Article - Educating for Diversity

Abstract:
This article asks important questions like “Do students of the same culture have common learning style patterns and characteristics?” and “If they do, how would we know it?” These questions can be very controversial because even though students maybe from the same background, it does not mean that they have the same learning styles as each other or the same as other students from the same culture. Every student should be looked at as an individual. The article does generalize some typical learning patterns from some cultures. For example, Mexican Americans are comfortable with cognitive generalities and patterns, while African Americans value oral experience, physical activity, and loyalty in interpersonal relationships. Native Americans develop acute visual discrimination and skills in the use of imagery, perceive globally, and have reflective thinking patterns. Mainstream white Americans value independence, analytic thinking, objectivity, and accuracy.


Reflection:
I believe that it is very important for teachers to know about the culture of all of their students, but I feel like it is more important for teachers to treat every single student like an individual and walk into the classroom knowing that no two students are going to learn the same way. The article says “In both observational and data-based research on cultures, one consistent finding is that, within a group, the variations among individuals are as great as their commonalities.” This means that with students from the same background, the teacher is going to have to do just as many things the same as different. So why does culture even matter? There’s no written rule saying that two students from different cultures can’t have the same learning styles. As long as teachers understand the culture and learning styles of their students and believe that every student can learn in their own way, everyone will succeed.