Get Your Students Hired
In addition to cultural and ethnic diversity, briefly discuss the other types of diversity that instructors must be aware of to be effective teachers.
Mr. Campbell,
One type of diversity, is learning styles, Studies show that 30% of people prefer learning kinesthetically where hands-on experience helps make the learning stick. Some 20% are visual/verbal learners who learn best when information is presented in a written language format. Another 20% are visual/nonverbal learners who learn best when information is presented in a graphical format such as charts and power points. Embracing the various types of learning styles have helped me reach a diverse group of students in other categories of diversity i.e. culture, religious ect.
I believe that physical and mental disabilities are also important to the diversity of my students. A high percentage of my students are veterans who served in Afghanistan and Iraq and have disabilities as a result of these deployments. I find that it is very important to be aware of these disabilities in both my veteran and non-veteran students.
cultural diversity is not the only diversity instructors need to be aware of. Students have different learning styles, communication styles, and critical thinking variences. I believe an instructor should be aware of the diversity of these groups as well and effective at managing students in a comfortable manner within these diversities.
The largest area of diversity I see in my classrooms are socio-economic status and the norms from each group are extremely diverse. The expectations of individuals in each group differ as well as the way in which they process info or view the world.
William,
Yes, not everyone has the same social background or economical background. Keep digging in and helping.
Philip Campbell
Tina,
Love that phrase as well. We should incorporate into classes every day.
Philip Campbell
Financial diversity is something that needs to be taken into consideration when giving assignments. One example is that not all students have access to computers and/or internet at home. This can be a challenge, but should not be ignored as some students are too embarrassed to say anything and will just take a zero instead of asking for help.
Dixie,
I love that phrase, persistent optimism. I teach clinical dental hygiene and as difficult as the technical skills are to master, they are nothing compared to the soft skills the students need to be successful. I use lots of little phrases to motivate my students to improve empathy such as,
" patients do not care how much you know until they know how much you care." I also remind students gently to pretend like the patient was your mom, how would you manage her. The diversity and maturity, EQ, of my students is huge. Some are already high on the people skills development. Others need more motivation and when I empathize with them, I can get them to buy in to why it is important for them to develop their own clinical style.
Age, maturity, civil status, having kids or not, being a full time or part time students, having or not working experience in the area of study, groups and students are different depending on all this factors as well, and when having all them mixed is really a challenge finding a teaching style that fits everyone.
As a tech instructor our classes are split between kids just out of high school and older learners that are just out of the military. These two types of students sometimes require completely different approaches to maximize their learning experience.
Instructors need to be aware of the diversity of age and experiences of their students. A student who has, for instance, fought in a war, may have a different attitude or performance than say, a person who is joining the workforce after spending two decades at home raising children. Also, people learn in many different ways, so the diversity of learners' emotional intelligence or learning stylees must also be considered.
Diversity in learning styles. In any given class of twenty students, a professor will need to address three different learning styles to effectively communicate with everyone in the class. This involves visual and auditory examples, as well as hands on demonstrations.
Without a lot of ethnic diversity in my area, one of my biggest challenges in the first couple years of instructing was dealing with the socio-economic diversity. I had always just assumed that most people knew about the same rules of society as I did. I thought that eveyone learned these rules, and at least the basic soft skills in their home, growing up. I have found that as instructors, we often have a huge responsibility in teaching the basic soft skills. Teaching soft skills is often a bigger challenge than teaching the technical skills. It is our responsibility to make sure our students have the tools to go into their chosen field understanding and being able to implement basic soft skills.
Dliversity comes in many ways, but one of the main diverse topics I have come across recently is that of the returning veteran student. I have had several students who have served overseas in the military and they bring knowledge and experience to the classroom that most other students have difficulty relating to, including PTSD. Empathy and understanding is especially important to the success of these students and in their classrooms. I lead by example in giving the non-veteran students the "space" that they sometimes need to re-integrate back to civilian life, and by allowing them to share their experience and needs, and to identify with other veterans. I want them to know that they are welcome and appreciated.
Students can be very diverse in their experiences, religious beliefs, socio-economic background and other attributes. Thus, they may perceive the same situations very differently because of their diverse backgrounds and beliefs.
In healthcare, care givers are subject to provide equal care to anyone that walks through the door. In order to do that, caregivers must be able to put aside any prejudices they may have. That includes sex, race, religion, politics, handicaps, and any other identifiable feature that one may have a one sided opinion about. As an instructor in a healthcare field I need to emphasize this requirement to my students so that they can prepare themselves emotionally to provide equal care.
Matthew,
You are taking great steps to get prepared to teach daily. Also the fact that you recognize there are so many things that can impact a day of teaching is important. Some think it is as easy as getting up in front of people and talking. Great Job!
Philip Campbell
Hello Judy, I think that diversity in the workplace, plays a big role in creating a workplace culture. the more people you around, the more diverse you become
As an instructor in Miami, Florida, and of a class titled Cultural Diversity, I have to deal with diversity in a number of ways, not just cultural. These include teaching styles, gender, economic, political and many others. As I tell my students, taking into account all these varities of diversity is very important to be successful. Personally when I teach, I always prepare myself before the class starts to realize the topic of the day and its connection to the diversity of the class: i.e., how I might teach it concerning teaching styles, whether or not someone might be offended by the topic, etc.