Republic of the Philippines

ISABELA STATE UNIVERSITY

Angadanan Campus
Angadanan, Isabela

MODULE 4

1. Title of the Module: Student Diversity (Individual differences)

2. Introduction/Overview

This module explains the different factors that make individuals unique from each other.
It also includes some concepts about how student diversity enriches the learning environment.
As future educator, you will be able to know how you can apply different teaching strategies that
facilitate learning in a diverse set of learners.

3. Learning Outcomes
At the end of the unit, you should be able to:

1. demonstrate understanding on various diverse teaching and learning principles and

theories;
2. determine the learners’ learning /thinking styles and multiple intelligences;
3. develop learning activities appropriate to learners’ learning/ thinking styles and
multiple intelligences;
4. illustrate the basic categories of exceptional learners; and
5. utilize“first language” to exceptional learners to avoid discrimination.

4. Learning Content

A. Factors that Makeup Student Diversity

B. How Individual Differences Help Enrich Learning Environment
C. Teaching Strategies on Student Diversity

5. Teaching and Learning Activities

A. Factors that Makeup Student Diversity

There are many factors that make a classroom diverse because of the differences, in
one way or another, of the students that interact with each other. This includes the following:

1. Gender
2. Race
3. Ethnic or Cultural Background (nationality, province, language)
4. Socioeconomic status- socioeconomic level or status (SES) is defined by the
income, education, and occupation of members of the household.
 5. Thinking/ Learning Style- some learners learn better when they get to see
something, others by hearing or manipulating something.
6. Exceptionalities- the term exceptionalities in K–12 schooling refer to both
disabilities and giftedness. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ’04
(IDEA ’04), the national law that guarantees an appropriate education to students
with disabilities, recognizes fourteen disability categories.

B. How Individual Differences Help Enrich Learning Environment

In a classroom setting, a teacher may find it hard to deal with a diverse set of learners in
a learning environment. He/she might struggle to cater the learning needs of these individuals.
Challenging as it may seem, a wise and reflective teacher, rather than grumble, would consider
this situation as a great way to promote understanding across diversity. Below are benefits of
how individual differences or student diversity help enrich the learning environment.

1. Student’s 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. When they see how others are different, students are given reference points or
comparative perspectives which sharpen assessment of their own attitudes, values, and
behaviors.
2. Student diversity contributes to cognitive development. In cognitive development of the
learners, opportunities to gain access to the perspective of peers and to learn from other
students, rather than the instructor only, maybe especially important for promoting Supreme
Court Justice, William J. Brennan said: “the classroom is peculiarly the market place 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.
As the German philosopher, Nietzsche, said over 100 years ago: “The more affects we
allow to speak about one thing, the more eyes, different eyes we can use to observe one
thing, the more complete will our concept of this thing, our objectivity, be.”
3. Student diversity prepares learners for their role as responsible members of society.
Suzanne Mores stresses one competency that 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 be 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 task that
emphasize unity of effort while capitalizing on their diversity of backgrounds.

Teaching Strategies 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. They also differ in several ways.
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. These activities could be held to coincide with already-
scheduled national weeks or months which are designated for appreciation of diverse groups:
Disability Awareness Week, Linggo ng Wika, Indigenous People’s
Week, etc.

Let students interview other students on campus who are from diverse backgrounds (foreign
students or students from other ethnic/racial groups). These students of different racial and
ethnic origin serve as source of first-hand information on topics related to their culture. This can
also provide opportunity for interaction among students who may otherwise never come in
contact with each other.

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 who spent a lifetime studying

humandiversity across different cultures, concluded from his extensive research that , “Every
human is, at the same time, like all other humans, like some humans, and like no other human”
(cited in Wong, 1991). His observation suggests a paradox in the human experience, namely:
We are all the same in different ways. It may be important to point out to students the biological
reality that we, human beings, share approximately 95% of our genes in common, and that less
than 5% of our genes account for the physical differences that exist among us. When focusing
on human differences, these commonalities should not be overlooked; otherwise, our repeated
attempts to promote student diversity may inadvertently promote student divisiveness. One way
to minimize this risk , and promote unity along with diversity, is to stress the universality” of the
learning experience by raising students’ consciousness of common themes that bind all groups
of people- in addition to highlighting the variations on those themes.

Periodically place students in homogeneous groups on the basis of shared demographic

characteristics (e.g., same-gender groups or same-race/ethnicity groups), and have them share
their personal views or experiences with respect to course issues. Then form a panel comprised
of representatives from each group who will report their group’s ideas. You can serve as
moderator and identify the key differences and recurrent themes that emerge across different
groups who are not on the panel can be assigned this task.

To form group of students who are different with respect to one demographic
characteristic but similar with respect to another (e.g., similar gender but different with respect
race/ethnicity, or similar in age but different gender). This practice can serve to increase student
awareness that humans who are members of the same group- and share similar experiences,
needs or concerns.
 After students have completed self-assessment instruments (e.g., learning style
inventories or personality profiles), have them line up or move to a corner of the room according
to their individual scores or overall profile. This practice can visibly demonstrate to students how
members of different student populations can be quite similar with respect to their learning
styles or personality profiles, i.e., students can see how individual similarities can often
overshadow group differences.

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. In addition to
consciously calling on them on class, other strategies for “drawing in” and involving students
include: (a) assigning them the role of reporter in small-group discussions, i.e., the one who
reports back the group’s ideas to the class, and (b) having them engaged in paired discussions
with another classmate with the stipulation that each partner must take turns assuming the role
of both listener and speaker, and (c) scheduling instructor-student conferences with them
outside the classroom.

Learn the names of your students, especially the foreign names that you may have
difficulty pronouncing. This will enable you 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.

Specific strategies for providing multiple examples and varied contexts that are relevant
to their varied backgrounds include the following:

 Have students complete personal information cards during the first week of class and
use this information to select examples or illustration that are relevant to their personal
interests and life experiences.
  Use ideas, comments and questions that student raise in class, or which they choose to
write about to help you think of examples and illustrations to use.
 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 (e.g., “How would you show respect to all persons in your home?”).

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.

Giving the learner more decision-making opportunity with respect to learning tasks: (a)
promotes positive student attitudes toward the subject matter, (b) foster more positive
interactions among students, and (c) results in students working more consistently with lesser
teacher intervention. Also, when individuals are allowed to exert some control over a task, they
tend to experience less anxiety or stress while performing the task.

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

You can accommodate student diversity not only by varying what you do with your
teaching, but also varying what you ask students to do to demonstrate learning. In addition to
the traditional paper-and-pencil tests and written assignments, students can demonstrate their
learning in a variety of performance formats, such as: (a) individually-delivered oral reports, (b)
panel presentations, (c) group projects, (d) visual presentations (e.g., concept maps, slide
presentations, Power Point presentations collages, exhibits), or (e) dramatic vignettes-
presented live or on videotape. One potential benefit of allowing students to choose how they
demonstrate their learning is that the variety of options exercised may be a powerful way to
promote student awareness of the diversity of human learning styles.

9. Purposefully, form small-discussion groups of students from diverse backgrounds. You

can form groups of students with different learning styles, different cultural background, etc.

Small peer-learning groups may be effective for promoting student progress to a more
advanced stage of cognitive development. Peer-learning groups may promote this cognitive
advancement because: (a) the instructor is removed from center stage, thereby reducing the
likelihood that the teacher is perceived as the ultimate or absolute authority; and (b) students
are exposed to the perspectives of other students, thus increasing their appreciation of multiple
viewpoints and different approaches to learning.

Other Tips on Student Diversity

1. Learn about your own culture

Become aware of how the influence of your own culture, language, social interests,
Goals, cognitions, and values could prevent you from learning how you could best teach your
students of culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

2. Learn about your students’ culture

 Understand how your students’ cultures affect their perceptions, self-esteem, values,
classroom behavior, and learning. Use that understanding to help your students feel welcomed,
affirmed, respected, and valued.

3. Understand your students’ linguistic trait. Learn how students’ patterns of communication and
various dialects affect their classroom learning and how second-language learning affects their
acquisition of literacy.

4. Use this knowledge to inform your teaching. Let your knowledge of your students’ diverse
cultures inform your teaching. This, along with a sincerely caring attitude, increases student
participation and engagement.

5. Use multicultural books and materials to foster cross-cultural understanding, open to a variety
of instructional strategies as students’ cultures may make certain strategies (such as
competitive games or getting students to volunteer information) uncomfortable for them.

6. Know about your students’ home and school relationship. Collaborate with parents and
caregivers on children’s literacy development and don’t rely on preconceived notions of the
importance of literacy within your students’ families. Acquiring this rich store of knowledge may
seem overwhelming, but whatever investment you can make will be well worth the time and
effort. Make it a career-long goal to build your knowledge bases a little piece at a time.