TABLE OF CONTENTS

TODAYS DIVERSE CLASSROOM ............................................................................... 2

SOSIOECONOMIC DIVERSITY ..................................................................................... 3
ETHNIC AND RACIAL DIFFERENCES ......................................................................... 6
GIRLS AND BOYS: DIFFERENCES IN THE CLASSROOM ......................................... 6
LANGUAGE DIVERSITY ................................................................................................ 8
Bilingual Education ................................................................................................... 8
BASIC CULTURE CHARACTERISTICS: ..................................................................... 13
DIVERSITY IN MALAYSIA SCHOOLS ........................................................................ 14
RESPONDING TO STUDENT DIVERSITY: ................................................................. 14
APPENDIX .................................................................................................................... 16
Lesson Plan .............................................................................................................. 16
REFERENCE ................................................................................................................ 19

CULTURE AND DIVERSITY IN CLASSROOM

TODAYS DIVERSE CLASSROOM

The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) now defines diversity as
differences among groups of people and individuals based on ethnicity, race, socioeconomic
status, gender, exceptionalities, language, religion, sexual orientation, and geographical area
(Hansen & Kenneth, 2012).
According to the analysis of National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) mathematic
test result in 2003, there was less than 5% of the variance in mathematic test scores was
associated with race and about 50% of the variance in mathematic test scores associated from
the differences in social economy status, motivation, and exposure to learning opportunities
such as technology materials like calculator, course work and others (Woolfolk, Educational
Psychology-Active Learning Edition, 2008).
Since 20th century, there are plenty of citizen emigrated from their homeland to other country to
make their living. Majority of them would like to escape from famine, poverty and most
importantly they are seeking for peaceful and safety. Unfortunately, this minority group is
merging into the majoritys cultural melting pot in order to eliminate the cultural differences
(Woolfolk, Hughes, & Walkup, Psychology in Education, 2008; Mary & Tracy, 2000).
The cultural deficit model defined that the cause of the poor academic achievement in minority
group is due to their inadequate culture. This model assumed that the minority groups culture is
incapable to prepare the students to fit into the mainstream context (Brooker, 2003; Mary &
Tracy, 2000).
In contrast to the concept of melting pot, James Banks developed a multicultural education
approach in 2002. This is an approach where it accepts all the different culture diversity into the
education system. Multicultural education is divided into five dimensions which are (Woolfolk,
Hughes, & Walkup, 2008),
Content Integration - referring to the practice of the various cultures perspective as example and
content in the teaching subject.
Equity Pedagogy - referring to the assistant of people from diversity ethnic and cultural by
matching the teaching methods into their learning styles.
An Empowering School Culture and Social Structure - referring to the encouragement of the
people from diversity ethnic and culture to create an interactive school environment and
activities such as sports for the staff and students.
Prejudice Reduction - suggested that prejudice among the diversity cultures can be reduced by
identify the characteristics of the individuals racial attitudes and determine how they can be
modified through teaching.
The Knowledge Construction Process - this is a method that helps individual to understand the
impact on the implicit cultural assumptions within a discipline affects the ways that knowledge is
created within in.

CULTURE AND DIVERSITY IN CLASSROOM

SOSIOECONOMIC DIVERSITY
The socioeconomic status is a term used by sociologist for variations in wealth, power, control
over resources and prestige. It is commonly the social standing or class of an individual or
group. Therefore, it is measured as the grouping of people from having variations and
inequalities in areas such as education, income, economic resources and occupation. Thus, the
people in the society are categorized accordingly to the areas mentioned above namely as high
SES, middle SES and low SES. So, as the name suggests high SES individuals will often have
a better education and have more power to influence a communitys institution and have many
economic resources unlike the middle and low SES individuals.
Therefore, as teachers we all should keep in mind that students from the three above mentioned
socioeconomic status will be present in the classrooms that we go to teach. So, let us have an
overview of the nature and background of students from high SES status and low SES status
that leads to unequal opportunities in school as well as in the society.
The differences that Low SES and middle-income families experience with regard to:
1. Health environment and Stress includes:
Suffer from inadequate health care
More family conflicts, violence, chaos and separation from their families
Less social support and intellectual stimulation
Inferior schools and child-care facilities
Less parents involvement in their childrens school activities
Noisy homes and more dangerous
Deteriorating neighborhoods
More TV viewing rather than spending time on studies especially reading skills
Breath more polluted air and crowded surrounding
Greater concentration of lead in childrens blood
Poor people experience serious deprivation and stress which creates violence
Less access to good prenatal and infant health care and nutrition.
More likely to have premature babies which is associated with many cognitive and
learning problems.
Mothers who take drugs during pregnancy can have the child face problems with
organization, attention and language skills

CULTURE AND DIVERSITY IN CLASSROOM

2. Low expectation, low academic self-image and learned helplessness

Poor pupils come to believe that they arent very good at school work as a result such
pupils believe that they are in a helpless state
They have lack of self-confidence, motivation and courage to learn
Higher dropout rates from low SES children
Low SES children those who also encounter racial discrimination are convinced that
attending school is a waste of time and effort and that any investment for time and effort
should be made elsewhere.
3. Peer Influence and resistance cultures
Researchers have suggested that low SES pupils may become a part of the resistance
culture.
Members of this culture believe that success in school means selling out and trying to
act like middle class.
To maintain their identity and status within the group, low SES pupils must reject the
behaviors that would make them successful like studying, cooperating with teachers and
regular attendance and believe against the norms.
4. School tracking or streaming
Low SES pupils experience streaming in low-ability groups in which the pupils are placed in the
same (low) ability group for all subjects, irrespective of particular gifts, talents or needs.
low SES= Low-ability groups

high SES= High-ability groups

Teachers have low expectation for low- Teachers have high expectation for highstream pupils.

stream students.

Slower space and smaller steps

More critical thinking tasks

Over simplified with highly- structured written Allowed more independence, choice, more
work

opportunities provided for discussion and

pupils are allowed to take responsibility

Teachers ignore the incorrect responses from Teachers require correct answers from highlow-stream pupils when they answer wrong.

ability students when they give incorrect

answers

Moreover, children from low-income areas have low college attendance, lower achievement test
scores and lower graduation rates. Furthermore, the school infrastructure is maintained poorly

CULTURE AND DIVERSITY IN CLASSROOM

and often old and crumbling. In addition to that, students are being taught by young and less
experienced teachers who encourage rote learning which lessens the pupils cognitive skills
and ultimately results in classrooms that are not conducive to effective learning.
Whereas, high SES have a lot of access to high-quality preschool care for their children which
enhances good cognitive and social development. Also, students from high SES spend more
time to read because they have numerous access to books, computers, libraries, trips and
museums which leads them to spend less time watching television unlike the low SES students.
Therefore, more importance and guidance has to be given for the students from low SES, in
order to provide a good conducive learning classroom environment. So, teachers need to
construct effective teaching strategies that would cater for the betterment of all the children in
the classroom. Some of the best practices that would help low SES students are:
1. Teachers must adopt the goal of helping children to improve their thinking and language
skills.
2. Teachers should understand and provide alternate ways to have access to resources for
students from low SES
3. Do not try to make low SES students over disciplined as many external factors like
hunger, thirst, conflicts at home leads them to maintain good discipline and safety. So
the teacher should have a benchmark between discipline and freedom for the students.
4. Teachers should pay more attention to motivate, support and courage students from low
SES to strive for better achievement because their parents do not encouraged for high
achievement scores due to low income backgrounds.
5. Teachers should keep in mind that parents from low income areas will not be able to
provide enough assistance and academic guidance to their children due to work load
and lack of education in themselves or work load. Therefore, teachers should think of
different ways to support and collaborate with parents who can be trained and helped to
give proper academic guidance to their children.
6. Most of the people who are yet talented, caring and responsive in low income areas
believe in stereotype. So teachers should look for ways to involve such talented people
from the impoverished communities and ask them to volunteer their services and
experiences to support for the betterment of childrens learning.
7. Teacher should observe the richness and strengths of childrens untapped amount of
knowledge in the classroom.

CULTURE AND DIVERSITY IN CLASSROOM

ETHNIC AND RACIAL DIFFERENCES

Ethnic is defined as a group of people who shared the same cultural heritage. Race is defined
as a group of people who shared the common biological traits that are seen as self-defining by
the people of the group. There are two types of cultural conflicts, which are either obvious or
subtle. These kind of conflicts usually happened when the perception of the values and
competencies of the dominant or mainstream culture is used to determine the norms in a school.
Therefore, the minority group who is people from the other culture or ethnic is usually being
perceived as problems student or the victim of bullying in the school (Woolfolk, Educational
Psychology-Active Learning Edition, 2008).

Identify and understand the cultural and racial differences are very crucial for a teacher to
prevent prejudice, stereotype, and discrimination happened in class or school. Stereotype threat
normally happened in academic situation where it induces an extra emotional and cognitive
stress on an individual who might confirm a stereotype that others hold about him or her. It will
produce short-term and long-term effects. Short-term effects normally affected in test
performance whereby it induces test anxiety and undermine performance of an individual. On
the other hand, long-term effects referring to the students may tend to develop self-defeating
strategies to protect their self-esteem about academic such as withdraw or drop out from the
school (Woolfolk, Hughes, & Walkup, Psychology in Education, 2008).

Besides that, verbal and nonverbal messages expressed through facial expressions, eye
contact, voice tone, touch, gestures, and personal space can have different meanings in
different cultures. For examples, Japanese tend to be straight-faced when happy and smile to
mask unpleasant feelings such as anger or sadness; and left hand is considered unclean in
Islamic cultures. Hence, managing the cultural and racial issue in class is important as it will
affect a student from the dimensions of cognitive, emotion, and behavior (Ottaway & Bhatnagar,
1988; Garza & Santos, 1991).

GIRLS AND BOYS: DIFFERENCES IN THE CLASSROOM

Research found that, teachers who address the diversity issues and impose them to the
curriculum will succeed in creating a multicultural classroom. Creating multicultural classroom
allows better progress on the students educational goals (Najeemah, 2014). According to
Riordan and Weatherly in 1999, they found that the team cooperation will increased when work
in a team with same gender. Due to the similarity of gender, preference, and outlook, they tend

CULTURE AND DIVERSITY IN CLASSROOM

to have stronger rapport building and higher job satisfaction (Schaffer, 2008). Hence, gender
bias and sex discrimination tend to happen in the classroom as some students are more likely
stay in a gang who have more similarities and tend to have discrimination towards others or the
minority group. The sense of loneliness and helplessness of someone in minority group have
higher tendency to involve in behaviors cases in the school.

However, the racial and cultural identity development model (R/CID) explains about the
developmental stages of superior group by Sue and Sue in 1990. It has divided into five stages,
which are conformity, dissonance, resistance and immersion, introspective, and integrative
awareness. The first stage is explained about the superiority and the minority inferiority, where
the white culture is regarded as superior. People of color are undeniably preferred the dominant
cultures values over their own as well as the esteem white culture values and institution
standard as superior (Sue & Sue, 1990).

At stage two which is the dissonance stage, denial feeling of an individual in superior group is
gradually begins to collapse because of the situation that contradict with their internalized
beliefs. They will experience conflicts between self-depreciating and self-appreciating attitude
and beliefs. At last, these conflicts will develop guilty, shame or anger feelings on that person
(Sue & Sue, 1990).

This individual will then completely support the minority-hold view and abundance the dominant
values of society. He or she begins to feel guilty of having devalued ones racial group and
irritated for having been taught of having wrong beliefs all the time previously. The frustration
feeling will then projected at society and parents for exposing democratic values that are not
practicing in the real world. Soon a negative feeling of being white or superior group is been
developed (Sue & Sue, 1990).

In the fourth stage, which is the introspective stage, the old beliefs have changed. This
individual now is focusing on individual autonomy and is sensitive and more critical about the
group ideology. However, certain people will shift to other race in order to reject of being white
culture (Sue & Sue, 1990).

In the final stage (Integrative awareness), this individual realized that each culture have their
own accepted and unaccepted characteristics. Moreover, this person understands that each
member of any group is actually an individual society (Sue & Sue, 1990).

CULTURE AND DIVERSITY IN CLASSROOM

LANGUAGE DIVERSITY
Bilingualism is the ability to speak in two languages. Some children are bilingual since birth, it
could be heredity, some children have equal ability to communicate in two languages and others
have the ability to communicate two languages but greater skills in one language. Therefore,
anyhow they become bilingual, it plays a vital role in their development and learning such as:
1. It gives a chance to acquire a new knowledge
2. It has positive effect on childrens cognitive development such as attention, concept
formation, analytical reasoning, and cognitive complexity.
3. Students of bilingualism are more conscious about the structure of spoken and written
language and better noticing errors of grammar and meaning which improves their
reading ability

Bilingual Education
English as a second language (ESL). ESL is a widely used term for bilingual education
programs and classes that teach English to students whose native language is not English.
There are three main ways to teach English Language Learners (ELL)

English immersion
Students are taught
mainly or exclusively in
English

Two-way or dual, bilingual

education

Transitional bilingual
education
Students
are
taught
reading or other subjects
in their native language
for several years and then
moved
into
English
classes.

Students of both native

English-speaking students and
ELL students are integrated in a
bilingual classroom.
A minimum of 30% of the class
needs to be ELL students.

CULTURE AND DIVERSITY IN CLASSROOM

In order to cater students from different languages, teachers need to:

1. Understand the Second Language Acquisition which is based on 5 levels as follows:

i)

The Silent/Receptive or Preproduction Stage

This stage can last from 10 hours to six months. Students often have up to 500 "receptive"
words (words they can understand, but may not be comfortable using) and can understand new
words that are made comprehensible to them. This stage often involves a "silent period" during
which students may not speak, but can respond using a variety of strategies including pointing
to an object, picture, or person; performing an act, such as standing up or closing a door;
gesturing or nodding; or responding with a simple "yes" or "no." Teachers should not force
students to speak until they are ready to do so.
ii) The Early Production Stage
The early production stage can last an additional six months after the initial stage. Students
have usually developed close to 1,000 receptive/active words (that is, words they are able to
understand and use). During this stage students can usually speak in one- or two-word phrases,
and can demonstrate comprehension of new material by giving short answers to simple yes/no,
either/or, or who/what/where questions.
iii) The Speech Emergence Stage
This stage can last up to another year. Students have usually developed approximately 3,000
words and can use short phrases and simple sentences to communicate. Students begin to use
dialogue and can ask simple questions, such as "Can I go to the restroom?" and are also able
to answer simple questions. Students may produce longer sentences, but often with
grammatical errors that can interfere with their communication.
iv) The Intermediate Language Proficiency Stage
Intermediate proficiency may take up to another year after speech emergence. Students have
typically developed close to 6,000 words and are beginning to make complex statements, state
opinions, ask for clarification, share their thoughts, and speak at greater length.
v) The Advanced Language Proficiency Stage
Gaining advanced proficiency in a second language can typically take from five to seven years.
By this stage students have developed some specialized content-area vocabulary and can
participate fully in grade-level classroom activities if given occasional extra support. Students
can speak English using grammar and vocabulary comparable to that of same-age native
speakers.

CULTURE AND DIVERSITY IN CLASSROOM

2. Instructional Strategies for ALL Students

Making curriculum accessible to bilingual students & English language learners includes:
Demonstrating sensitivity to cultural and linguistic diversity
Providing relevant background knowledge
Analyzing material into content knowledge, academic proficiency
Including language development and content vocabulary development objectives and
activities
Using additional resources
3. Planning and Instruction
This Include both language development and content vocabulary development. Language
development is the curricular modifications to evoke talking, reading, writing at students current
level of English proficiency. Also, vocabulary development is enhanced to teach new concepts
with the help of known vocabulary and to teach new vocabulary by using known concepts.
Therefore, this is effective for all students, native speakers as well as bilingual and ELL students.
In addition it is also effective to:
Use examples of lesson with both language and content objectives
Use study resource guides appropriate for bilingual and English learners
Maximize use of visual aids, photographs, slides, sketches, videotapes, etc.
Provide concrete, hands-on experiences to increase bilingual learners understanding in
and out of classroom setting, models of fluent speech and live demonstrations or
modeling
Use graphic depictions, representations, audiotapes and alternate or supplemental
books such as picture books, etc.
4. Implicit Messages of Language Value
Students should also know that reinforcement of English only practices and sends clear
messages about value of native language and culture, and in turn identity. However, deficit
perspectives often manifest themselves in the ways that English language learners and
students of color in general are labeled in schools. Therefore, these labels have a profound
effect on identity development for students who are at risk, developmentally delayed and not
ready to lean. Also, in practice dual language programs despite missions to give 50/50
attention to each language in favor of English.

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CULTURE AND DIVERSITY IN CLASSROOM

Obviously, to have a conducive classroom context for having students from different languages,
the teacher should know the stages of language acquisition, recognize how students are using
their literacy knowledge in their first language to learn English and also recognize the
misconceptions of bilingualism and in addition to this should realize that instructional strategies
to enhance learning for English learners, enhances learning for all students. Most importantly,
should be aware of implicit messages about language value.
Apart from the approaches mentioned above, there are significant strategies that could be
applied in working with linguistically and culturally diverse children in classroom. Teachers
should keep in mind that each student is a unique individual and they are cognitively,
linguistically and emotionally connected to the language and culture of their home. Therefore,
provide them the chance to show their capacities in whichever language they speak and make
them feel appreciated and valued because children can exhibit their capacity and knowledge in
many ways. Thus, teach students with patience and contribute comprehensible input as learning
a second language is difficult, competent and takes a lot of time. Also, guide and encourage
parents to become knowledgeable about learning a second language is of great value and that
does not disrespect their mother tongue and involve parents and family actively in the early
learning settings and programs. Certainly, parents who dont speak English must be
communicated by means of permission slips, newsletters which are translated in to their native
language and most importantly for teachers to learn more about linguistically and culturally
diverse children, always collaborate with peer teachers that could have a different experience
and better ideas and solutions in catering such students.

THE DIMENSIONS OF MULTICULTURAL EDUCATION

There are five dimensions of multicultural education. They are
i) Content integration,
ii) The knowledge construction process,
iii) Prejudice reduction,
iv) An equity pedagogy, and
v) Empowering school culture and social

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CULTURE AND DIVERSITY IN CLASSROOM

content
integration

empowering
school culture
and social
structure

prejudice
reduction
Dimensions of
Multicultural
Education

an equity
pedagogy

the knowledge
construction
process

1. Content integration deals with the extent to which teachers use examples and content from a
variety of cultures and groups to illustrate key concepts, generalizations, and issues within their
subject areas or disciplines.
2. The knowledge construction process describes how teachers help students to understand,
investigate, and determine how the biases, frames of reference, and perspectives within a
discipline influence the ways in which knowledge is constructed within it Students also learn how to
build knowledge themselves in this dimension.
3. Prejudice reduction describes lessons and activities used by teachers to help students to
develop positive attitudes toward different racial, ethnic, and cultural groups. Research indicates
that children come to school with many negative attitudes toward and misconceptions about
different racial and ethnic groups. These conditions include positive images of the ethnic groups in
the materials and the use of multiethnic materials in a consistent and sequential way.
4. An equity pedagogy exists when teachers modify their teaching in ways that will facilitate the
academic achievement of students from diverse racial, cultural, and social-class groups.
Cooperative learning activities also help all students to develop more positive racial attitudes.
However, to attain these positive outcomes, cooperative-learning activities must have several
important characteristics. The students from different racial and ethnic groups must feel that they
have equal status in intergroup interactions, teachers and administrators must value and support
cross-racial interactions, and students from different racial groups must work together in teams to
pursue common goals.
5. An empowering school culture and social structure is created when the culture and
organization of the school are transformed in ways that enable students from diverse racial, ethnic,
and gender groups to experience equality and equal status. The implementation of this dimension
requires that the total environment of the school be reformed, including the attitudes, beliefs, and

12

CULTURE AND DIVERSITY IN CLASSROOM

action of teachers and administrators, the curriculum and course of study, assessment and testing
procedures, and the styles and strategies used by teachers.
To implement multicultural education effectively, teachers and administrators must attend to each
of the five dimensions of multicultural education described above. They should use content from
diverse groups when teaching concepts and skills, help students to understand how knowledge in
the various disciplines is constructed, help students to develop positive intergroup attitudes and
behaviors, and modify their teaching strategies so that students from different racial, cultural, and
social-class groups will experience equal educational opportunities. The total environment and
culture of the school must also be transformed so that students from diverse ethnic and cultural
groups will experience equal status in the culture and life of the school.

BASIC CULTURE CHARACTERISTICS:

i) Culture is social in nature, knowing and relating to others; it is through culture that we give
meaning to our lives and develop a sense of who we are. As a value- driven force, culture
guarantees a more satisfactory intellectual, emotional, moral and spiritual existence. In this regard
all cultures enjoy equal dignity guaranteed by human rights and fundamental freedoms; however,
no one may invoke cultural diversity to infringe upon human rights guaranteed by international law,
nor to limit their scope.
ii) Culture is dynamic and constantly changing through dialogue and interaction it is a
window to new horizons, creating conditions of self-reexivity, friendliness, creative adaptation and
anticipation.
iii) Culture is social in nature for values of integrity, equity, accountability and transparency. It
determines public life and provides the basis for trust among citizens and public institutions.
Individuals in the group understand appropriate behavior based on traditions that have been
passed down from generation to generation
iv) Culture is shared belonging, citizenship, equity and participation. It can become a driving force
in facilitating social cohesion or, on the contrary, justifying social rejection and racism. For the
same reasons culture is critical for addressing social concerns in areas such as health, education,
urbanism.
v) Creating Culturally Responsive School
As a teacher, we need to recognize a few different things. Not all students are the same. Not all
students know the same material. Not all students learn at the same rate, and not all students are
interested in the same subject matters. If teachers recognize this, they have a good opportunity to
reach the students, and help all students succeed. This movement called multicultural education
enables teachers and educators to give value to the differences in prior knowledge, experiences of
learners from diverse background and familiarity with students histories of diverse cultures.

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CULTURE AND DIVERSITY IN CLASSROOM

DIVERSITY IN MALAYSIA SCHOOLS

Uniformity continues to dominate our school practices. Most schools still function as if all students
were the same:
i.

Use the same textbooks and the same materials for learning.

ii.

Work at the same pace on the same quantity of learning material

iii.

Study the same content and work through the same curriculum on the same schedule

iv.

Teachers talk with whole groups of students, delivering the same information at the
same time to everyone

v.

Schools conduct the same examinations for all to measure the success of the learning.

RESPONDING TO STUDENT DIVERSITY:

Treat students as individuals whose identities are complex and unique.
For example, use open-ended questions - of their experiences or observations without calling on a
student to speak for his or her race/gender/culture. Also, learning to pronounce all of the names
correctly shows respect for varied backgrounds.
Encourage full participation while being aware of differences which may influence students'
responses.
For example, make eye contact with everyone, increase wait time to include less assertive and/or
more reflective students, ask questions that draw out quieter participants or challenge dominant
students in small groups, or talk with students outside of class to provide encouragement.
Vary teaching methods to take advantage of different learning styles and to expand the
repertoire of strategies tried by each student.
For example, foster peer relationships with in-class collaboration, include concrete examples
whenever possible, use visual or dramatic presentations, or value personal knowledge and
experience when students share it.
Promote a respectful classroom climate with egalitarian norms and acceptance of
differences.
For example, encourage student projects involving diverse perspectives, discuss guidelines or
"ground rules" for good participation, and monitor language use for implicit assumptions,
exclusions, or overgeneralizations.

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CULTURE AND DIVERSITY IN CLASSROOM

Beware of possible student anxiety about their performance in a competitive environment

but try not to "overprotect."
All students - including those whose personal or cultural histories may include being a target of
stereotypes and discrimination - need straightforward comments on their work delivered with tact
and empathy, and early feedback so that they can change their learning strategies or get help if
needed.
Malaysia as a new industrial country is increasing the numbers of immigrant. Recently, there are
many immigrants came to work in Malaysia from all over the world. Besides that, as an education
hub, Malaysia also encourages students from overseas to further studies in Malaysia. Some of
them came with their family. These situations had changed the ethnic communities in Malaysia. In
primary school, we can see few overseas students learnt together with local students in the same
classroom. This is a new phenomenon in Malaysias school. According to the new school
environment, Malaysian education and schooling practice need to enhance social integration
among these various ethnic groups beyond mere physical integration, and intends to eliminate
social prejudice and discrimination. Multicultural education in Malaysia will successful if the
education system can provide an opportunity for students of different ethnics groups to interact
with each other. The education system should bring all ethnic groups together will lead to crossracial contact, lead to better understanding of other races and promote greater social tolerance and
interaction.

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CULTURE AND DIVERSITY IN CLASSROOM

APPENDIX
Lesson Plan

Course: Principles of Educational Psychology

th

Date: 11 October 2014

Level: M.Ed
Day: Saturday

Time: 2:30-4:00 pm
Topic: Students diversity and its relationship to learning:

Ethnicity and cultural differences

Socio-economic differences

At-risk students

Objectives: At the end of the lesson students will be able to:

Explain how socio economic status affect student achievement

Summarize how ethnicity and race affect students school experiences and implement
strategies to overcome such problems in classroom

Illustrate how language differences and bilingualism programs affect student

achievement and how to handle those problems with best practices

Identify how gender bias affect students school experience

Key Concept
The concept of diversity encompasses acceptance and respect

Materials:
Power point and slide notes, flip board papers, markers, felt pens, blutack, whiteboard, colored
A4 papers, wheel of fortune and assessment worksheets

Prior knowledge:
Main idea or general knowledge about Economic and Social Class Differences, Ethnic and
Racial Differences, Gender Differences and Language Differences.
Motivational Hooks:
Name tags
Wheel of Fortune presents questions based on the topic taught as well as action verbs like
singing which they have to act out or share some personal stories etc
Play a special Video done by us based on the lesson, who all acted were students from the
class

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CULTURE AND DIVERSITY IN CLASSROOM

Set Induction (10 minutes)

To begin the lesson, four flip board papers, each consisting a sub heading namely,
Economic and Social Class Differences, Ethnic and Racial Differences, Gender
Differences and Language Differences) were pasted on the wall.

Students were then asked to write down their viewpoints for each sub topic and to write
their names just after each point that they have written.

Students were then asked to sit on their respective places and told that the reason why
they wrote points will be explained later at the end of the lesson.

The slide notes were then presented to each student

Main body - Explanation and Activities (1 hour 5 minutes)

The lesson was introduced from the main idea culture and diversity in the
classroom.

It was clearly explained referring to good classroom examples.

Before moving on to the first sub topic, socio economic differences, students were
shown a video clip (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmkXE2CK-rM)

Before playing the video, clear instructions (students were asked to take a paper and
draw two columns, on one column High SES and on the other column Low SES) and
all the doubts were cleared

Students then while listening, were jotting the points in the appropriate columns, end of
the video they were given 5 minutes to complete the task

After that, students were randomly questioned about their answers and overall answers
of the class were also discussed

To further explain the subtopics socio economic differences and Gender differences,
PowerPoint slides and white board were used

Different questioning styles, appropriate examples of classroom and society in various

parts of the world were shared to have an interactive session and students questions
were also clarified when asked.

At this point of time, a surprise wheel of fortune was presented and some students
were called upon the platform to play the wheel of fortune which contains questions
and action verbs like singing, sharing some personal experiences, stories etc which
really refreshed students.

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CULTURE AND DIVERSITY IN CLASSROOM

The third subtopic Language Differences, were explained using colored A4 papers,
white board, slides and by calling upon a student on the platform as an example to
differentiate what is ESL, ELL and English native speakers.

Students were then assigned a pair work for 10 minutes which they have to find ways
how to deal with linguistically and culturally diverse children in classrooms

After the task, some pairs were asked to share their answers and later a whole class
discussion was conducted

The fourth subtopic, Cultural Diversity was explained with slides and a video clip that
was acted out by some students from our own class on a previous day and it generally
shows all the subtopics covered under this lesson.

While the video was played, it was paused to ask questions from the students and for
further explanation that shows differences in culture, language, gender and
socioeconomically.

Assessment (15 minutes)

We have done two type of asesment where first we have requested students to write their
knowledge abut the topic based on their understanding before the lesson begins.
Second asseesment was, we gave the students with three questions and they had answered
all the question based on the class presentation that weve conducted.Based on the answers,
most of the student able to answer the questions with correct answer and they also managed
to explain in detail about the Diversity in the classroom.

Closure (5 minutes)
-To wind up the lesson students were asked questions randomly to check on their
understanding level about the chapter discussed.

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CULTURE AND DIVERSITY IN CLASSROOM

REFERENCE
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Woolfolk, A. (2008). Educational Psychology-Active Learning Edition (10th ed.). USA: Pearson
Education.
Mary, F. H.-H., & Tracy, L. R. (2000). The Convergence of Race, Ethnicity, and Gender: Multiple
Identities in Counseling. Upper Saddle River, N.J: Merrill.
Schaffer, B. S. (2008). The Role of Cultural Value Dimensions in Relational Demography. IJMS .
Ottaway, R. N., & Bhatnagar, B. (1988). Personality and Biographyical Differences Between
Male and Female Managers in the United States and India. Applied Psychology: An Internatinal
Review , 201-212.
Garza, R., & Santos, S. (1991). Ingroup/Outgroup Balance and Interdependent Inter-ethnic
Behavior. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology , 124-137.
Najeemah, M. Y. (2014). Multicultural Education:Managing Diversity In Malaysian School.
School of Educational Studies, Universiti Sains Malaysia .
Hansen, J., & Kenneth, D. M. (2012). Teaching diverse students. In Effective strategies for
teaching in K-8 classrooms. Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc.
Sue, D. W., & Sue, D. (1990). Counseling the culturally different:Theory and practice. New York:
Wiley.

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