Multicultural
How to use motivational teaching styles for a multicultural environment?
The idea of learning groups help the student to work as a team and deal with different types of personalities and point of view and the most important find a solution in case of dissagreement.
I like the idea of learning groups. It simulates the work environment in many ways. I like to create the learning groups and not have the students do it - if given the choice they will stay with the people they know and not get the complete benefit of a cross functional team.
I have students that have english as a second language and I struggle with whether or not to grade them as strictly because of the language barrier. They often have to work twice as hard to do as well as the other students and I'm refering to students who score with C's or better. I believe that their English will continue to improve throughout their school and maybe they deserve a bit of a break during their first couple of terms.
This method works well in my class. I asked them to choose their own groupings and the students in my class seem to be "colorless". It made the group presentations much more interesting since experiences come from different culture and ethnicity.
It's hard to argue against that theory. In real life, however, I've found that some students from other cultures are very reluctant to take an active role in group situations. I've gotten better results by grouping cultures together, at least early in a quarter, and slowly integrating the groups from then on.
Hi Nathaniel,
A method that works well with diverse groups is to put them into learning groups. The interaction between the individuals in the groups helps to develop respect for the life experiences that each brings to the class.
Gary
