Particularly, it discusses the term multicultural education as well as some of its *Correspondence: Dept. of Curriculum & Instructions and Literacy The United States of America (US) has been so far called “a immigration, schools around the country admit students every year from different racial and.
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The following section will provide a historical overview of a Japanese version of multicultural education policies and practices, with a focus on Dowa education and education for Zainichi Koreans. By examining the history of multicultural education in Japan, it should be possible to contextualize, broaden, and reimagine contemporary understandings of Japanese multicultural education.
The introduction of multicultural education based on Western models occurred somewhat recently in Japan. However, a Japanese iteration of multicultural education geared toward achieving educational equity and alleviating discrimination against minority students has existed for multiple decades, namely in the form of Dowa and Zainichi Korean education. Dowa education and Zainichi Korean education are progressive in problematizing issues of educational equity, particularly in the Kansai area, the southern part of Honshu, including Osaka and Kyoto, which comprises a large number of Zainichi Koreans and Burakumin.
Okano , p. Dowa education targeted the descendants of feudal outcast communities i. Since the s, policymakers, community organizers, educators, and the government have attempted to actualize educational equity for Buraku learners, particularly given the wide gap in educational attainment between Buraku and non-Buraku students. Owing to poverty and discrimination, long-term absence, nonattendance, juvenile delinquency, and low academic achievement, the Special Measures Law for Dowa Projects Dowa Taisaku Jigyo Tokubetsu Sochi Ho was implemented in , which focused on promoting educational attainment and human rights education among Buraku students Bondy, ; Nabeshima, The Kansai area was particularly proactive in Dowa initiatives.
By the late s, living conditions and the educational environment in Buraku communities improved drastically. Beginning in the s, the board of education in the Kansai area, in conjunction with scholars primarily specializing in the sociology of education, conducted empirical studies to determine which factors contributed to low academic achievement among Buraku students Nabeshima, ; Shimizu et al. Since the s, scholars have conducted similar investigations in Kansai schools based on British and American school effectiveness research in an attempt to narrow the gap in educational achievement between Buraku and non-Buraku students, as well as to improve educational equity Nabeshima, ; Shimizu, These scholars identified seven factors that raised levels of academic achievement among minority students: Given the large minority populations such as Burakumin and Zainichi Koreans, as well as the long history of education for these minorities in Osaka, Kokichi Shimizu argues that schooling in Osaka prefecture is more progressive and inclusive than in other locations.
Moreover, he maintains that Osaka schools are minority friendly jyakusha ni yasashi and have strong connections to local communities. Multicultural education theorists likewise assert that Kansai schools have adapted to increase educational equity and support learning among minority students. Such practices are uncommon in other parts of Japan; nonetheless, it is important to acknowledge that pockets exist where progressive, multicultural education has been historically promoted, and that these areas are continuously evolving to include students from diverse backgrounds.
The Dowa measure ended in , and many of its education policies and practices have since been abolished. Beginning in with the United Nations Decade for Human Rights Education, Dowa education shifted to encompass human rights education in general, which entails addressing education issues faced by various minority groups. Unfortunately, expanding the scope of targeted issues has reduced awareness of Buraku-specific concerns. Some scholars argue that further research is required to identify both new and ongoing issues related to Buraku students Shimizu et al.
Another form of Japanese multicultural schooling is Zainichi Korean education. Under discriminatory and assimilative policies, Zainichi Koreans faced profound discrimination and marginalization due to an absence of social welfare, the oppression of ethnic schools, and limited employment opportunities.
Similar to Burakumin, Zainichi Koreans are often unnoticed in Japan since their physical characteristics are similar to ethnic Japanese; in addition, they often have Japanese names, and speak Japanese as their native tongue. Zainichi Koreans have fought discrimination for many generations and engaged in various forms of activism in order to attain their rights and affirm their ethnic identity Motani, ; Tai, It is in this context that Zainichi Korean education developed and came to play an important role in both sustaining and advancing the community.
According to Tomoko Nakajima , pp. Although these schools were subject to government oppression, they played a critical role in ensuring that the language, identity, and culture of Zainichi Koreans were preserved. Even so, most Korean students attend Japanese schools owing to ethnic discrimination and limited social and economic support from the Japanese government.
The education practices of ethnic classes in Japanese public elementary and middle schools that aim to teach Korean language, culture, and history are often narrowly referred to as Zainichi Korean education. Similar to how the American civil rights movement of the s spawned multicultural education in the United States, the Burakumin liberation movement greatly affected the development of Zainichi Korean education Nakajima, In the Kansai area during the late s and s when Dowa education policies were implemented , Zainichi Korean students struggling to overcome discrimination and low academic achievement asserted that it was unfair for them to be excluded from educational policies and practices that targeted Buraku students Nakajima, Owing to assimilationist policies toward foreigners, education for Zainichi Koreans was not prioritized and schools treated them as Japanese students.
However, a group of concerned Japanese educators who acknowledged the educational needs of Zainichi Korean students and were familiar with Dowa education developed an educational movement and programs for elementary and middle school students e. Career support for Zainichi Korean students also became a key focus, as their high school entrance and employment rates were lower than their Japanese counterparts. In , the aforementioned teachers in Osaka formed an activist organization to address education issues facing Zainichi Korean public school students.
First- and second-generation Zainichi Korean youth also became involved in the movement and were proactive in developing and teaching ethnic classes, as well as overseeing club activities Nakajima, ; Tai, These grass-roots movements affected local governments by devising educational guidelines and policies for foreign students. For example, in , Osaka officially recognized ethnic classes and began to provide funding for such programs.
Western multicultural scholars have highlighted the importance of schoolwide reforms and the inclusion of majority students in multicultural programs. Against this backdrop, Zainichi Korean education gradually expanded to include Japanese students. Teachers soon realized that it was insufficient to provide ethnic education solely to Zainichi Koreans, as ongoing discrimination and prejudice prevented them from being proud of their ethnic identity.
To raise awareness of Zainichi Korean issues, local governments, schools, and teachers in the Kansai area incorporated related content into their regular classes and developed supplementary textbooks Nakajima, Zainichi Korean education has recently broadened its scope, adapting its policies and practices to meet the diverse needs of newcomer students. The next section focuses specifically on multicultural education for newcomer students. Newcomer students constitute the group most commonly associated with discussions concerning multicultural education in Japan.
An influx of newcomer students from various cultural, ethnic, and linguistic backgrounds to public schools prompted Japanese scholars to begin importing Western ideas and concepts related to multicultural education. The physical characteristics and cultural mannerisms of newcomer students frequently differ from their Japanese counterparts, and, their mastery of the Japanese language is often limited, which causes them to stand out in school.
In addition to Nikkeijin , other newcomers include the children of Chinese returnees i. The schools that the students attended were dispersed geographically—the three largest areas were Aichi prefecture, Kanagawa prefecture, and Tokyo. There are also students who attend ethnic e. Compared to Dowa education, which had a structural perspective, education policies for newcomers are ineffective in advancing equity and cultural diversity—at least at the government level.
Since the goal of education in Japan is to nurture Japanese nationals, education for newcomers was never prioritized. MEXT has not developed a unique education system for foreign students but merely repurposed education polices that targeted Japanese returnees kikokushijo Sato, Beginning in the s, MEXT formulated returnee policies, including a quota system for high school and university admissions, which was similar in nature to affirmative action policies in the United States.
The emergence of returnees also promoted the development of education for international understanding. From to , MEXT designated 33 local governments as pilot cases to promote internationalization of education through including returnee students and newcomer students. In general, many newcomers do not have Japanese citizenship, come from working-class backgrounds, have complex immigration histories, and do not possess the same degree of privilege afforded to returnee students. Although multicultural education requires structural reforms to schools to attain equity for students with diverse needs, the government has taken a palliative and supplementary approach that does not meaningfully affect mainstream society Sato, In line with the notion of equal treatment and assimilative policies Burgess, ; Motani, , MEXT has provided remedial education since to assist newcomers in adjusting to mainstream school culture e.
Newcomer students are often blamed for lacking sufficient Japanese-language ability rather than being acknowledged for their bilingual or bicultural abilities and potential to become actors in the global community. Newcomers are not afforded equal learning opportunities compared to Japanese students, which is a critical issue given the goals of multicultural education. Scholars, policymakers, and practitioners have focused on school nonattendance among newcomers, as well as a tendency for them to drop out of high school or not to reach high school at all.
Nevertheless, MEXT has not conducted any nationwide surveys regarding these issues, which further masks the problems faced by newcomer students. Because a large percentage of newcomers lack a high school diploma, it is common for these individuals to work as part-time, low-wage, unskilled laborers in the manufacturing and services sectors, while recently there have been groups of academically successful newcomer students. Although the national government falls short of providing multicultural education, some local governments, specifically those that have relatively large number of foreigners, have attempted to actualize equity and affirm the diversity of newcomer students.
Similar to divergence of multicultural coexistence policies and practices seen across Japan, there are geographical differences in terms of the level of activeness of multicultural education. Still others strive to develop a school that values the concept of multicultural coexistence and build on the cultural strength of newcomer students and their families. For example, in Kanagawa, one of the progressive prefectures in multicultural coexistence education, the Board of Education and ME-net, an NPO, codeveloped a multicultural education coordinator project in In addition, Shimofukuda Junior High School in Kanagawa introduced a special international elective class, wherein newcomers can explore the history and culture of their native countries and their immigration histories, and consider what it means to reside in Japan as a foreigner.
Although this class targeted foreign students, it was part of the curriculum of a standard Japanese school Shimizu, As mentioned in the previous sections, Osaka has a particularly rich history with respect to Dowa education and Zainichi Korean education and has adopted progressive multicultural education policies and practices to serve the needs of newcomer students. In Osaka, a quota system exists for newcomer students, wherein the eligibility requirements for special exams are less rigid, and culturally sensitive testing is available e.
In , six Osaka high schools featured special quota systems intended to aid newcomers in being admitted. Multicultural education in Japan also transpires outside of schools or through collaborations between schools and communities. Since there is a lack of multicultural education policies and practices in Japanese schools, numerous nonformal education sites, often volunteer-based, have played critical roles in achieving equity and affirming cultural diversity among newcomer students.
Given the lack of resources and educational struggles faced by newcomer students, many organizations have provided academic support e. Many organizations attempt to function as ibasho , which means a place where one feels a sense of safety, comfort, and acceptance. Creating ibasho for minority students is one of the priorities of these local education actors.
There are also entities that attempt to affirm the cultural and linguistic identities of newcomers through programs where students can learn their native languages or those of their parents , immigration histories, and cultural traditions. These grass-roots organizations have collaborated with local governments, boards of education, and schools to provide career guidance, as well as supplying multicultural education coordinators, translators, and native-language instructors and conducting surveys.
Although many of these organizations are volunteer based, with unstable funding and structures, they nonetheless collectively strive to transform assimilative education policies into more equitable ones in an attempt to empower newcomer students and increase their inclusion in Japanese society. As Japanese society experiences multiculturalization from below, multicultural education or so-called multicultural coexistence education will continue to evolve to promote social justice, coexistence, and educational equity for students from diverse cultural backgrounds.
In Japan, multicultural education as a field is undergoing a process where it is developing in conjunction with related disciplines, such as human rights and education for international understanding, while also appropriating Western theories, models, and practices. Given the rich history of Dowa education and Zainichi Korean education, scholars should attempt to expand, deepen, and reimagine the scope of multicultural education through incorporating and interconnecting education of often-invisible minorities, including Burakumin, Zainichi Koreans, the Ainu, and Okinawans.
In moving forward, it is extremely important to historicize multicultural education developed within Japan, rather than merely adopting Western approaches of multicultural education to a Japanese context.
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In addition, since numerous case studies of multicultural coexistence education policies and practices have been reported across Japan, theorization of Japanese multicultural education based on these cases is needed. Rather than taking a school-centered approach, scholars should also shed light on a strong grass-roots movement of multicultural coexistence education undertaken by concerned teachers, local governments, NPOs and NGOs, researchers, parents, and community organizers, often collaboratively. These entities have long attempted to raise awareness of problems facing minority students, provide support, and encourage schools and local governments to provide equitable and inclusive education, which has gradually shaped the policies and practices of the Japanese version of multicultural education from below.
Since these minorities lack access to equitable education and their differences are commonly unappreciated, the lens of multicultural education could be effective. By taking an intersectional approach to minority perspectives, insight can be gained to make visible of the majority population and acknowledge internal diversity and differences within the Japanese.
Scholars, policymakers, and educators could broaden education approaches and transform assimilative and exclusive education policies and practices into more equitable and inclusive ones for all. Nihon no fukohei wo kangaeru Child poverty: Iwanami Shoten in Japanese. New York and London: At the borderlands of race, gender, and identity.
London and New York: Voice, silence, and self: Negotiations of Buraku identity in contemporary Japan. The lack of state-sponsored support for children whose first language is not Japanese. Japan Forum , 19 , 1— Education and equality in Japan. Caste in culture and personality. University of California Press. From pitiful to privileged? Multiculturalism in the New Japan: Crossing the boundaries within. Multicultural education in Japan. Educational challenge toward a discrimination-free Japan.
Buraku Liberation Research Institute. Taishu kyoiku shakai no yukue: Gakurekishugi to byodo shinwa no sengoshi The future of the mass educational society: A postwar history of the diploma society and the myth of the egalitarianism in Japan. Chuo Koron Shinsha in Japanese. Tabunka kyosei kyoiku to aidentiti Multicultural coexistence education and identity. Akashi Shoten in Japanese.
Tabunka kyoiku no hikaku kenkyu: Kyoiku ni okeru bunkateki douka to tayouka Comparative studies of multicultural education: Cultural assimilation and diversification in education. Kyushu Daigaku Shuppankai in Japanese. Toward a critical race theory of education. Kyoiku ni okeru chosen Is multicultural coexistence possible? Keiso Shobo in Japanese. Tabunka kyoiku o dezain suru: Imin jidai no moderu kochiku Designing multicultural education: Model building in the time of immigration. Kikoku gaikokujin jido seito kyoikutou ni kansuru shisaku gaiyo Policies on education for returnees and foreign students in Japanese.
Nihongo shido ga hitsuyo na jido seito no ukeire jyoukyoutou ni kansuru chosa heisei 28 nendo no kekkani tsuite Results of the survey on reception of students who need Japanese language instruction [Year ] in Japanese. Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications.
The plan for multicultural coexistence promotion in local communities in Japanese. Tabunka kyosei jireishu Case studies on multicultural coexistence in Japanese. Zairyu gaikokujin tokei nen 12 gatsu Statistics on foreigners registered in Japan in Japanese. Nikkei imin gakushu no riron to jissen: Gurobaru kyoiku to tabunka kyoiku o tsunagu Theory and practice of studies on Nikkei immigrants: Connecting global education and multicultural education.
Immigration and citizenship in contemporary Japan. Change and continuity pp. Towards a more just educational policy for minorities in Japan: The case of Korean ethnic schools. Comparative Education , 38 , — Invisible racism in Japan: Impact on academic achievement of minority children. Economics, reform, and human rights pp. New York and Yokohama, Japan: Teachers College Press and Seori Shobo.
Koka no aru gakko: Gakuryoku fubyodo wo norikoeru kyoiku Effective schools: Education to overcome inequality of academic achievement. Kaiho Shuppansha in Japanese. Tabunka kyoiku to Zainichi Chosenjin kyoiku Multicultural education and education for Zainichi Koreans. Tayosei no tameno kyoikugaku Multicultural education: As Knapp and Shields a suggest, the so-called "deficit" or "disadvantage" model has two serious problems: The most notorious of the harmful institutional practices is tracking, which dooms children in the low tracks to a second-rate education by failing to provide them with the support they need to move to a higher track.
As a result, they fall further and further behind their peers. Students in low tracks are stigmatized and lose self-esteem and motivation, while expectations for their performance plummet. In Keeping Track , researcher Jeannie Oakes says, "We can be quite certain that the deficiencies of slower students are not more easily remediated when they are grouped together" p. Yet even now the practice of tracking persists, despite the negative effects on students documented by Oakes and many other researchers. Tracking is especially harmful to poor and minority students because these students are more likely to end up in the low tracks.
Effective alternatives to tracking have included the Accelerated Schools Project, developed by Henry Levin of Stanford University, which includes accelerated programs to bring at-risk students into the mainstream by the end of elementary school and results in faster learning because students receive engaging, active, interdisciplinary instruction; and the Higher Order Thinking Skills HOTS program, developed by Stanley Pogrow of the University of Arizona— Tucson, which works to enhance the general thinking skills of remedial students by showing them how to work with ideas.
These programs and others are aimed at helping students get up to speed, rather than permanently segregating them and feeding them a dumbed-down curriculum. Inappropriate instruction harms poor and minority students. Instead of being presented in a variety of modes, instruction in too many U.
Bits of knowledge are emphasized, not the big picture, thus handicapping global thinkers. Moreover, the largely Eurocentric curriculum downplays the experiences and contributions of minorities. For teachers of diverse students, it is especially important to use a broad repertoire of strategies.
Some children may be global thinkers; others, more analytical. Some children may learn best from lecture and reading; others, through manipulatives and other hands-on experiences. Some children may thrive on competition; others may achieve far more in cooperative groups. Poor and minority students are often denied access to challenging coursework. Counselors place them in remedial or undemanding courses, and because more challenging courses often require students to have taken specific introductory courses, students can never switch to a more demanding track. Irvine cites data showing that "black students, particularly black male students, are three times as likely to be in a class for the educable mentally retarded as are white students, but only one-half as likely to be in a class for the gifted and talented" p.
In addition, the pull-out programs intended to help many of these students end up fragmenting their school day. And after pull-out programs end, students are given little support for reentering the regular classroom, so they tend to backslide when they rejoin their peers. Unfortunately, there are few consequences for students and teachers if poor and minority students do not learn.
So long as students put in the required seat time, they will receive a diploma; so long as teachers go through the motions, they will have a job. In many cases, nobody—not the education establishment, not the parents or guardians, not the politicians—protests a status quo that is woefully deficient. Schools that have had success in teaching poor and minority students do not keep ineffective teachers on the faculty; in these schools, teachers are held responsible if their students do not learn.
These schools also collaborate with parents or guardians to ensure that students who come to school and strive to achieve are rewarded. Teachers sometimes punish poor and minority children more harshly than they do other children for the same offenses. Moreover, suspension is often the punishment of choice, causing students to miss valuable class time. On the other hand, some teachers are more lenient with poor or minority students, because they believe these children have been socialized differently than mainstream children.
For example, teachers might overlook boisterous or aggressive behavior among poor or minority students while chastising mainstream students for similar behavior. Teachers need to establish a clear, reasonable discipline policy and require all students to abide by it. Poor and minority parents or guardians often have no opportunities to create an ongoing relationship with their children's schools; in fact, they often have no communication with the schools at all. In turn, schools tend to make few efforts to develop a relationship with poor and minority parents or guardians, who may be too intimidated or hard-pressed to initiate contact themselves.
For parents who don't speak English, the language barrier can pose another formidable obstacle. James Comer of the Yale Child Study Center has developed a process to foster good relationships among children, teachers, and parents or guardians. Parents or guardians are encouraged to be an active presence in the school. Social activities bring families and school staff together, helping parents or guardians gain trust in the school. The program has reportedly helped to lower dropout rates, among other benefits.
Unequal access to resources further reduces poor and minority students' chances of receiving equal opportunities to learn. Poor and minority students typically attend schools that receive less funding than those attended by mainstream students. As a result, they are taught with inferior materials and equipment and have fewer manipulatives, laboratories, and facilities. Teachers in such schools receive less staff-development, must cope with larger classes, and have less free time. Standardized tests can be seen as one way in which a meritocratic society reorders a widely disparate populace into hierarchies of abilities, achievement, and opportunity.
In fact, the power of tests to translate difference into disadvantage is felt at many points in the world of education, most notably in the decision to place low-income and language-minority students into compensatory or bilingual education classes, where a watered-down, fragmented, and rote curriculum reinforces the disadvantages presumably diagnosed by the tests.
More than ever before, it would seem, multiple-choice tests are being used inappropriately as the ultimate measure of students' learning and capabilities—despite a wealth of evidence that undermines the wisdom of using them in this manner. Decisions that significantly affect students' academic destinies are often made on the basis of a single test score.
Moreover, norm-referenced tests reinforce the attitude that some students should be expected to do poorly. To be fair to all students, assessment should be primarily criterion-referenced and, as far as possible, based on actual performances. Perhaps most important, a variety of measures should be used to assess student learning. Not surprisingly, many students who do not speak English fall behind in their studies early, because they are not taught content in their native language.
When they eventually learn English, they have lost so much ground in their schoolwork that they find it difficult and sometimes impossible to catch up with their peers. In far too many cases, these students become discouraged and drop out of school. Overall, there is the too-common problem of organizational inertia and resistance to change: The number of bilingual teachers in U. Schools do not use bilingual teachers to the best advantage—that is, to take maximum advantage of their dual-language abilities.
The training and staffing of ESL and "sheltered English" classes remain inadequate. Beyond staffing, there is a dearth of primary-language materials, especially for languages other than Spanish, and bilingual educators regard even those materials as inadequate. Students who speak a language other than English need to be taught content, for a time, in their native language, while they are also given intensive training in English.
When they rejoin their English-speaking peers, they will be up to speed in their studies. Naming the barriers to the kind of schooling we want for all of our children is at least a beginning. Naming the problem allows the challenging process of treating it to begin. The next section of this chapter will outline 16 generic instructional strategies that are intended to provide assistance in treatment.
Provide opportunities for students to work in a variety of social configurations and settings.
Susie, Ron, Tasha, Jamal, and Juan have a lot in common. They are roughly the same age, sit in the same classroom, have the same teacher, and enjoy many of the same foods, games, and interests. As learners, however, they differ in critical ways.
Susie is one of the 13 percent of youngsters in grades K—12 who learn best working alone; Ron, one of the 28 percent strongly oriented to working with a peer; and Tasha and Jamal, two of the 28 percent who learn best with adults Tasha, by the way, with a collegial adult; Jamal, with an authoritative adult. Of the five children, only Juan seems to learn reasonably well in any or all of those social configurations. In that respect, he represents fewer than one-third of the youngsters in a typical K—12 classroom.
Of the five, only Susie and Juan are reasonably well served in the traditional teacher-oriented, teacher-directed classroom. Most of the time, the other three would be much better off in a different kind of learning situation—one far more diverse in its activities, curricular organization, and social configurations. Few individuals in today's work world think of trying to solve a problem or launch a product or service without massive and persistent teamwork, including open discussion, fact gathering, consideration and argument, trial-and-error experimentation, research, and development.
Typically, they not only depend on working with other individuals in their place of business, but also frequently call on outside consultants. In its most formal manifestation, it places students—usually of varying levels of performance—into small groups in which they work together toward common goals. Those who advocate attending to students' varying learning styles note that some young people work best alone; others work most successfully with authority figures such as parents or teachers.
A wealth of research supports the idea that the consistent use of this technique improves students' academic performance and helps them become more caring. David Johnson and Roger Johnson , two veteran advocates of cooperation and collaboration in the classroom, note that people in general do not know instinctively how to interact effectively with others.
If cooperative efforts in the classroom are to succeed, students must get to know and trust one another, communicate accurately and unambiguously, accept and support one another, and resolve conflicts constructively. They also recognize the value of flexible grouping—that is, regrouping at various times by varying criteria for varying purposes, based on immediate needs. Their reasoning is as follows: Small-group participation in various contexts for various purposes helps students recognize and learn to function effectively in a variety of social configurations.
Forming teams of students who perform at different levels of achievement not only encourages self-esteem and group pride, but also engenders general appreciation and understanding of how individuals differ from each other in attitudes, abilities, points of view, and approaches to problem solving. Those applications have involved student-selected activities, apportioning specific elements of classroom projects or lessons, brainstorming, role playing, problem solving, developing awareness of thinking strategies used by oneself or by one's peers, common interests, group analyses, and team learning.
Another technique, the jigsaw, allows a teacher to assign specific components of a major learning project to small task-oriented groups; each group has only a piece of the larger picture under consideration. When all the groups have reported their findings to the entire class, every student has the opportunity to grasp the entire picture.
Peer conferencing and peer collaboration are two techniques that are particularly useful for teaching writing. They offer student writers the critical response of firsthand, face-to-face comments, help them discover what it is to write for an audience, and provide them with opportunities to improve their writing ability as they work on assignments and interact with their peers Herrmann, Cross-age and peer tutoring are other forms of student-to-student interaction. The age-old idea of tutoring has helped countless students.
Many students identify with peers more easily than with adults, especially adult authority figures, and find it easier to model the behaviors of their peers than of their adult teachers. Finally, the one-to-one nature of peer tutoring offers immediate feedback, clarification, extension, and modification—usually in a nonthreatening social relationship Webb, Use reality-based learning approaches.
Jim had trouble writing effectively. To be sure, his sentences were complete and grammatical, the words in them spelled correctly, the syntax straightforward if prosaic. There was one overriding problem with Jim's writing: His content and purpose were not specific, precise, or clear.
Tomoko Tokunaga
That fact led to a more personal problem for Jim: When the teacher observed that his writing wasn't clear, Jim balked. After considering two or three possibilities, Jim named a card game his teacher had never heard of. I'll follow the instructions, and you can tell me whenever I make a mistake. Jim wrote in his typical style, and his teacher followed the instructions as earnestly as possible. Step by frustrated step, Jim saw the game fall to pieces.
He stopped the exercise midway through. This time, however, he was convinced that he had a problem with his writing, and he was armed with a clearer perception of what to do about it. Provide students with real purposes and real audiences for their speaking and writing, and you offer them valuable feedback as well as increased motivation. Writing an essay on a topic assigned by the teacher to every member of the entire class lacks the punch and the credibility of writing a personal letter to an editor, a local politician, or a community activist to express a heartfelt compliment, complain about an injustice, or inquire about an important issue.
Students derive no satisfaction from succeeding with a mindless, silly activity such as circling the silent E in a list of words. Such an activity has no relation to real reading and no link to real life. Communicating with real people about real issues, feelings, and beliefs is further enhanced when the content and style of that writing are grounded in the outside reality that the student brings to school.
No matter how gilded or gutted its location—in city, suburb, or countryside—the student's community and personal experiences are valuable resources to be explored. They are grounds for inquiry and learning—things that count most in any classroom! Schema theory firmly undergirds the strategy of reality-based learning. It outlines the belief that individual facts and phenomena are best perceived, learned, and understood within the larger contexts of structure or process.
The value of reality-based learning has been firmly documented in the language arts—in reading and writing as well as in the understanding and appreciation of literature. It bridges school and home, classroom and clubhouse, hallway and street. Extending the recognition and use of authentic purposes, materials, and content into any subject area helps ensure that learning experiences are meaningful and satisfying. Thus maps, directions, brochures, and directories find a comfortable home in English classes, and community surveys in math classes. Ideas proliferate in every school—real problems to solve, real issues to resolve: Problems awaiting study lie just outside the walls of virtually any school in the United States: The combined processes of analyzing real problems and then suggesting solutions to them not only motivate learners, but also enable them to range in their thinking processes from recognizing information they need in the resources available to them, to gathering relevant information, to summarizing ideas, to generating potential solutions, and finally to analyzing the consequences and effectiveness of their solutions.
Reality-based learning counters the common notion that many students suffer from "cultural deprivation" and bring no educationally worthwhile experiences to school. What did that culminating event represent? It represented what the students had learned about the history, geography, sociology, culture, and drama of ancient Egypt, topics that over preceding weeks both nourished and fed on every subject area in the curriculum.
How useful might it be for a student to know something about the economics and the technology of 19th century New England whaling before reading Moby-Dick —and what better opportunity to merge the talents and interests inherent in the respective teachers of social studies, science, and language arts? How might a thoughtful reading of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World illuminate issues, arguments, and ideas as diverse as eugenics, Malthusian economics, and the perceived amorality of modern mores and technology—again using convergent elements of separate disciplines?
Rarely, if ever, do we live our lives outside of school according to academic pigeonholes. We don't switch to a different frame of reference or way of doing things every 20 or 40 or 60 minutes. Even a well-executed shopping trip to the supermarket is an interdisciplinary experience! Scheduling, timing, planning, measuring, counting, reading, identifying, describing, comparing, assessing, affording, budgeting—not to mention spatial orientation, nutrition, and considerations of quality of life—all come into play within a single trip.
Consciously or unconsciously, by the time we have negotiated our way from home through traffic to parking lot, then aisle to aisle to the checkout lane and home again, we have routinely called on the skills and content of every basic academic discipline that schools have to offer. Most interdisciplinary teaching is not nearly so eclectic nor so involved. Just the same, such teaching does cross traditional subject-area lines and typically involves professional teamwork.
It can incorporate into a social studies unit samples of literature and art produced during a given period or by a particular society. Ask students to interpret the samples in light of a specific social context, or to infer specific characteristics of the society from their observations and interpretations. Then let them compare their interpretations with those of their peers, and finally with written records from that period or society. As another example, how about having students study the social impact of a given scientific or technological development at the same time they are becoming acquainted with the science or technology itself?
Mathematics is a natural for interdisciplinary learning. Solving its problems can depend heavily on reading skills. Not only is math an integral component in scientific processes; it also plays an appealing role in creating puzzles, music, and architecture. Interdisciplinary projects promote thinking strategies that cross content areas and transfer solidly into real-life applications—analytical observation, for instance, or critical thinking, comparison and contrast, evaluation, perspective, and judgment.
The teacher's role includes supporting those processes and helping students, through practice, to become aware of them and comfortable in using them. Probably no other interdisciplinary approach has won greater acceptance, especially in the earlier grades, than that which has integrated five "basic skills"—reading, writing, listening, speaking, and mathematics—into one holistic classroom enterprise. Dorothy Strickland has itemized how simply and obviously such integration can be attained.
Reading, for instance, can serve as model and motivation for writing that classmates can share by listening to such spoken activities as storytelling, reporting, oral composition, poetry, and dramatic readings. Reading skills also give a student access to information required in solving mathematical problems, and they play a major role in the interpretation of tables, charts, and graphs. The "whole language" approach to instruction in reading and the language arts is a salutary example of how "disciplines" once viewed and taught as essentially discrete and separate from each other—that is, reading, writing, speaking, and listening—can easily be explored as interwoven threads in a single, unified tapestry of individual development.
Cherkasky-Davis, ; Jacobs, ; Marzano et al. Department of Labor, In collecting lunch money, the 1st grade teacher discovered that 8 of her 20 students had apparently brought their lunches to school with them. Rather than simply filing that observation mentally under "classroom administrivia," she posed a question to her class: Knowing that, how many of you apparently brought your own lunches to school with you? There were 10 or 12 different solutions, and each child wanted to explain his or her own way.
Students passively memorizing a single arithmetic procedure? Instead, students actively involved in problem solving, whether or not they agreed on their methods and results. Mary Lindquist, then president of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics, recounted the anecdote during an interview for an article that appeared in Better Homes and Gardens Atkins, Kids need to use and understand math. There are several other reasons why students should be allowed to construct their own understandings, generate their own analyses, and create their own solutions to problems: It is neither engaging nor authentic to understand a fact or a situation exactly as someone else understands it.
In real life, we build our own understandings to supplement, change, or confirm for ourselves what we already think we know or what others offer us in knowledge or ideas. Teachers promote interest and engagement when they let students address problems for which answers do not exist or are not readily apparent. Students then have real purposes for discovering and applying information and for using all the strategies that might possibly apply and that are available to them. Students who are intrinsically motivated and substantially engaged because of interest in meaningful learning activities are more likely to achieve high levels of performance than those for whom the completion of learning activities is simply a means of avoiding punishment.
Integrated throughout the school day and in every area of the curriculum, the range of active learning experiences includes games, simulations, role playing, creative dramatics, pantomime, storytelling, drawing, and contests that demonstrate integration of concepts and allow students to experience the ways in which concepts relate to each other in the world outside school. Other hands-on, tactile materials and activities include Cuisenaire rods, measuring cups, blocks and cubes, task cards, flip charts, field trips, and laboratory experiences.
Many advocates suggest strongly that students be allowed to select for themselves those activities in which they will become involved. Analyze students' learning and reading styles. Everyone knows that there are all kinds of people: At least one venerated 6th grade music teacher routinely divided her class into singers and listeners. Probably no other approach attempts to accommodate differences among individual students in greater detail than does that body of thought given the general rubric of learning styles. Imaginative learners, he says, excel in watching, sensing, and feeling; analytic learners, in watching and thinking; common-sense learners, in thinking and doing; and dynamic learners, in doing, sensing, and feeling.
Anthony Gregorc , a, b identifies four basic processes by which individuals differ in their learning patterns: In his highly regarded theory of multiple intelligences, Howard Gardner outlined eight different aspects by which individuals can come to know the world: Addressing perennial debates about the best approach to teaching reading—phonics, whole language, sight vocabulary, and so forth—Marie Carbo writes that "any one of a dozen reading methods is 'best' if it enables a child to learn to read with facility and enjoyment" p.
No matter how much they echo or differ from each other, all descriptions of learning styles are simply attempts to define and accommodate the manner in which a given student learns most readily. The theory holds that learning styles develop through the unique interactions of biology, experience, personal interests, talents, and energy.
Whatever the ultimate taxonomy of learning styles, it seems obvious that although all children can learn, each concentrates, processes, absorbs, and remembers new and difficult information differently. According to Rita and Kenneth Dunn , the factors involved include the following: Immediate environment—for example, noise level, temperature, amount of light, furniture type, and room design.
Emotional profile—for example, degree of motivation, persistence, responsibility, and need for structure and feedback. Sociological needs—for example, learning alone or with peers, learning with adults present, learning in groups. Physical characteristics—for example, perceptual strengths auditory, visual, tactile, kinesthetic , best time of day for learning, potential need for periodic nourishment and mobility. Psychological inclination—for example, global and analytic strengths.
In the most formal model of matching instruction to learning style, teachers first identify each individual student's style through observation, interview, or questionnaire. They share their observations individually with students and parents, and then plan and carry out an appropriate learning program for that child. The program includes compatible instructional practices and management strategies appropriate to what has been observed about the child's learning style. A less formal approach is to emphasize strategies that capitalize on the styles of most students, while accommodating those whose style differs markedly from the group.
Thus, instruction that attends to learning or reading styles capitalizes on an individual student's strengths and preferences while simultaneously removing barriers to learning. Instructional planning extends to such complementary methods, materials, and techniques as floor games, choices among reading materials and ways of receiving or presenting information, and participation in given activities that is, with the entire class, in a small group, or alone. Research in learning styles and reading styles indicates that teaching academic underachievers in ways that complement their strengths in style has significantly increased their standardized test scores in reading and across subject areas.
Dorothy had tried for weeks to get her 6th graders to open up in class discussions. After years of traditional teaching, however that is, the teacher asking the questions and one or two students offering "right" or "wrong" answers , her students were predictably passive. They consistently resisted all her attempts to open up her classroom. On the rare occasions when an intrepid student asked a question in return or dared to offer a comment, the eyes of every student in the room swung immediately and automatically to Dorothy for her verdict: Then, quite by chance, Dorothy happened on a life-sized human figure made of cardboard.
She realized at once that it was the very thing she needed to make her point. The following day, she launched a classroom discussion and popped a direct question to see if any of her students would volunteer a response. Kathy did volunteer—tentatively, of course, and with just a word or two—but her response seemed to the class to merit a judgment from the teacher. All eyes fell in silence on Dorothy. Without saying a word, Dorothy walked to her closet, pulled out the cardboard figure, and set it in the chair behind her desk. With every eye following her in amazement, she sat down beside Kathy and stared silently at the cardboard figure, waiting like her students for its response.
Dorothy was modeling the behavior she saw in her students—behavior she was hoping they would overcome. They got the point! The humor in the situation engaged their trust, demonstrated Dorothy's sincerity as a teacher, and dramatized their responsibility as participants in their own learning. Class discussions began to pick up, and Dorothy found fewer and fewer occasions to pull her cardboard counterpart out of the closet.
Most modeling, of course, is intended to work the other way around—that is, teachers usually behave as they would have their students behave. Learners gain when teachers practice what they preach, try out ideas in front of the class, or even participate actively in projects or tasks with the class. When modeling, teachers—regardless of their subject area—follow the same assignments or suggestions that they give their students: And they do so in full view and hearing of their students, often as coparticipants in small-group activities, or one-to-one with a student.
The practice is neither demeaning nor condescending. Instead, it dramatizes desired behavior, one of the surest means available to demonstrate process, motivate and guide students, and help develop perspective on a given task or concept. As a teacher, let your students hear you think aloud. Teachers who share thoughts on how they have completed a certain task or arrived at a particular conclusion help students become aware of their own thinking strategies.
Modeling enables teachers to furnish appropriate cues and reminders that help students apply particular problem-solving processes or complete specific tasks—in storytelling, for instance, or inquiry, or evaluation. Among such techniques, scaffolding is one of the most generic and useful approaches. Scaffolding is a device by which the teacher builds on the point of reference at which a student hesitates or leaves off—in telling a story, in explaining a process, in seeking an answer, in any moment of discourse, analysis, or explanation.
In scaffolding, the teacher simply suggests the next step, both reinforcing what the student has already achieved and guiding the student to greater understanding or accomplishment. More generally, Costa and Marzano identify seven starting points by which teachers can create a classroom "language of cognition": Posing critical and interpretive questions, rather than simple recall. Providing data, not solutions. Analyzing the logic of language. Burroughs outlines specific preferred techniques among those he has seen teachers use to guide learning processes and thus structure growth in understanding and appreciation.
The techniques are adaptable to discourse, inquiry, or discussion in any subject area: Focusing—refocusing students' efforts at refining their own responses if, for instance, they begin wandering from the specific content at hand. Modifying or shaping—rephrasing a student's idea in slightly different language; for instance, if a student suggests that a character in a novel is resisting change, the teacher might add a word or two to encourage consideration of other explanations for the character's behavior.
Hinting—calling attention to a passage in the text that challenges a student's view. Summarizing—restating ideas to bring them to everyone's attention and to spur discussion, or summarizing various positions students have taken along the way , pp. Explore the fullest dimensions of thought. In every course, and especially in content subjects, students should be taught to think logically, analyze and compare, question and evaluate.
Skills taught in isolation do little more than prepare students for tests of isolated skills. If any of the ideas at work described in this chapter challenges the conventional wisdom of classroom practice, it is this notion: This concept contrasts sharply with the attitude and practice of the high school English teacher who, on the first day of school, gave all of her seniors a writing assignment. She collected and corrected their papers; pointed out the various lapses in spelling, grammar, and punctuation; and then used those errors to justify an unproductive, unchallenging year spent reviewing the same sterile exercises in spelling, grammar, and punctuation that her students had seen countless times before.
No one condones faulty grammar and inaccurate spelling, of course. At the same time, however and far more important , teachers need not wait until students have mastered basic skills before they introduce the more complex skills of analysis, synthesis, criticism, and metacognition into their classroom routines. The process of gathering information, evaluating it critically, drawing inferences, and arriving at logical conclusions is based on evidence, and evidence can be expressed and recognized by many different means and in many different formats.
Yes, every student should learn to spell accurately, but it is not necessary to know that I comes before E except after C in order to test fairness or bias in an editorial statement or to detect straightforwardness or ambiguity in a politician's promise. Wiggins notes that tests typically overassess students' knowledge and underassess their know-how. Onosko reports measurable "climates of thoughtfulness" in the classrooms of social studies teachers who reflect on their own practices, who value thinking, and who emphasize depth over breadth in content coverage.
Carr and others suggest various ways by which to introduce and pursue higher-order thinking skills in the classroom. For example, using all major news media—newspapers, magazines, television, and radio—motivates students, and comparing different accounts of the same story helps them develop questioning attitudes. While sorting concrete objects is an appropriate activity for the young child, verbal analogies for example, 'How are a diamond and an egg alike? Brainstorming techniques that aid comprehension … help students to access their prior knowledge about a topic to be introduced, and thus to classify and retain the new information.
Children's literature becomes its own powerful tool, Carr concludes, citing Somers and Worthington Just how seriously should Chicken Little's neighbors have taken her complaint that the sky was falling? Was it fair for the Little Red Hen to keep all the bread she had baked for herself?
How true is it that sticks and stones can break your bones, but names will never hurt you? Why does a rolling stone gather no moss? If water is heavier than air, how do raindrops get up in the sky? How does science differ from art, music from noise, wisdom from fact? Use a multicultural teaching approach. Multiculturalism doesn't mean what it used to mean in education in the United States. Adding a speech by Martin Luther King Jr.
Teaching multiculturally throughout the curriculum is more than simply an attempt to combat racism. The more important aim of studying human cultures in all their diversity is to understand what it is to be human. Unfortunately, such study has too often been skewed to a single perspective while more inclusive perspectives have been labeled as somehow disloyal to the American tradition. The fact that racism is so prevalent in American society has until recently led many theorists to concentrate primarily on the study of specific ethnic groups, on their characteristics and unique contributions to the more general culture—usually described from a Euro-American or Anglo-American point of view.
By contrast, the history of the United States is actually the history of all the cultures that it comprises. Until recently, multicultural education has focused mostly on minority groups, even though Euro-Americans and Anglo-Americans also spring from a culture that was not originally and purely "American. Classroom instruction in a multicultural context is enhanced when it involves students in learning about themselves first—through oral history projects, for example, in which children involve their parents, grandparents, and other older, living adults who can relate information about family backgrounds and histories.
Shared in the classroom, such information becomes a powerful tool both for identifying similarities among students and for highlighting how they differ from one another in positive rather than negative ways. In short, teaching multiculturally cultivates a school culture that celebrates diversity; supports mutual acceptance of, respect for, and understanding of all human differences; and provides a balanced viewpoint on key issues involved in such teaching.
It provides students with a global, international perspective on the world in which they live. It seeks to eliminate racial, ethnic, cultural, and gender stereotypes and to resolve or ameliorate problems associated with racism and prejudice. And it underscores the importance of teaching ethics, values, and citizenship in promoting the democratic heritage of the United States.
The student report card is no longer the primary measure of success in schooling. The general vocabulary of education in the United States now includes a whole range of assessment terms: Little wonder that teachers and administrators feel pressured by the demands of "assessment" and harried by the clamor and misunderstanding that surround the term today. Various modes of assessment yield critical and useful information to inform and shape tools and methods that promise to improve academic achievement.
Among the answers are to determine the following: If objectives have been achieved. The knowledge and skills that students have acquired. Areas in which the curriculum needs improvement. The effectiveness of a teaching process or methodology. Student responses to specific aspects of the curriculum.
Students' ability to use knowledge and skills. Evaluations are also used to do the following: Design instruction for individuals, groups, or entire classes. Diagnose a student's level of understanding before recommending further instruction on a given topic. Gather information on the quality of the learning environment. Guide the direction of future study. Summarize an activity, topic, or unit of work. Provide a basis for extra help where needed. Identify the most useful information to communicate to students and parents. Traditional assessment techniques and instruments for filling one or another of those roles are as familiar to most teachers as they are widespread in use: And, of course, among teacher-made instruments, examples include the essay exam and the ubiquitous multiple-choice test.
Researchers and curriculum specialists have emphasized the power of various alternative methods of assessment, such as the following: Exhibitions or demonstrations that serve as culminating activities in a student's learning experience. Observation and analysis of hands-on or open-ended experiences. Portfolios collections of records, letters of reference, samples of work, sometimes even including videotapes of student performance or task accomplishment—in fact, any evidence that appropriately documents a student's skills, capabilities, and past experiences.
If two of the primary purposes of assessment are to determine whether the goals of education are being met and to inform various stakeholders of the progress of education, then assessment techniques should be sufficiently varied to perform these functions as appropriately and accurately as possible. Those goals vary, after all, from broad national goals to the individual teacher's lesson plan. They encompass diagnoses of ability or style in teaching and learning, measurements of proficiency and achievement of individual students or entire classes, and the effectiveness of entire schools, districts, state systems, or national programs.
The audiences for assessments may include students, teachers, parents, policymakers, colleges, and businesses. Some assessments serve gatekeeping roles—college admission tests, for instance. Some assessment methods reflect some of what we have come to realize are preferred teaching practices; consequently, they contain activities that are congruent with and that support good instruction.
A Brief History of Multicultural Education
They tend to invite diverse responses and to promote a range of thinking—hands-on science and mathematics problem-solving activities, for example. In some cases, assessment tasks may extend over several days, allowing students to reflect on their work, to polish and revise it. Some assessments give students the opportunity to respond in any of several ways, including writing, drawing, and making charts or graphic organizers. In general, trends indicate that alternative assessment tends to do the following: Use a variety of progress indicators, such as projects, writing samples, interviews, and observations.
Focus on an individual's progress over time rather than on one-time performance within a group. Bring teachers into conference with students about their work and progress, helping students to evaluate themselves by perceiving the results of their own work. Years ago, the professionals at Harlem Park Middle School in Baltimore realized the vital importance of taking parental involvement seriously. They added three parent coordinators to their staff and located them full-time in the neighborhoods the school serves rather than in the school building itself.
Living and working in those neighborhoods, the coordinators helped to fight a steady rise in the school's dropout rate by teaching parents how to keep their children in school, help with homework, keep track of progress, and work with school representatives before a crisis develops.
In Mesa, Arizona, school officials recognized that parenthood is 18 years of on-the-job training. So they organized a "Parent University," filling a Saturday schedule with 40 workshops ranging from creative art activities for preschoolers, to helping young people survive junior high, to financing a college education.
More than people attended Education Leaders Consortium, The list of ways in which school people have come to grips with the need to bring home and school together for the good of the children varies widely across the United States, limited only by the resourcefulness and imagination of the people in each school and district. Epstein outlines several broad avenues by which parents and schools can share in a child's development. Parents have the basic obligation to provide food, clothing, and shelter; to ensure a child's general health and safety; and to provide child rearing and home training.
But parents can also provide school supplies, a place for schoolwork at home, and positive home conditions for learning. Parents can be directly involved in the work of the school: Parents can involve themselves in learning activities at home by developing a child's social and personal skills and by contributing to basic-skills education, development of advanced skills, and enrichment. In governance and advocacy, parents can assume decision-making roles in parent-teacher organizations, on advisory councils, or through other committees and groups at the school, district, or state levels.
They can become activists in monitoring schools and by working for school improvement. The Comer Model is based on the belief that parental involvement is the cornerstone of effective and responsible school change. Comer maintains that one cannot separate academic development from the child's social and cultural background. Thus one of several programs within the project has emphasized a school's obligation to work cooperatively with parents and mental health professionals in meeting the needs of children. The family provides the primary educational environment.
Involving parents in their children's formal education improves student achievement. Parent involvement is most effective when it is comprehensive, long-lasting, and well planned. The benefits of family involvement are not confined to early childhood or the elementary levels of schooling; strong effects result from involving parents continuously throughout high school. Henderson also concluded that involving parents in their own children's education at home is not enough. To ensure the quality of schools as institutions serving the community, parents must be involved at all levels of schooling.
Moreover, children from low-income and minority families have the most to gain when schools involve parents. Parents can help, regardless of their level of formal education. We cannot look at the school and the home in isolation from one another. We must see how they interconnect with each other and with the world at large. Use accelerated learning techniques.
In Empowering the Spectrum of Your Mind , Colin Rose declares that most of us are probably using only 4 percent of the enormous potential of our brains. Therefore, the easier it is to remember and learn yet more new material. Once considered appropriate for use almost exclusively with students identified as gifted and talented, accelerated learning has come to be regarded as effective with students of any level of performance or ability. How does one "accelerate learning"?
What is the theory behind the phrase? Rose begins with a seemingly obvious fact: How does one best encode things into memory? By creating concrete images of sights, sounds, and feelings, and by the strong association of one image with another. The stronger the original encoding, the better the ultimate recall. Thus, an ideal learning pattern involves the following steps: Immediate rehearsal of new facts in the short term. Repetition or testing of the facts a few minutes later. Review of the facts an hour later. A short recap of them after a night's rest. Sleep appears to help memorization; new information is reviewed during REM—rapid eye movement—sleep.
Short review a week later. Short review a month later. Rose claims that such a schedule of learning can enable the recall of up to 88 percent of the new information an individual receives—four times better than the usual rate of recall. Among techniques recommended by advocates of accelerated learning are the following: Chunking, that is, reducing new information to manageable bits—a chunk no longer than seven words or seven digits, for instance. Use of music and rhyme as aids to memory. Peripheral learning and the use of memory maps to encourage association, and thus recall.
Encoding as specifically as possible by principles rather than through isolated examples by rote. Foster strategies in questioning. The classroom "discussion" dragged on. Predictably, the teacher asked one factual-recall question after another about the short story at hand. Each question invariably elicited a right-or-wrong answer from one, and sometimes two, student volunteers. Then the teacher reached that point in the story where the main character faced what seemed like a life-or-death personal dilemma. Hands shot up all around the room, some flapping in urgency. I'm afraid I've touched some raw nerves," the teacher exclaimed.
So did the students' attention to the topic. The authors suggest and their suggestions are well supported by research how even the timeless classroom practice of questions from the teacher can be adapted to elicit individual involvement rather than passive response. They also show how to follow through for even greater student participation and response.
Their advice, in part, includes the following suggestions pp. Structure questions so that students can succeed. Encourage students to respond. Most teachers answer two-thirds of their own questions. Ask questions in all modes. Most questions are asked at the level of basic recall or recognition. Questioning that is more complex increases student achievement. The number and quality of student answers increase when teachers provide wait time of three to five seconds after asking a question.
Appropriate wait time is particularly important in teaching low achievers. Some higher-level questions might require as much as 15 to 20 seconds of wait time. Call on students randomly, but be sure not to forget the low achiever. If a student's response is vague, call for clarification or elaboration—for example, "Tell me more. Encourage students to develop and ask their own questions, thus increasing their opportunities for thinking. Use techniques that require students to pose their own questions and to make discoveries on their own. For example, ask students in a science class to make predictions, based on their own experiences, before a demonstration or an experiment.
The processes of observing, comparing, and describing are as important as the product. Other studies of questioning techniques suggest that teachers break the total content of their questioning into bits small enough so that students are assured of being able to answer at least three-quarters of the questions correctly. They urge a high proportion of questions that are well beyond mere factual recall—questions that encourage interpretation or that challenge critical thinking. Questioning need not simply follow a lesson or an assignment as a means of checking to see if students have completed or understood it.
Reading specialists, for instance, have long advocated the use of prereading questioning techniques, using teacher- or student-generated questions to develop background knowledge, to preview key concepts, and to set purposes for the reading. Questioning after reading should provide students with opportunities to practice or rehearse what they have learned from the text, as well as increase associations between textual information and their own background knowledge "Questioning Promotes," To stimulate student discussions, Dillon suggests a three-step process: Carefully formulate one or two questions to get the discussion going.
From then on, ask questions only when perplexed and genuinely in need of more information. Then make more statements that present facts or opinions, reflect students' opinions to them, register confusion, or invite elaboration and student-to-student exchanges.
Student-generated questions and student-led discussions give students a higher stake and interest in their classroom activities and learning. Framing their own questions requires young people to interact with the meaning of content or text from a variety of perspectives. Generating their own questions, they support and challenge each other and recognize the social aspects of exploring the meaning of what they encounter in reading or in other learning activities.
Teachers need to model effective questioning and discussion strategies, including how to interact with others as well as how to think about and discuss text or content. Touch a raw nerve now and then—not to aggravate, but to stimulate! Think of your most recent drink of water. Exactly what steps did you follow in taking it? What facts, what prior experiences, what understandings did you call on? It's been estimated that you performed 50 or so actions while taking that drink of water. Did you think of all 50—that is, did you bring any of them, in isolation, to the forefront of your consciousness while drinking?
Your brain handled all the necessary steps for you! At the same time, your brain was probably helping you consider your plans for the weekend, reminding you of the slight soreness in your left thumb, telling you it was a warm afternoon, and juggling countless other "programs"—chains of thought needed to accomplish some foreseen goal, whether soaking your thumb or quenching your thirst Della Neve et al.
The brain is capable of such a vast number and array of functions that its functioning can be visualized most easily only in terms of programs and patterns—one program, perhaps, for getting a glass of water at the kitchen sink, a different program for sipping from the water fountain outside your classroom door.
Multicultural Education in Japan
How does the brain differentiate among the vast array of programs it stores? By recognizing an apparently endless number and variety of patterns among them. Thus "brain-compatible instruction defines learning as the acquisition of useful programs," write Della Neve and her colleagues For educational purposes, however, what counts is a broad, holistic understanding of what the brain is for it did not evolve to pass tests or fill in worksheets , its principal architecture, its main drives, and its way of relating to the real world.
Carnine describes some of the misunderstandings that can result in teachers, students, or both after "brain-antagonistic" instruction: Very young children know that the name of an object stays the same even after the orientation of the object has changed. For example, when a chair is turned to face the opposite direction, it remains a chair.
Consequently, in preschool, when a b is flipped to face the opposite direction, children often assume that it still goes by the name of b. Making this error doesn't necessarily imply that a student's visual brain function is weak or that the student would benefit from a kinesthetic approach to learning lowercase letters. Extensive research has shown that students are more likely to confuse objects and symbols that share visual or auditory sameness, such as b and d. The sameness they note is that these problems can be worked in either direction, from top to bottom or the reverse.
Soon thereafter come subtraction problems, such as 24 - Students can still apply the sameness learned in addition, thinking of the difference between 4 and 3 or between 3 and 4 and always subtracting the smaller number from the larger. However, when students encounter a problem such as 74 - 15, applying the sameness noted earlier leads them to subtract the smaller from the larger number and come up with the answer Such a mistake is a sensible application of a mislearned sameness. Della Neve and her colleagues at Drew Elementary School developed their own seven principles, which serve as focal points to guide teachers in designing and implementing brain-compatible instruction: Create a nonthreatening climate.
Input lots of raw material from which students can extract patterns—a vast array of activities, aided by an ample supply of materials, equipment, and print and audiovisual resources. Emphasize genuine communication in talking, listening, writing, and reading as ways to interact with other people. Encourage lots of manipulation of materials. Students need to be in command and able to push things around, encouraging them to work toward goals and explore a range of means.
By using problems, examples, and contacts drawn from the "real world" rather than contrived exercises, texts, worksheets, and basal readers, students can see the real value of their own learning. Address learning activities to actual, productive uses.
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Respect natural thinking, including intuitive leaps, a grasp of patterns as in number tables or good writing , and aesthetic and nonverbal interests and activities. Teaching should be multifaceted to allow all students to express visual, tactile, emotional, and auditory preferences. Providing choices that are variable enough to attract individual interests may require the reshaping of schools so that they exhibit the complexity found in life. Activate students' prior knowledge. Activating students' prior knowledge—through the use of schema theory, for example—helps youngsters integrate new knowledge and skills with their own experiences.