Take Home Quiz EDU 3063

Group Members: Irene Tiong, Kok Jia Xuan, Phoebe Hon, Yap Sze Miin, Young Poh
Ping
Discuss the implications of various socio-cultural aspects (race, structure of society,
social class, beliefs, language levels, customs and rituals, gender) towards teaching
and learning (teacher, students, school and hidden curriculum).
The responsibility of a teacher in the classroom that consists of various races,
structure of society, social class, beliefs, language levels, customs and rituals and gender is
challenging but if the if the teacher understand and care for all students, then the teacher
can create a culture friendly classroom. A teacher should teach with dedication without
differentiating the students races and avoid grouping students by race in one group to
ensure students of different races can interact with each other. Apart from that, it is also
important to bear in mind that students from different social class must be given equal
treatment. Teacher should be wise to conduct classes where students can mix freely and
socialize without any cultural restrictions and societies so that learning will become more
interactive and fun. In addition, teacher should take students' cultures and language skills
into consideration when developing learning objectives and instructional activities. Be aware
of cultural differences as a source of problems in learning to read as accents and dialects
often affect a childs ability to read and write, especially in the early stages of these
processes. Students should not be interrupted during the oral reading process; corrections
are best done after the reading is over. A teacher can always provide opportunities for
students to share their experiences by encouraging them to speak from their own
experiences and share information about their familys ethnic background to increase
cultural awareness. Besides, it is crucial for teachers to show interest in every student
regardless of their gender to increase motivation for students to perform well academically,
while also allowing the students to realize that they are individuals with different cultures. In
general, a teacher need to always be sure that his own behavior does not exhibit bias or
favoritism in any way by giving all students the same amount of respect and encouragement.
The presence of a variety of socio-cultural aspects in the learning environment also
impacted the implementation of hidden curriculum. Hidden curriculum refers to the
unintended or implicit values cultivated in the practices exercised in the classroom and
educational institutions through the application of curriculum. For example, students can be
rewarded not only for learning their subject curriculum but appearing to do so with
enthusiasm, alertness, and deference to and respect to authority. In this way, education
imparts not only formal education but a range of cultural values and attitudes such as

obedience to authority and punctuality to prepare students to face the wider society of
different races and cultural values. Apart from that, unintended messages about minorities,
ethnic groups, gender or work ethics may be discussed. Students learn through hidden
curriculum which comprises school culture such as the rules and routines in school,
information of schools, students culture and traditions practiced and aspiration of school. In
hidden curriculum, students participation in co-curricular activities is encouraged to allow
students to observe a variety of practices and values learned in the curriculum in the
classroom. Such co-curricular activities usually provide an opportunity for students to
practice the values and key elements that form part of the moral value.
School being the first place where a child formally placed in the society, outside the
protective zone of a family, is seen as a starting point to orientate young children of the
importance of national integration. It is a place where children are exposed to others who
they may not have the opportunity to mingle with, in other contexts. School is also a platform
to introduce the existence of other cultures, customs and religions and to enable the children
to see those differences as part of life. The government also introduced the concept of vision
schools to transform and propel the standard of education towards world-class educational
system, at the same time promote racial integration. According to the Ministry of Education
(2000), vision school is a primary school complex in which two or three schools of different
types (National, Chinese and Tamil national-type schools) are placed. Ideally these three
school buildings are interconnected to facilitate interactions among pupils from these
schools. There are four main objectives of vision school which are to create integration
among students from different ethnic and backgrounds, to inculcate the spirit of integration
among students from different school types, to produce students who have high tolerance
and understandings towards one another, and to promote maximal interactions among
members of the school community through the sharing of school facilities and
implementation of school activities. It is hoped that through the development of vision school,
students from various socio-cultural background can interact with each other in this school
from an early age, and this will produce a multi-cultural generation with the spirit of unity and
racial integration since childhood.
To recapitulate, the various socio-cultural aspects have a great impact on teacher,
students, school and hidden curriculum. Teacher should understand the background of
students and their socio economic status in order to select the appropriate system of delivery
and learning materials for their students. The hidden curriculum encompasses all forms of
teaching that occurred as a result of implementation of curriculum and co-curricular activities
whereas schools should be a conducive platform for students to learn and interact with each
other.