Case Study
Throughout the observations of five different academic settings, three secondary education classrooms, one college class and one museum, various themes emerged. All of these classes were different subjects and, with the exception of two 7th grade classes, different grade levels. The major commonality between classes was the fact that over half of each class was comprised of ethnic minority students, with the exception of the museum tour. Some of the themes that emerged encompassed the teacher’s classroom management skills and within that, the lack of culturally responsive classroom management and how teachers respond to students changing needs. Other themes included the teacher’s content knowledge and the use of feminist pedagogy.
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The 9th grade economics teacher was especially responsive to students who needed more help. The class was separated for the lesson so she was able to focus on the students who needed extra attention, which was determined by a demonstration of learning test. The teacher also repeatedly checked with the students to ensure they understood the material this time around. This is important for the teacher and the students since the teacher needs to know if her students understand the material. If the students still don’t understand the material the teacher will know they have to go about teaching it a different way. That extra level of commitment to the students is essential for the student’s success. Teachers have to be able to respond to students who need extra help, since teachers are there to make sure all students succeed, not just the students who understand the material right away. Lack of responding to student’s needs was evident in the 7th grade math class. The teacher didn’t stop and help some students when they were asking for extra examples. In this instance, however, the math teacher did make a copying mistake and it took about ten minutes to be resolved. The time spent on that mistake was lost instructional time that the teacher had to make up. It’s possible he didn’t give extra examples for the students who didn’t get it, simply because he didn’t …show more content…
The teacher had to Google how to do some problems and actually seemed surprised by some of the problems he put on the board, like it was the first time he had seen them. This particular teacher is also a science teacher at the school. It’s possible that the school gave him a math position as well as a science teacher position because they don’t have enough teachers. This is very common throughout all schools, regardless of type of school. Many teachers are placed in classrooms that they are not prepared for because the administration needs somebody to teach that class. This is completely unfair to the students, since they don’t have a teacher who knows what they’re doing. Their teacher shouldn’t be standing there Googling how to multiply and divide powers. A study conducted by Hill, Rowan and Ball (2005), showed that student achievement gains in mathematics were significantly tied to teacher’s content knowledge. This proves the fact that teachers should know about their subject in order to teach it effectively and that districts should not be making teachers teach subjects they know nothing about. If districts want their students to succeed they have to have effective teachers that are prepared to teach their
She also talks about these mistakes when she's modeling the content. They also spend time interpreting students work on the board, and they talk about other methods and places where someone might have gone wrong. The teacher also asks questions that forces students to explain why their answer is what it is. This practice is one that I’ve been able to work on a lot throughout my college career. I teach math labs for college algebra on campus, and the whole point of lab is to talk about different methods and pose questions to the students in order to enhance their comprehension of the
It is extremely important that the Learner / group clearly articulate what the problem / situation is to the class. It is essential that the
Additionally, Paula struggles staying focused and on-task during class instruction. Paula frequently gets lost and distracted with the material in front of her, but Paula makes up for it with her dedication to answer the question correctly. Frequently, Paula observes her peers respond during whole class discussions and also answers some of the questions asked during these discussions. The teacher uses these opportunities as a learning opportunity to highlight the correct answer or guide the students into saying the correct answer. It is great that Paula wants to participate in classroom discussions because she remains fully engaged and frequently offered the opportunity to state his own understandings about the concept or skill he is being taught. Drawing on this observation and the use of intervention work, the teacher can plan future opportunities to allow the students to not only communicate their understandings about the content they are being taught, but to also further drive in the content he is being
In the case scenario provided, Jeff Bliss though that the teacher was not teacher as it is expected of her. According to Bliss, students need to be taught on a face to face basis in order for them
In the working class the type of work is following procedure. Teachers rarely explain why the work is being done such as if it is connected to other assignments or what the purpose of the activity is. Teachers often do not take advantage to the provided textbooks, thus not getting the best education as possible if resources are not being used. The attitude toward teaching the students are to show them how to solve problem, but with no explanation of why the material is important, and why solving problem works in that order. The teacher of this class was helping a student with a math two-digit division problem and was showing an alternate method without explaining that it is a different way, “At this point a girl said that she had a faster way to do
Culturally Responsive Teaching is an emerging field that focuses on student cultural backgrounds and experiences in the development of pedagogy. According to Kea (2013) cultural difference is the single largest difference in U.S. schools and also the most neglected. The goal of Culturally Responsive Teaching is to provide an equal opportunity for all students to learn in school, regardless of their gender, social class, ethnic, racial or cultural characteristics (Banks 2005). Ladson-Billings (1994) suggest that the historic failings of educators in educating non-white students is that educators attempt to insert culture into education rather than insert education into the culture. In other words, educators are not providing an equal multi-culturally relevant education by bringing tokens of culture such as food, national flags, or maps from around the world into the classroom alone. Although these actions promote a sense of multiculturalism, an education that is relative to a diversity of cultures is not necessarily being provided. Culturally Responsive Teaching attempts to bring the various experiences of the student’s cultural home life into the classroom. Schmidt (2005) identifies seven characteristics that must be incorporated into curriculum in order to provide culturally responsive instruction. These characteristics are high expectations,
Teachers should take the time to explain to students, what their expectations are. Also, if they have a teaching technique that may not be of the norm. For instance, in the article, one of the lab students realized why the teacher didn’t allow questions because he had an unusual technique where students would figure it out on their own eventually (pg.1, 2014). This is not the way teachers should approach their work because not all students will realize what is going on. This can cause some students in the classroom to be completely lost.
Teachers must learn about their student’s cultures if they want to educate them to the best of their ability. Many of the students in culturally diverse classrooms will want to learn in different ways. Some will want to learn in pairs, groups, as a class, or just alone. If the teacher is educated in their culture then lessons can be adjusted to appeal to every student as much as possible instead of forcing some to forget about their culture and learn like others. Students from
Teachers need to be flexible in how students learn and demonstrate their knowledge and understanding. For example, if a student is having trouble keeping up with written work, the student could accomplish a similar learning objective through a different method.
The development and implementation of a culturally relevant teaching and learning pedagogy is vital to meet the needs of a diverse student population. Students must be able to relate, feel safe, and comfortable in their learning environment to reach their full potential. As a future administrator it is necessary to project high expectations for all students and establish a school culture of learning and tolerance. According to Jody Polleck and Shirin Shabdin authors of the article “Building Culturally Responsive Communities” (2013), identifies the deficit that plagues our schools as the inability to create a culturally responsive equitable
Over the next couple of months, I prioritized the students’ report over my own, sharing all the resources I had previously used to succeed. They were adept, but the material overwhelmed them. It irritated me that they couldn’t grasp the material easily. Determined not to fail again, I assessed the problem.
Educators must focus on creating culturally responsive learning environments and practices to prepare all students for success in the 21st century. This responsibility requires teachers to recognize the cultural, linguistic, and gender differences among students in order to promote effective communication, build collaborative relationships, and tailor instruction that supports learning. To accomplish this goal, one must examine his or her personal values or belief systems in an effort to eliminate any bias that may be aimed towards any specific group (Dray, & Wisneski,). This self-examination is critical because it can impede one’s ability to understand students who behave differently as a result of his or her cultural and linguistic backgrounds. For example, educators may make inappropriate placement
The development of a culturally responsive curriculum is a crucial aspect to adequately educating all students regardless of their cultural background or race. The development of creating a curriculum that educates and meets the needs of all students must be the top priority for educators. In addition to meeting the needs of students from various cultural or racial backgrounds, the development of quality relationships between the teacher and student must be established prior to implementing a culturally responsive curriculum. INPUT
It recently started in my Calculus class. Doctor Barton was at the board explaining how to find the derivative of a tangent line. Then as I recall, she was skipping certain steps like ,whether you should multiply or divide the equation. I could hear students mumbling, “I don’t understand any of this or what did she just do.” That’s when I raised my hand patiently as she finished working the rest of the problem and said, “can you please explain what you did at the beginning of the problem.” Doctor Barton looked at me as if I was dreadful child waiting to be punished. That’s when she said, “Well honey class is almost over, just let me get this problem finished and you can open your book and find a similar problem that has the examples on how to do this problem.” As for the rest of the students and myself who didn’t understand how to do the problem in the first place, we felt like this teacher wanted us to fail her class. I know you can’t fail a class over one problem, but you obviously can’t learn a math problem if the teacher doesn’t care to explain it correctly to her students.
Students are placed in the responsibility of their own learning and understanding while the teachers encourage students to be more independent and more exploratory. The teachers will foster a sense of autonomy in the learning process as they act as a source of experiences. In addition, as the students watch their teacher makes mistakes, they will learn those failures are part of the learning process. The students will soon realize that mistakes are natural in life and it will serve as stepping stones to