A DISPOSITION FOR DIVERSITY

A Disposition for Diversity: Teaching in the 21st Century

Claire H. Crawford
Wesleyan College

My young experience of growing up in an upper middle class nuclear family sheltered me

from diversity. Through my college years, I began to gain experience in dealing with other
cultures and realized how it affects their ideas, opinions, goals, and communication skills. I now
know in order to be an effective educator teaching in the 21st century, I will be held accountable
for the quality of learning experiences. I know my learning objectives will include gaining
cultural knowledge in order to acquire patience with those who do not fall into the norm,
learning to be conscience of words and actions that might be offensive, understanding the various
learning styles, planning lesson to include all cultures, and developing sensitivity towards other
religions.
As a future instructor, it will extremely important to examine the value of diversity and
incorporate the understanding of this crucial topic into daily lesson plans. As I comprehend the

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meaning of diversity, as anything that deviates from the norm, the scope of significance in
learning to value and respect other ideas, opinions, goals, communication styles along with the
historical issues of race, socio-economic, cultures and disabilities, can be overwhelming. But
learning how to deal with my future students can begin with learning about the impact of the
issues in our past.
The great diversity issues in our societys history were the visible differences. Female
citizens did not share all of the same rights as male citizens, including the right to vote.
Organizations raised public awareness and lobbied the government to pass the 19th amendment to
the U.S. Constitution. African Americans did not share all the same rights as Caucasians because
of the visible color of their skin. People such as Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
initiated the civil rights movement to end racial segregation.
While some gender and racial issues have improved, both are still prevalent on some
level today. As a nation, we strive to be more accepting of differences to show empathy to those
who were raised differently then ourselves. The more recent and challenging diversity issues
today include culture, language, religion, socio-economic status, disabilities, learning styles and
sexual orientation. In order to maximize learning in todays classroom, I must have use
techniques that work with a diverse group.
In my research, I have read about cooperative learning. The Cooperative learning is a
flexible method. As a teacher, I would continue to be responsible for the learning objective of the
class. By placing students in supportive groups they are expected to develop the skills of
independent and group work. This type of classroom structure is cooperative rather than
competitive. This allows for the development of group and individual responsibility, interactive
learning, and support for each individual within the group. The goal is to advance the individual
ability of every student to work independently as well as a team.

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I also researched a method of teaching in which students work together in a team to find
answers to a significant question or to create a learning project. This technique is called
collaborative learning. As their teacher, I would have a group of students discuss the days
lesson. It could also be a shared assignment with students from other schools. Most of the time
when a teacher groups students together to work on an assignment, she/he learns that the students
help each other and sometimes even correct each other.
In order to meet my students needs, I will try to teach to the many different learning
styles in the classroom. I think one of the most important things about being a teacher is knowing
your students as an individual and a group. Students are diverse in their own way and also have
their own learning style. Each students learning style is unique, shapes how they learn and
shapes them into the person they are. There are three basic forms of learning styles, which
include, auditory, visual, and kinesthetic. An auditory learner is one who prefers to learn through
listening and depends on listening and speaking as their main way to learn. These students may
struggle with reading and writing, but excel at memorizing spoken words such as song lyrics
(Eddy, 1999). One way to teach to auditory learners is to re-phrase major points about the
material and always talking with a volume that is easy for everyone to hear you. Another type of
learning style is visual learning. A visual learner is one who likes to see the information they are
learning and they also like a lot of detail. They use visual media such as images and color to help
them learn. Visual learners remember most of what they read or see but understand most of what
they see. One way to teach to visual learners is to provide lots of interesting visual material in a
variety of formats. The last basic learning style is a kinesthetic learner. These types of learners
like to learn by touching and experiencing the material. Most of the time, kinesthetic learners
remember what the do by movement and/or touch. One way to teach to kinesthetic learners is to
allow them to stand and move around while learning new material. I believe that it is important

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to know how to recognize students learning styles and to know how to teach to each type. I think
it is important to be able to teach to different types of learning styles because it will allow for a
teachers lesson to be more interesting to the students. Understanding learning styles can help
you create more inclusive classrooms where everyone has a chance to succeed (Eddy, 1999).
I believe that no matter what adversity we face in our lives, everybody faces challenges
and it makes us better people if we embrace the differences rather than to argue or shun them. A
good educator should have a good attitude and model it to their students. This will also lead a
good educator to teach his/her students to be interested and learn about the diversities in others
rather than to shun it. I would like to teach my students that diversity is a good thing and that it
makes for a more interesting world and we can learn from each other.
When a teacher is open to diverse learners and strives to ensure quality environments free
of discrimination, diversity can actually strengthen a learning environment because it enables
people to be more productive in the world and contribute more positively to society. To
encourage and promote diversity in a classroom teachers need to make their students feel safe
and respected and that will help increase the success in the classroom.

References
Cherrington, S., & Green, V. (2010). Delving Into Diversity : An International Exploration of
Issues of Diversity in Education. New York: Nova Science Publishers, Inc.

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Diversity Issues In TodayS Classroom. (n.d.). Retrieved November 08, 2016, from
http://www.elearnportal.com/courses/education/diversity-in-the-classroom/diversity-inthe-classroom-diversity-issues-in-todays-classroom
Eddy, Janet. (1999). Learning Styles. Teaching Nuggets. Center for Excellence in Teaching.
Los Angeles: University of Southern California. 46-48.
History.com Staff. (2010). 19th Amendment. Retrieved November 08, 2016, from
http://www.history.com/topics/womens-history/19th-amendment
Webb, L. D., Metha, A., & Jordan, K. F. (2010). Foundations of American education (6th ed.).
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Merrill/Prentice Hall.