. It emphasizes that student diversity enriches learning by exposing students to different perspectives and experiences. Some tips for teaching diverse students include encouraging students to share their backgrounds, using varied instructional methods to accommodate different learning styles, adapting assessments to student diversity, and forming discussion groups of students from varied backgrounds. The goal is to promote an inclusive learning environment where all students feel respected and able to succeed.

Uploaded by

Hania Abdul
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Unit 2.

2 Student Diversity
Module 4 Individual Differences

Learning Outcomes

✓ Identify the different factors that bring about diversity in the classroom.
✓ Demonstrate a positive attitude towards diversity as an enriching
element in the learning environment.
✓ Come up with teaching strategies that consider student diversity.

Introduction

You’ve probably heard someone say, “Everyone is unique”. Though it sounds


cliché, one cannot ignore the truth in it. As a facilitator of learning, the teacher tasked to
consider the individual differences among the students in planning for effective
instruction.

Types of Individual Differences:


➢ Physical differences ➢ Differences in motor ability
➢ Differences in intelligence ➢ Differences in achievements
➢ Racial differences ➢ Differences in interests
➢ Personality differences ➢ Emotional differences
Advance Organizer

Individual Differences
(Student Diversty)

Individual Differences Benefits of Diversity in Classroom Strategies for


Factors the Classroom Student Diversity

Explain

Factors that Bring about Student Diversity

In all learning environments, individuals interact with others who are in some ways
different from them. This diversity also comes from other factors like the following:

1. Socioeconomic 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

A teacher may be "challenged" to handle a class with students so diverse. Some teachers
might see this diversity as a difficult predicament, really a hassle! Yet a more reflective
teacher may see a diverse classroom as an exciting place to learn not just for her
students, but for herself, as well. A wise teacher may choose to respect and celebrate
diversity

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.
2. Student diversity contributes to cognitive development. The opportunity to gain
access to the perspectives of peers and to learn from other students, rather than
the instructor only, may be especially important for promoting the cognitive
development of learners.
Supreme Court Justice, William J. Brennan said: "The classroom is peculiarly the
'marketplace of ideas.' The depth and breadth of student learning are 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.

3. Student diversity prepares learners for their role as at members of society. Suzanne
Morse stresses one competency the 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 Ibe 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.

2. Integrate learning experiences and activities which promote students’


multicultural and cross-cultural awareness.

• You can encourage or even initiate co-curricular experiences that are


aimed at promoting diversity awareness.

Ex: Linggo ng Wika and Indigenous People’s Week

• Let students interview other students on campus who are from diverse
backgrounds.

• Invite students to Internet discussion groups or e-mail • have students “visit”


foreign countries and “talk” to natives of those countries.

• Ask students if they have ever been the personal target of prejudice or
discrimination and have them share these experiences with other members
of the class.
3. Aside from highlighting diversity, identify patterns of unity that transcend group
differences.

Clyde Kluckholn, an early American anthropologist said that “Every human is, at
the same time like all other humans, like some humans, and like no other human”
(cited in Wong, 1991).

• Periodically place students in homogeneous groups based on shared


demographic characteristics and have them share their personal views or
experiences with respect to course issues.
• Try to form groups of students who are different with respect to one
demographic characteristic but with respect to another.

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
involvement.
• Learn the names of your students, especially the foreign names You that
you may have difficulty pronouncing. This will enable to establish early
personal rapport with them which can later serve as a social/emotional
foundation or springboard for encouraging them to participate.

5. Use varied instructional methods to accommodate student 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 or procedures you use in class:
➢ Use formats that are student-centered (e.g., class discussions 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 instructions).
➢ Use procedures that involve both independent learning (e.g.,
independently completed projects, individual presentations) and
interdependent learning (e.g., collaborative learning in pairs or small
groups).

6. Vary the examples you use to illustrate concepts in order to provide multiple
contexts that are relevant to students from diverse backgrounds.

• Have students complete personal information cards during the first week
of class and use this information to select examples or illustrations that are
relevant to their personal interests and life experiences.
• Use ideas, comments, and questions that students raise in class.
• Ask students to provide their own examples of concepts based on
experiences drawn from their personal lives.
• Have students apply concepts by placing them in a situation or context
that is relevant to their lives.

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.

a) promotes positive student attitudes toward the subject matter


b) fosters more positive interactions among students
c) results m students working more consistently with lesser teacher
intervention

8. Diversify your methods of assessing and evaluating student learning.


a) individually delivered oral reports
b) panel presentations
c) group projects,
d) visual presentations
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.
a) the instructor is removed from center stage, thereby reducing the
likelihood that the teacher is perceived as the ultimate or absolute
authority.
b) b) students are exposed to the perspectives of other students, thus
increasing their appreciation of multiple viewpoints and different
approaches to learning.

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