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Inviting
All Students to Learn
These four steps can help teachers become more
aware of the cultures within their classrooms so
they can help all learners succeed.
Hilary Dack and Carol Ann Tomlinson

speech-language pathologist who was

conducting research in an Inuit school
in Canada asked the principal, who
was not Inuit, to give her the names
of students who had language or
speech problems. She received a list that included
one-third of the student body. The principal noted
that a number of the students did not talk in class.
When the non-Inuit speech-language pathologist
questioned an Inuit teacher about the students performance in class, the teacher responded that wellraised Inuit children learn by looking and listening,
and thus they do not talk in class.
Later, the researcher asked the teacher about
a talkative young student who appeared very
advanced. The teacher replied, Do you think he
might have a learning problem? Some of these
children who dont have such high intelligence have
trouble stopping themselves. They dont know when
to stop talking (story from Cragos 1988 research,
as cited in National Research Council, 1999).
On the one hand, it appears the principal did
not see individual students learning patterns as
manifestations of cultural expectations or recognize

that her own beliefs about student speech reflected

different cultural tendencies than those of the community in which she worked. Instead, she viewed a
full third of her school as deficient in speech or language. At the same time, the Inuit teacher viewed a
students verbosity as a sign of a learning difficulty.
Not a very inviting learning context for a whole lot
of s tudents.
All people are shaped by the culture in which
they live. The shaping process is both subtle and
pervasive, and it can be difficult for all of us to grasp
that people shaped by other cultures will see and
respond to the world differently than we do. After
all, our own cultural lenses seem so naturalso
right. The consequences of this cultural blindness
can range from comedy to awkwardness to waste of
human potential. In a classroom, the consequences
can be dire when teachers interpret behaviors of
students from cultures other than their own as disrespect, deficiency, defiance, or disinterest.
So how can educators become better attuned
to cultural variance and help all their students
build positive, productive lives? Here are four
suggestions.
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1. Recognize and appreciate cultural variance.

A decade and a half into the 21st
century, were seeing less and less
cultural homogeneity. Everyone in
the world lives everywhere in the
world. Places not yet touched by the
increasing mobility of people of different cultures will likely soon find
the world moving in their direction.
Opportunities presented by permeable
national borders are manyas are the
challenges. This year, when white students are the minority in U.S. public
schools for the first time while the
majority of teachers remain white and
middle class (Pew Research Center,
2014), concerns about responding
effectively to students from different
cultures are more pressing than ever.

Mr. Greenlund creates opportunities

for his students from minority cultures
to join him in attending significant
concerts, plays, and movies that reflect
European cultureand creates just as
many opportunities for these students
to join him at events that reflect and
emphasize their cultures. This helps
both teacher and students learn to live
knowledgeably, respectfully, and comfortably in more than one culture.

2. Learn about and look for culturally

influenced learning patterns.
The educators job includes welcoming
every student who walks through the
door. Increasingly, these students
come from backgrounds different from

True cultural sensitivity requires

person sensitivity as well.
Excellent teachers have always been
students of their students, understanding that they cannot teach well
unless they know their students. That
principle now extends to studying students cultures, being attuned to their
languages, appreciating their experiences and histories, and valuing their
lenses on the world.
An important first step toward
increased cultural proficiency for
teachers is to expand their appreciation of cultural differences, even
as they become more keenly aware of
attributes and needs that are shared
across cultures. Seek knowledge
about the cultures students bring to
your classroom. Join your students in
becoming multiculturalin learning
to live in and honor more cultures than
the one into which you were born.
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our own. Some will come from collectivist backgrounds, whereas others
come from groups that value individualism. Some will have learned to revere
their teachers from a distance, others
to negotiate with their teachers as they
would with a peer, and still others
that they owe their teachers no respect
until its earned. Some students hear
the message that school will improve
their lives but look back on a history
in which school hasnt served their
community fairly or well. Its crucial
for teachers to develop awareness of
the range of perspectives students
bring to the classroom.
There are many different cultural
patterns, and its unlikely that a
teacher would ever understand all the
patterns represented in a culturally
diverse classroom. Nonetheless, the

process of learning about cultural

patterns is both fascinating and
instructive. Each new layer of understanding provides a platform for creating a classroom in which all comers
can feel at home.
Ms. Orley noticed that several of
her students with a similar cultural
background seemed uncomfortable
when she called on them to answer
questions quickly and when she asked
students to complete writing prompts
on the spot. She asked a colleague
from the students cultural group if
there might be a cultural connection,
and her colleague explained that the
culture valued reflection over speed
and that young people in that culture
often learn to listen and reflect before
speaking.
Ms. Orley quickly made two simple
adjustments. In class discussions,
she decided to sometimes signal an
upcoming question by saying, for
example, I want to hear from a couple
of additional students on the question
were discussing. Then Im going to
ask for your thinking about _____.
Similarly, she began saying early in
a lesson, As we conclude our lesson
today, Im going to ask you to summarize your understanding by writing
about _____. Interestingly, those
changes made a noticeable difference
in the comfort and performance of
the students about whom shed been
concerned and had the same effect on
several students in the class from other
cultural backgrounds.

3. Look beyond cultural patterns

to see individuals.
Important as it is to grow in understanding of cultural patterns that can
affect learning, its also essential to
understand that no pattern in a culture
applies to all individuals within that
culture. True cultural sensitivity

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and see it as requiring two languages

she does not grasp fluently. Further,
one of the students may have traveled
extensively whereas the two others
may never have left their small village
until coming to the United States. Cultural background is just one of many

in a way that connects new ideas and

events with students varied cultures
and experiences. It includes studying
math and science with awareness
of and appreciation for people from
around the world who have pushed
forward our understanding of those
disciplines. It ensures that
students see what they
study as addressing contemporary problems in a
broad range of settings.
It guides learners to see
the interconnectedness
of knowledge and human
experience over time and
across places. In other
words, the curriculum
leads students to explore
content through universal
lenses rather than only
parochial ones.
A teacher who looks at
students as individuals
no matter what their
cultural experiences are
will attend to their varied
points of readiness, their
interests, their exceptionalities, their status among
peers, and so on when
planning curriculum and
instruction. This differentiation is essential
to the academic growth
and motivation of students from all cultural backgrounds.
A teacher who differentiates robustly
creates environments and processes
that make room for students varied
approaches to learningincluding
those shaped by culture.
One way of planning for the
inevitable variety of approaches to
learning in culturally diverse classrooms is to develop a series of continuums along which students may
work and which reflect cultural as well
as personal patterns. Although there is
Roy Scott/Ikon Images/Corbis

requires person sensitivity as well.

Seeing each student as his or her own
person means avoiding developing
expectations of the student solely on
the basis of cultural background. It
never makes sense to assume that all
Latinos will _______ or all American
Indians are ______ or all
Hmong students prefer
________.
Any students learning
will be shaped not only
by that students culture,
but also by his or her
readiness needs, home
context, personal talents
and interests, cognitive
development, and a host
of other factors. Lets
assume, for example, that
three students in the same
classroom speak Spanish
as their first language and
happen to prefer a grouporiented approach to
learning. If one student is
male and two are female,
their learning may (or
may not) be affected by
gender differences. One of
the students may have had
excellent school experiences prior to coming to
the United States, and the
other two students may
never have developed a
strong foundation of literacy in their
first language.
One student may have parents
who can make time to help with
homework, and another may come
from a home in which the parents
dontor cantspend much time
with their children. Two of the students may find math to be liberating
because they can understand many
of its ideas through numbers rather
than words. The third may find math
an overwhelming language in itself

factors that affect student learning, and

not all students fit the expected profile
of students from a given culture.

4. Plan inviting curriculum and instruction.

Teachers who seek to maximize
learning for all their students invest
heavily in creating a curriculum that
both engages students and guides
them to understand what they study.
Such a curriculum involves studying
history, literature, music, and language

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no correct set of continuums, it may

be useful to select a few of these possibilities for initial planning:
n IndividualisticCollectivist
n Needs to observeNeeds to test
ideas
n Needs external structures
Creates own structures
n CompetitiveCollaborative
n On-demand response
Reflective response
n Challenging of authority
Respectful of authority
n ConformityCreativity
n ReservedExpressive
n Fixed sense of timeFlexible
sense of time
n Information-drivenFeelingdriven
Although these continuums may
represent some areas of variance across
cultures, it is unwise to assume that
four students in a class will fall at the
same place on a continuum simply
because they share a cultural background . Further, it is unwarranted to
assume that any one student will fall
in the same place on a continuum in
all learning contexts. The idea when
using the continuums is to plan for
a range of approaches that reflect a
variety of points on these spectrums,
rather than favoring only those
approaches that are familiar and comfortable for the teacher.
How might teachers use these continuums? Here are a few options:
n Use them to identify and challenge
your own teaching predispositions and
habits.
n Offer students choices of ways
to work on the basis of some of the
c ontinuums.
n Help students reflect on which
ways of working serve them best.
n Encourage students to try new
approaches to learning so they expand
their repertoire of learning strategies.
To apply her understanding of the
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competitive/collaborative continuum,
Mrs. Lawrence sometimes provides
students with two options to prepare
in class for an upcoming complex task
or test. One option is a quiz bowl,
in which students compete in teams
of three to see which team can get
the highest score in answering a set
of teacher- or teacher-and-studentdeveloped questions. The second
option is tag team, in which students
collaborate in groups of about four
to propose answers to the same ques-

Excellent teachers have

always been students
of their students,
understanding that
they cannot teach
well unless they
know their students.

tions, explain their thinking, and

ask one another for elaborations that
clarify their understanding. Some students tend to alternate between quiz
bowl and tag team, but others seem
consistently drawn to either the more
competitive or the more collaborative
option.
Mrs. Lawrence finds students to
be more invested in the review when
they have a choice and also finds that
any class discussion that follows the
review is more thoughtful and focused
than when she used only one review
strategy. A teacher who is a persistent
observer of students will see which

approaches have the most power to

facilitate student learning, and, in
time, the teacher will likely find it
natural to plan with even more continuums in mind.
Teachers Who Issue
theInvitation
John Hattie (2012) suggests that
learning becomes inviting when
teachers demonstrate respect (demonstrating the belief that every student is
valuable, able, and responsible); trust
(fostering student collaboration that
makes every student a contributor
to the learning process); optimism
(sending a clear message that each
student has the potential to learn
what is necessary for success); and
intentionality (making evident that
every step in the lesson was specifically designed to invite each student to
learn). Teachers can achieve this in a
variety of ways.
Ms. Alexis gathers information
about her students on the first day of
school and systematically adds to that
information throughout the year. She
uses an app to take quick notes as she
watches her students work, noting
their strengths, potential entry points
into varied topics and skills, and personal interests and stories. She also
encourages parents to share stories
about their children.
This information helps her design
or select instructional approaches that
are more flexible and more likely to
succeed with the full range of students
she teaches. For example, recently,
she wanted to use examples from
real life to demonstrate a scientific
principle at work. Her knowledge of
her students interests led her to use
examples from soccer, farming, and a
particular science fiction novel. Then
she gave students time to meet in one
of five other interest-based groups
to develop their own examples of

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the principle at work, encouraging

them to draw on examples from their
own experiences. The group options
included topics of particular interest
to students from a range of cultural
backgrounds.
Mrs. Fountas and several of her
colleagues started a focus group that
meets monthly to study the cultures
represented in their classrooms. The
discussions are often led by community members from the students
cultures or by someone who works
regularly with families in those cultures. The teachers provide a discussion template for guest leaders as
well as particular questions they have
about the culture and its approaches to
learning. In a recent meeting, conversation centered on ways in which students would see numbers used in their
community and how they might come
to see math as important in their lives.
Mrs. Olivas consistently calls on
her U.S. History students to think
about how their own experiences are
similar to or different from the ideas
they discuss in class. As they analyze
historical events, they often examine
how time, place, economic status,
geography, and so on shape peoples
experiences and beliefs about issues
and events. She has students read
primary source documents from different perspectives so students can see
how varied views of events and issues
evolve.
During one semester, they examined
divergent and changing views about
immigration in the United States,
the role of women in society, rights
of American Indians, and economic
inequality. In each instance, Ms. Olivas
asked students to share their own
perspectives on the topics by drawing
from their own cultures and lived
experiences. She also provided regular
opportunities for students to reflect
on ways in which examining multiple

A teacher who differentiates robustly creates

environments and processes that make room for
students varied approaches to learning
including those shaped by culture.
perspectives expands their thinking
about issues.
Mr. Atkinson often gives his students the choice of working independently or in a group to plan their
work, solve problems, and edit early
efforts. Students quickly rearrange
classroom furniture to create spaces
for both collaborative groups and
students who elect to solo during a
particular task.
Mrs. Leighton finds ways for her
quieter students to express and share
ideas. Knowing that each student has
the tools to succeed in class, she sees
it as her role to help each student use
the tools they have to best advantage.
She often asks students to share in a
small group a piece of work theyve
completed and to talk about why they
chose to do it in the way they did.
Ms. Elias showed her middle
schoolers some learning continuums
she had developed to help her plan for
their learning. She asked them to put
their names on the continuums at a
point they thought might reflect how
theyd work best in her class. When
she saw the clusters of names spread
across most of the continuums, she
said to her students, Let me put a
green X where Im often most comfortable. In many instances, her mark
was at or near the extreme left of the
continuum. She said to her students,
Im going to learn so much from you
this year about ways we can make
learning a real fit for everyone here.

Youre going to be very good for me!

Teachers who issue invitations for
all their students to learn systematically educate themselves about and
value cultural distinctions, see students as unique individuals, and plan
teaching and learning in ways likely to
connect each student with important
content, with one another, and with
success. EL
References
Hattie, J. (2012). Visible learning for
teachers: Maximizing impact on learning.
New York: Routledge.
National Research Council. (1999). How
people learn: Brain, mind, experience and
school. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
Pew Research Center (2014, August 18).
Dept. of Ed. projects public schools
will be majority-minority this fall.
Fact-Tank: News in the Numbers.
Retrieved from www.pewresearch.org/
fact-tank/2014/08/18/u-s-public-schoolsexpected-to-be-majority-minoritystarting-this-fall
Hilary Dack (hgd3gf@virginia.edu) is a
doctoral student in the Curry School of
Education at the University of Virginia in
Charlottesville. Carol Ann Tomlinson
(cat3y@virginia.edu) is William Clay
Parrish Jr. Professor and Chair of Educational Leadership, Foundation, and Policy
at the Curry School of Education at the
University of Virginia in Charlottesville.
She is the author of The Differentiated
Classroom: Responding to the Needs
of All Learners (2nd ed., ASCD, 2014)
and, with Tonya R. Moon, Assessment
and Student Success in a Differentiated
Classroom (ASCD, 2013).
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