Introduction:

you’ve probably heard someone say, “Everyone is unique” though it sounds really like a
cliché, one cannot ignore the truth in it.

Factors that bring about student Diversity

In all learning environments, individuals interact with others who are in same ways
different from them. Recall how these differences were shown in your class tally-gender and
racial, ethnic or culture background (nationality, province and language).

1. Socioeconomic status – The millionaires’ lifestyle differs from that of the middle
income or lower income group.

2. Thinking/ learning style - some of you learn better by seeing something; others by
just listening; and still others by manipulating something.

3. Exceptionalities – In class there maybe one who has difficulty in spoken language
comprehension or seeing, hearing, etc.

How student Diversity Enriches the learning environment

A teacher may be “challenged” to handle a class with students so divers. There may be
students having different culture background, different language abilities, different attitude
and aptitudes and behaviors.

1. Students’ self-awareness is enhanced by diversity.

Exposing students to others with diverse background and experiences also serves to help
students focus on their awareness of themselves.

2. Student diversity contributes to cognitive development.

As the German philosopher, Nietzsche, said over 100 years ago: “ the more affects we allow
to speak about one thing, the more eyes, different eyes we can use to observe one thing,
the more complete will our concept of this thing, our objective be”.

3.Student diversity prepares learners for their role as responsible members of society.
Suzanne Morse stresses one competency that has strong implications for instructional
strategies that capitalize on diversity: “The capacity to imagine situations or problems from
all perspectives and to appreciate all aspects of diversity”.

Student diversity can promote harmony. When the student diversity is integrated into the
classroom teaching and learning process, it can become a vehicle to promoting harmonious
race relations.

Some tips on student diversity

1. Encourage learners to share their personal history and experiences. Students will be made
to realize that they have something in common with the rest.

2. Integrate learning experiences and activities which promote students’ multicultural and
cross-culture awareness.

•You can encourage or even initiate co-cultural experiences that are aimed to promoting
diversity awareness.

•Let students interview other students on campus who are from diverse background
(foreign students or students from other ethnic/racial groups).

• Invite students to Internet discussion groups or e-mail; have students “visit” foreign
countries and “talk” to natives of those countries.

• Ask students if they have been the personal target of prejudice or discrimination, and have
them share these experiences with other members of the class.
2. Aside from highlighting diversity, identify patterns of unity that transcend differences.
Clyde Kluckholn, an early American anthropologist who spent a lifetime studying human
diversity across different cultures, concluded from his extensive research that “Every human
is, at the same time, like all other humans, like some humans, and like no other human”.

(Cited Wong, 1991). His observation suggests a paradox in the human experience, namely:
We are all the same in different ways. It may be important to point out to students the
biological reality that we, human beings, share approximately 95% of our gens in common,
and that less than 5% of our gens account for the physical differences that exist among us.

One way to minimize this risk, and promote unity along with diversity, is to stress the
universality, of the learning experience by raising students’ consciousness of common
themes that bind all groups of people.

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

• Try to form groups of students who are different with respect to one demographic
characteristic but similar with respect to another.

• After students have completed self-assessments instruments, have them line up or move
to a corner of the room according to their individual scores or overall profile.

4. Communicate high expectations to students from all subgroups.

Make a conscious attempt to call on, or draw in students from diverse groups by using
effective questioning techniques that reliably elicit student involvement. In addition to
consciously calling on them in class, other strategies for "drawing in" and involving students
include: (a) assigning them the role of reporter in small-group discussions.
the one who reports back the group's ideas to the class, and (b) having them engaged in
paired discussions with another classmate with the stipulation that each partner must take
turns assuming the role of both listener.

FACILITATING LEARNER-CENTERED TEACHING

and speaker, and (c) scheduling instructor-student conferences with them outside the
classroom.

Learn the names of your students, especially the foreign names that you may have difficulty
pronouncing. This will enable you to establish early personal rapport with them which can
later serve as a social/emotional foundation or springboard for encouraging them to
participate.

5. Use varied instructional methods to accommodate student diversity in learning styles.

Diversify the sensory/perceptual modalities through which you deliver and present
information (e.g., orally, in print, diagrammatic and pictorial representations, or "hands on"
experiences) Diversify the instructional formats or procedures you use in class:

Use formats that are student-centered (elg., class discussions, small group work) and
teacher-centered (e.g., lectures, demonstrations).

Use formats that are unstructured (c.g., trial-and-error discovery learning) and structured
(e.g. step-by-step instructions).

Use procedures that involve both independent learning (e.g., independently completed
projects, individual presentations) and interdependent learning (e.g., collaborative learning
in pairs or small groups).

6. Vary the examples you use to illustrate concepts in order to provide multiple contexts that
are relevant to students from diverse backgrounds.

Specific strategies for providing multiple examples and varied contexts that are relevant to
their varied backgrounds include the following:
Have students complete personal information cards during the first week of class and use
this information to select examples or illustrations that are relevant to their personal
interests and life experiences.

Use ideas, comments and questions that students raise in class, or which they choose to
write about to help you think of examples and illustrations to use.

Ask students to provide their own examples of concepts based on experiences drawn from
their personal lives.

Have students apply concepts by placing them in a situation or context that is relevant to
their lives (e.g., "How would you show respect to all persons in your home?").

7. Adapt to the students' diverse backgrounds and learning styles by allowing their personal
choice and decision-making opportunities concerning what will learn and how they will learn
it.

Giving the learning more decision-making opportunity with (a) respect to learning task:
promotes positive student attitudes toward the subject matter. (b) fasters more positive
interactions among students, and (c) results in students working more consistently with
lesser teaching intervention.

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

You can accommodate student diversity not only by varying what you do with your teaching,
but also by varying what you ask students to do to demonstrate learning. In addition to the
traditional paper-and-pencil tests and written assignments, students can demonstrate their
learning in a variety of performance formats, such as:

(a) individually-delivered oral reports, (b) panel presentations, (c) group projects, (d)
visual presentations (eg, concept maps, slide presentations, Power Point presentations,
collages, exhibits), or (d) dramatic vignettes-presented live or on videotape. One potential
benefit of allowing students to choose how they demonstrate their learning is that the
variety of options exercised may be a powerful way to promote student awareness of the
diversity of human learning styles. You will have more of assessment in your courses on
Assessment of Learning.

9. Purposely, form small-discussion groups of students from diverse backgrounds. You can
form groups of students with different learning styles, different cultural background, etc.

Small peer-learning groups may be effective for promoting student progress to a more
advanced stage of cognitive development.

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