THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TEACHING METHODS THAT ADDRESS THE NEEDS OF DIVERSE LEARNERS

by Christine Joyce S. Antonio Jessa Mariae V. Onglao Alison Z. Salva Queenie Yet B. Yao

FEBRUARY 2013

Introduction Diversity is part of humanity. The definition of diversity includes a set of conscious awareness in lived experiences. It includes: Understanding and respecting interdependence of humanity, cultures, and natural environment; practicing mutual admiration for different qualities and experiences; understanding other ways of being and ways of knowing; understanding that individual and cultural discrimination maintains privileges for particular groups while creating disadvantages for others; and eradicating all types of discrimination while empowering school culture (LAS definition of diversity, 2004). Classroom diversity is one of the major trends in schools today. As the field of education worldwide is explicitly striving to make schools and education available to all children and young persons, classrooms are becoming increasingly diverse in terms of language, culture, gender, religion, abilities, socio-economic status and geographic setting (Dharan, 2010). In the Philippines, the outpour of international students mostly Koreans and Middle Easterners exhibit this diversity. Educators need to understand the nature and evolution of human diversity because they will be encountering diverse learners in the future. Teachers must be very well knowledgeable with the various needs of their students and must be prepared and equipped to deal with these needs. To meet this challenge, teachers must employ not only theoretically sound but also culturally responsive pedagogy. Teachers must create a classroom culture where all students regardless of their cultural and linguistic background are welcomed and supported, and provided with the best opportunity to learn (Austin, Brown, Forde, 2006). Differentiated Instruction, Universal Design for Learning, Sheltered Instruction and Multicultural Education are

some of the instructional approaches that support inclusion in diverse classroom (Voltz, Sims, Nelson, 2010). Recent research studies show that diversity must be celebrated as it enriches ones knowledge and experience. The broad range of experiences and perspectives brought to school by culturally, linguistically, and ethnically diverse students offer a powerful resource for everyone to learn morein different ways, in new environments, and with different types of people (Saravia-Shore, 2008). Student diversity enriches the learning environment. It enhances students self-awareness, it contributes to cognitive development, it prepares learners for their roles as responsible members of society and it can promote harmony (Lucas, Corpuz, 2011). The researchers believe that this study will not only be for the benefit of diverse students and learners. Rather, it is a step towards celebrating diversity and pushing for equal opportunities regardless of color, culture, religion, abilities and socio-economic status not just in schools, but the whole society. Teaching from an awareness of and a deep respect for cultural diversity is a step that teachers can take toward building democracy in education, a tradition that insists that all human beings have similar opportunities to develop themselves (Varenne and McDermott, 1999). Diversity among Learners Diversity encompasses many characteristics including ethnicity, socio-economic background, home language, gender, special needs, disability, and giftedness (Alton-Lee, 2003). This study will be focusing on students that are culturally and linguistically diverse and on the different learning styles of the students.

Cultural and linguistic diversity is a very broad concept and encompasses the differences that exist between people, such as language, dress, traditions, food, societal structures, art and religion (Hobart City Council). Researchers have repeatedly confirmed that teachers need to know more about the world of the children with whom they work in order to better offer opportunities for learning success (Graybill,1997; Pransky & Bailey, 2002/2003)(as cited in Barnes, 2006). This idea is supported by Andersons (1988, p. 8) statement that "a, different set of understandings about the way diverse populations communicate, behave, and think needs to be developed by educators. Until this occurs, education will continue to stagnate in the dark ages and educators will provide lip service rather than action to the egalitarian values associated with pluralism and multiculturalism. As professional educators we must settle for nothing less." (as cited in Sanchez,Gunawardena, 1998). Another factor on which students differ is with their learning style. The term learning style has been defined in several ways by many authors, yet the most representative definitions refer to two essential aspects: a) the learning style represents an individuals preferred ways of responding (cognitively or behaviourally) to learning tasks which change depending on the environment or context (Peterson, et al., 2009), and b) the learning style refers to the idea that individuals differ in regard to what type of instruction is most effective for them (Pashler, et al., 2008) (as cited in Tulbure, 2012). There are many learning style models that evolved through the years such as the VisualAuditory-Kinesthetic (VAK) model, the Kolbs learning style model, the Honey and Mumford's

learning style model and the Felder-Silverman model. The focus of this thesis will be on VAK Learning Style Model. The VAK Learning Style model is one of the simplest and therefore most popular learning styles model. It has evolved since the 1920s and been adapted to suit a wide range of learning, behavior and assessment situations. It is based on how we perceive information, it uses three sensory modes Visual (seeing and reading), Auditory, and Kinesthetic (movement and tactile or touch) to determine three preferred learning-style categories. Teaching Methodologies Research suggests that todays educators must implement sound, research-based strategies that recognize the needs, strengths, and experiences of students from diverse backgrounds and cultures (Saravia-Shore & Garcia, 1995; Hodges, 2001)(as cited in Allison, Rehm, 2006). Previous studies have enlisted the teaching methodologies that worked for diverse learners such as differentiated instruction, universal design, sheltered instruction, multicultural education, peer tutoring, cooperative learning, use of visual aids, active learning experience and use technology in terms of website and electronic media. These methods will be discussed in this chapter. Differentiated instruction is an instructional theory that allows teachers to face this challenge by taking diverse student factors into account when planning and delivering

instruction. Irvine and Armento (2001) identify DI as one of the approaches to teaching that effectively promotes culturally responsive teaching (as cited in Hamza, Hahn, 2012). OBrien & Guiney (2001) clearly enumerated these as major principles of differentiated instruction: 1) Every child can learn and every teacher can learn 2) All children have the right to high quality education. 3) Progress for all will be expected, recognized, and rewarded. 4) Learners in a classroom have common needs, distinct needs, and individual needs (as cited in Logan,2011). Tomlinson identified three components that should be differentiated (Hall, Strangman & Meyer, 2003): content (elements and materials used in reaching learning goals and in teaching concepts, principles, and skills that students will learn), process (how you will teach the content, flexible groups or whole-group discussion of content or small groups or paired groups; groups are not fixed), and products (students are allowed choices in products or final assessments which should offer a variety of ways for expression, degree of difficulty, and types of evaluation) (as cited in Logan,2011). Universal design is an instructional approach that gives particular attention to students who have physical, sensory, and cognitive disabilities. According to Orkwis (1999), "Universal design implies a design of instructional materials and activities that allows learning goals to be attainable by individuals with wide differences in their abilities to see, hear, speak, move, read, write, understand English, attend, organize, engage, and remember" (p. 1). (Voltz, Sims, Nelson, 2010).

Sheltered instruction also embraces the needs of diverse learners, specifically English language learners. Echevarria, Vogt, and Short (2004) define sheltered instruction by using the following eight broad elements: (1) preparation, (2) building background, (3) comprehensible input, (4) strategies, (5) interaction, (6) practice and application, (7) lesson delivery, and (8) review and assessment (Voltz, Sims, Nelson, 2010). Multicultural education is another approach that is important in today's diverse, standards-based classrooms. It addresses the needs of culturally diverse populations of students. Banks (2001) defined this approach with the following five major dimensions: (1) content integration, (2) the knowledge construction process, (3) bias reduction, (4) empowering school culture, and (5) equity pedagogy (Voltz, Sims, Nelson, 2010). Peer tutoring, a strategy that pairs two students of different abilities and backgrounds, is extremely effective in multicultural classrooms because it promotes communication, motivates students, and helps learners attain higher levels of achievement while developing inter-ethnic friendships (SaraviaShore & Garcia, 1995; Snowman & Biehler, 2003) Peer tutoring has also been effective in promoting student-to-student interaction in multicultural classrooms (Webb, 1988) (as cited in Allison & Rehm, 2007; 2006). Cooperative learning is an instructional strategy that is supported by a wealth of research and has been found to be highly effective in multicultural and multilingual classrooms (Slavin, 1991; Vaughn et al., 2003). In cooperative learning, students are placed in heterogeneous groups usually comprised of four or five students and they work together on a common goal. As students collaborate and cooperate with one another, they develop cross-

cultural understanding and develop stronger interpersonal friendships than they would by working alone (Johnson & Johnson, 1990; Snowman & Biehler, 2003). Reviews of the literature on culturally responsive teaching have found that cooperative/collaborative learning experiences improve academic performance and encourage socialization skills for all students, particularly for students from diverse backgrounds (Johnson & Johnson, 1990) (as cited in Allison & Rehm, 2007; 2006).

Visual Aids must also be utilized because diverse students often are in various stages of proficiency in the English language, teachers must become skilled in presenting information in ways that are less dependent on language. Visuals such as pictures, photographs, drawings, diagrams, and graphic organizers are highly effective when teaching students who are not auditory learners (Carrier, 2005; Vaughn, Bos, & Schumm, 2003). ). Furthermore, they provide visual stimuli that can be universally understood, helping to bridge the language barrier in multicultural classrooms (Allison & Rehm,2006).

Active learning experiences and hands-on activities including simulations, games, roleplaying, field trips, and laboratory experiences engage and intrinsically motivate all students while accommodating the many different learning styles of multicultural learners (Kline, 1995) (as cited in Allison & Rehm,2007)..

Technology has also played a big role in teaching diverse students. An electronic media can be used in different ways to implement different teaching strategies which can be matched with different learning styles (Franzoni & Assar, 2009).

Lie and Cano (2001) in their study of the RTrek website, an innovative attempt to provide diverse types of support transcending time and logistical constraints as well as reducing the amount of ftf tutorial, found that The site did provide support for the diverse range of information needs and of learner levels in the cohort. It was especially effective in levelling the playing field for less prepared learners. These came better prepared to participate actively in the ftf workshops. Faculty was spared from giving ftf remedial tutorials in order to bring students up to threshold levels. Measuring Teaching Effectiveness The way teacher effectiveness is defined impacts how it is conceived and measured and influences the development of education policy. Teacher effectiveness, in the narrowest sense, refers to a teachers ability to improve student learning as measured by student gains on standardized achievement tests (Little, Goe & Bell, 2009). To capture teacher efficacy researchers have used a variety of formats. For example, Ashton, Buhr, and Crocker (1894) created a teacher efficacy scale that used vignettes to illustrate situations that teachers might experience and asked them to indicate how successful they would be in handling the episode. Gibson and Dembo (1984) also developed a teacher efficacy scale assessing teachers personal teaching efficacy and teachers beliefs in their ability to affect change using a Likert format. Similarly, later Bandura (1998), created a 30-item instrument which consists of seven subscales, such as efficacy to influence decision making and efficacy to create a positive school climate whereas Tschannen-Moran and Hoy (2001),

developed a scale which includes items among others on creativity in teaching, and flexible application of alternative assessment and teaching strategies. Finally, Siwatu (2007) developed a Likert type scale assessing teachers efficacy to engage in culturally responsive teaching (as cited in Kitsantas, 2012). Recommendations for helping educators to build their efficacy beliefs to teach diverse students populations effectively include observing other more experienced teachers using culturally relevant teaching strategies. Additionally, efficacy measures may provide educators with more guidance in terms of the current level of efficacy of teachers and desired level of efficacy that they aim to instill. Depending on the efficacy scores that the teachers receive on each source of diversity more focus could be placed on developing professional development goals aligned with the specific needs of the sample of teachers (Kitsantas, 2012). Conclusion Educators must be prepared to deal with classroom diversity. Individuals learn differently, thus various models of learning styles were constructed. One of the most popular is the VAK model. This model classifies students into three learning styles, namely, Visual (seeing and reading), Auditory, and Kinesthetic (movement and tactile or touch). With the arrival of foreign students in the country, Philippine classrooms also become culturally and linguistically diverse. The different needs of the students must be addressed so as to give good quality of teaching. There are a lot of teaching methodologies that worked for diverse learners such as differentiated instruction, universal design, sheltered instruction, multicultural education, peer tutoring, cooperative learning, use of visual aids, active learning experience and use technology

in terms of website and electronic media. Teachers must be well-aware of these and must have the competency to deliver such methods to ensure that the students really learn. The teacher and the teaching methodologies that are being employed to the lessons plays very crucial roles in the effectiveness of the teaching- learning process. Thus, various methods in measuring the effectiveness of teaching were developed. These measures help evaluate the teachers efficacy in order to make changes and improvement that would benefit everyone. To be able to ensure a successful teaching learning process, educators must be knowledgeable on the diverse characteristics of their students. They must consider these factors when choosing and implementing teaching methodologies. And lastly, the efficacy of the teachers and the teaching methods must be measured.