EDU 320: Teaching
Diversity: Influences and Issues in the Classroom
| Instructor Name: | Dr. Karen Lea |
| Phone: | 509-891-7219 |
| Office Hours: | 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. PST Monday - Friday |
| Email: | karen_lea@virtualeduc.com |
| Address: | Virtual Education Software, inc.
16201 E Indiana Ave, Suite 1450
Spokane, WA 99216 |
| Technical Support: | support@virtualeduc.com |
Introduction
Welcome
to Teaching Diversity: Influences and Issues in the Classroom, an
interactive computer-based instruction (CBI) course, is designed to give you the knowledge
and tools to effectively facilitate a diverse classroom. This course will help
you understand and identify differences in approaches to learning and
performance, including different learning styles and ways in which students
demonstrate learning. This course will
emphasize understanding how students’ learning is influenced by individual
experiences, talents, disabilities, gender, language, culture, family, and
community values. You will be challenged to apply knowledge of the richness of
contributions from our diverse society to your teaching field.
This
computer-based instruction course is a self-supporting program that provides
instruction, structured practice, and evaluation all on your home or school
computer. Information on installation and technical support can be found, and
will be covered in detail, in the User Guide section of your computer software.
This course requires completion of a case study assignment with student observations and site visitations.
Important:
You must complete this course no later than the last day of the Term or Semester in which you registered for this course.
Course Materials:
The course materials, (the required CD rom), will be sent directly to students from VESI corporation at no additional charge. After registering for this course, email mintravia@charteroak.edu to request the materials. Allow 10 days to receive your CD.
| Title: | Teaching Diversity: Influences and Issues in the Classroom (software
package) |
| Author: | Karen
A. Lea, Ph.D |
| Publisher: | Virtual Education Software, Inc. ©2005 |
| Instructor: | Dr. Karen Lea |
Please keep the CD. There is a $25 replacement fee for CD-roms if
you need to replace yours due to theft, damage, misplacement, etc. Call 1-800-313-6744, with your credit card
information, if you need a replacement.
Academic
Integrity Statement
The structure and format of most distance-learning courses
presume a high level of personal and academic integrity in completion and
submission of coursework. Individuals enrolled in a CBI distance-learning
course are expected to adhere to the following standards of academic conduct.
Academic
Work
Academic
work submitted by the individual (such as papers, assignments, reports, tests)
shall be the student’s own work or appropriately attributed, in part or in
whole, to its correct source. Submission of commercially prepared (or group
prepared) materials as if they are one’s own work is unacceptable.
Aiding
Honesty in Others
The individual will encourage honesty in
others by refraining from providing materials or information to another person
with knowledge that these materials or information will be used improperly.
Violations of these academic standards may
result in the assignment of a failing grade and subsequent loss of credit for
the course.
Level of ApplicationThis
course is designed to be an informational course with application to
educational settings. The strategies were designed to be used to aid in
teaching students in a diverse classroom ranging from K-12. The strategies are
general in nature, are not intended to be prescriptive, and are not intended to
be used as a formula. As is true of all information, the information covered in
this course should not be used to stereotype any students based on cultural or
ethnic differences.
Course Objectives:
- Demonstrate
knowledge of how students’ learning is influenced by individual experiences,
language, poverty, culture, and gender.
- Use
information about students’ families, culture, and communities as a basis for
connecting instruction to students’ experiences.
- Use
cultural diversity and individual student experiences to enrich instruction.
Course Description This course is
designed to help classroom te achers, school counselors, and other educational
personnel gain strategies to understand how our diverse society influences
student learning in the classroom. Participants will explore issues of culture, gender, and individuals
with exceptionalities, and how these affect a student’s learning and behavior
in the classroom.
The course is divided into four chapters.
At the completion of each chapter, there will be an examination covering the
material. Students must complete the examination before proceeding to the next
chapter. This sequential approach to learning will help all participants to
gain a better understanding of what they have learned as they proceed through
the course.
Although
this course is a presentation of societal issues and how these affect the
classroom, there is certainly a wealth of research and topics that are not
covered in the scope of this course. The instructor highly recommends that you
augment your readings from this course with further research to gain a fuller
understanding of the complexities of this subject. In addition to what is
required in this course and your individual research, the instructor recommends
that you read the following books.
- Darling-Hammond,
L., French, J., & Garcia-Lopea, S. P. (2002). Learning to teach for
social justice. New York: Teachers College Press. (May be purchased at many
bookstores or online)
- Delpit, L. (1995). Other
people’s children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York: The
New Press.
- Gay, G. (2000). Culturally
responsive teaching: Theory, research, & practice. New York:
Teachers College Press.
- Kellough, R. D., & Kelough, N. G. (2007). Secondary
school teaching: A guide to methods and resources. Columbus: Pearson
Merrill Prentice Hall.
- Knight, J. T. (2003). Teaching tools for the
twenty-first century: How to achieve and maintain teaching success. Orlando: Rivercross Publishing.
- Nieto, S. (1999). The light in their eyes: Creating
multicultural learning communities. New York: Teachers College Press
- Obidah, J. E., & Teel, K. M. (2001). Because of
the kids: Facing racial and cultural differences in schools.
New York: Teachers College Press.
- Orlich, D. C.,
Harder, R. J., Callahan, R. C., Trevisan, M. S., & Brown, A. H.
(2007). Teaching strategies: A guide to effective instruction. Boston:
Houghton Mifflin Company.
- Payne, R. K.
(2005). A framework for understanding poverty. Highlands, TX: Aha Process,
Inc.
Student
Expectations
As a student you will be expected to:
- Complete
all four information chapters covering Teaching Diversity: Influences
and Issues in the Classroom, showing a competent understanding of the material
presented.
- Complete
all chapter examinations, showing a competent understanding of the
material presented.
- Complete
a review of any chapter on which your examination score was below 70%.
- Retake
any chapter examination, after completing an information review, to increase
that examination score to a minimum of 70% (maximum of three attempts).
- Complete a case study assignment with student observations and site visitations.
- Complete
a course evaluation form at the end of the course.
Please check the applicable GEOs for this course, if any, by outcomes at GEO Category Search, or by subject area at GEO Discipline Search.
Chapter Topics
Chapter
1 - Living and Teaching in an Ethnically
Diverse Society
This
chapter will explore how our society has changed, the diversity of our society
as a whole, and the community in which the participant lives and works.
Chapter
2 - Learning Styles, Preferences, Modalities and Culture
This chapter will
explore learning styles and how these influence student learning. Participants
will determine their own learning/teaching style and apply this knowledge in
adapting instruction for all student learning styles, especially for students
of diverse cultures.
Chapter 3 - Multicultural
Education
This chapter will explore how participants can combine and apply their
knowledge of learning styles and teaching theories in a multicultural
classroom. Participants will be challenged
to honestly evaluate their own attitudes and teaching, and to change those if
needed in order to teach so that all students succeed in their classrooms.
Chapter 4 - Poverty and
Classroom Management
This chapter will explore poverty issues in our
society and how they affect the students in your classroom. The chapter will
include teaching and classroom management strategies to be used in conjunction
with the knowledge of all the chapters of this course.
Examinations
At
the end of each chapter, you will be expected to complete an examination
designed to assess your knowledge. You may take these exams a total of three
times. The software will save the last score, not the highest score. After your
third attempt, each examination will lock and not allow further access. Your
final grade for this course will be determined by calculating an average score
of all exams. This score will be printed on your final certificate. As this is
a self-paced computerized instruction program, you may review course
information as often as necessary. You will not be able to exit any
examinations until you have answered all questions. If you try to exit the exam
section before you complete all questions, your information will be lost. You
are expected to complete the entire exam in one sitting.
Writing Assignments
This course has three required writing components.
To save your essays:
- Macintosh: When you select the question or article you wish to write on, simple text or text edit will automatically be launched. When you are finished, simply click on FILE>SAVE. Do not select SAVE AS. You do not need to give the document a name before saving. When you are done, select FILE>QUIT. You must quit before you write another essay.
- Windows: When you select the question or article, Notepad will automatically launch. When you are finished, click on FILE>SAVE. Do not select SAVE AS. You do not need to give the document a name before saving.
- Essay Requirement: Critical Thinking Questions
There is a Critical Thinking Question for each chapter or section. You will do research on the question and write a brief essay relating it to the course content (and your personal experiences when possible). To view the questions, click on ESSAY REQ, and then on CRITICAL THINKING QUESTIONS. You will see the questions, one for each chapter or section. Click on the question you would like to work on; this will bring up a screen where you can enter your essay. You must write a minimum of 500 words per essay.
- Essay Requirement: Journal Articles
This task requires you to write a review of three journal articles of your choice on a topic related to this course. You may choose your topic by entering the Key Words (click on the Key Words button) into a search engine of your choice (Google, Dogpile, Yahoo, etc.). Choose three relevant articles and write a 200-word review of each. You may also access the ERIC system and choose a related topic from a journal listed in that system. Or you can access www.scholar.google.com or www.findarticles.com .Write a critical summary of the information given in each article, explaining how the information relates to, supports, or refutes information given in this course. Conclude your paper with your thoughts and impressions. (200 words per journal article minimum, 400 words maximum.) Be sure to provide the journal name, volume, date, and any other critical information to allow the instructor to access and review that article.
To write your essays, click on ESSAY REQ. In the dialog box below that, click on JOURNAL ARTICLE ASSIGNMENT; this will expand the folder which contains links to the screens where you can write your reviews. When you are ready to stop, click on FILE>SAVE. You may go back at any point to edit your essays. For more information on the features of this assignment, please consult the HELP menu.
- Final Case Study Paper: Teaching Diversity
After completing the final chapter examination, you will be required to write a final case study paper. The paper must be a minimum of 3 pages in length, but no more than 7 pages. Only typed or word-processed papers will be accepted. Send a stamped, self-addressed envelope, if you would like your graded assignments returned to you with comment.
Sections to Include in Final Paper:
- A short review of the information in chapter one on how society has changed as a whole, particularly in terms of diversity.
- Discus learning styles, your teaching/learning style, and how you will use this information to adapt classroom instruction to meet the needs of your diverse classroom.
- Discuss how you plan to evaluate the effectiveness of your multicultural teaching style and what staff or personnel will be involved in helping with the evaluation.
- Discuss how you would go about implementing suggested changes in teaching theory or style based on the evaluation summary.
- Finally, discuss what types of classroom management strategies you would employee to decrease cultural, ethnic, and racial issues and tension in your classroom to promote a safe classroom environment and optimize student learning.
Information from the course as well as outside sources can be used to complete this paper.
Instructor Description
Karen
Lea has over 12 years of experience teaching in culturally diverse settings in
classrooms that reflect every area of diversity. She has experience as a high
school private math/computer instructor, a high school inner-city math
instructor, a junior high inner-city math/science instructor and a college
instructor. Currently, Karen is a professor at Trevecca Nazarene University.
Contacting the Instructor
You may contact the
instructor by emailing karen_lea@virtualeduc.com or by calling (800) 313-6744,
Monday through Friday, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m. PST. Phone messages will be answered within 24
hours. Phone conferences will be limited to ten minutes per student, per
day, given that this is a self-paced instructional program. Please do not
contact the instructor about technical problems, course glitches, or other
issues that involve the operation of the course.
Technical Questions
If you
have questions or problems related to the operation of this course CD, please
try everything twice. If the problem persists please check our support pages
for FAQs and known issues at www.virtualeduc.com and also the Help section on
your course disk.
If you
need personal assistance, email support@virtualeduc.com
or call (509) 891-7219. When contacting
technical support, please know your course version number (it is printed on the
CD label) and your operating system, and be seated in front of the computer at
the time of your call.
Minimum
Requirements
Macintosh Operating Systems
Mac OS 9.x or OS 10.x, 256MB of RAM and 5MB of free hard disk space,
15" or larger color monitor with a minimum resolution of 800x600, CD
driver 4x minimum speed and a printer connected to your computer.
Windows Operating Systems
Windows 2000, XP Home, Professional or newer, 256MB of RAM and 5MB of
free hard disk space; 15" or larger color monitor with a minimum
resolution of 800x600, CD driver 4x minimum speed and a printer connected
to your computer.
Please
contact VESi if you have any questions about the compatibility of these
systems.
Refer to the addendum included
with your software package regarding Grading Criteria, Course Completion
Information, Items to be Submitted, and where to send your completed
information.
Bibliography
Banks, J. A. (2006). Cultural
diversity and education: Foundations, curriculum, and teaching. Boston:
Pearson, Allyn and Bacon.
Banks, J. A. (Ed.).
(1996). Multicultural education transformative knowledge & action:
Historical and contemporary perspectives. New York: Teachers College Press.
Banks, J. A. (1999). An
introduction to multicultural education. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.
Cipani, E. (2004). Classroom management for all
teachers: 12 plans for evidence-based practice. Columbus: Pearson Merrill
Prentice Hall.
Contreras, A. (2006).
Impact of Brown on multicultural education of Hispanic Americans. Educational
Administration Abstracts, 41(1), 395.
Darling-Hammond, L.,
French, J., & Garcia-Lopez, S .P. (2002). Learning to teach for social
justice. New York: Teachers College Press.
Delpit, L. (1995). Other
people’s children: Cultural conflict in the classroom. New York: The New
Press.
Evertson, C. M., Emmer, E. T. & Worsham, M. E.
(2006).Classroom management for elementary teachers. Columbus: Pearson
Merrill Prentice Hall.
Gay, G. (2000). Culturally
responsive teaching: Theory, research, & practice. New York: Teachers
College Press.
Hawkins, J. (2006).
Accessing multicultural issues through critical thinking, critical inquiry, and
the student research process. Urban Education, 41(2), 169-191.
Kellough, R. D., & Kelough, N. G. (2007). Secondary
school teaching: A guide to methods and resources. Columbus: Pearson
Merrill Prentice Hall.
Knight, J. T. (2003). Teaching tools for the
twenty-first century: How to achieve and maintain teaching success. Orlando: Rivercross Publishing.
Koppelman, K. L., & Goodhart, R. L. (2005). Understanding human differences: Multicultural
education for a diverse America. Boston: Pearson, Allyn and Bacon.
Landau, B. M. (2004). The art of classroom
management: Building equitable learning communities. Columbus: Pearson
Merrill Prentice Hall.
Louie, B. Y. (2006).
Guiding principles for teaching multicultural literature. The Reading
Teacher, 59(5), 438-460.
Nieto, S. (1999). The
light in their eyes: Creating multicultural learning communities. New York:
Teachers College Press.
Orlich, D. C., Harder, R. J., Callahan, R. C.,
Trevisan, M. S., & Brown, A. H. (2007). Teaching strategies: A guide to
effective instruction. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
Payne, R. K. (2005). A
framework for understanding poverty. Highlands, TX: Aha Process, Inc.
Payne, R. K., Devol, P., & Smith, T. D. (2001). Bridges
out of poverty: Strategies for professionals and communities. Highlands,
TX: Aha Process. Inc.
Prothereo, N. (2006).
Cultural diversity and the school-family connection. Principal, 85(4),
52-55.
Redman, G. L. (1999). A
casebook for exploring diversity in K-12 classrooms. Upper Saddle River,
NJ: Merrill.
Sheets, R. H. (2005). Diversity
pedagogy: Examining the role of culture in the teaching-learning process. Boston: Pearson, Allyn and Bacon.
Silver, H. F., Strong,
R. W., & Perini, M. J. (2000). So each may learn: Integrating learning
styles and multiple intelligences. Alexandria, VA: Association for
Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Slocumb, P.D., & Payne, R.
K. (2000). Removing the mask: Giftedness in poverty. Highlands, TX: Aha
Process, Inc.
Tiedt, P. L., & Tiedt, I. M. (2005). Multicultural teaching: A handbook of activities,
information, and resources. Boston: Pearson, Allyn and Bacon.
Tomlinson, C. A. (1999). The differentiated classroom: Responding to the needs of all learners.
Alexandria, VA: Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development.
Trumbull, E.,
Rothstein-Fisch, C., Greenfield, P. M., & Quiroz, B. (2001). Bridging
cultures between home and school: A guide for teachers. London: Lawrence
Erlbaum Associates, Publishers.
Wardle, F., & Cruz-Janzan, M. I. (2004). Meeting the needs of multiethnic and multiracial
children in schools. Boston: Pearson, Allyn and Bacon.
Course Syllabus Addendum
Important - Please Read
You MUST stay on one computer for the entire course. Your student profile and exam scores are stored on your hard drive, not on the course CD. These files are needed by the course program to generate your Certificate of Completion.
Letter grades will be assigned as follows:
| 93%-100% | A |
| 90%-92.9% | A- |
| 87%- 89.9% | B+ |
| 83%-86.9% | B |
| 80%-82.9% | B- |
| 77%-79.9% | C+ |
| 73%-76.9% | C |
| 70%-72.9% | C- |
| 67%-69.9% | D+ |
| 63%-66.9% | D |
| 60%-62.9% | D- |
| 0%-59.9% | F |
Course Completion Information
Grading will take approximately two weeks from the time your materials are received by the instructor. If you have a timeline to meet certain school or state requirements, please keep this time period in mind when planning your course completion dates. No extensions or incompletes are permitted; courses must be completed by the end of their respective semester. The institution will assign each grade to the student’s transcript. Students must contact the Registrar’s Office to request a copy of their official transcript and follow the standard policy for obtaining a copy of that official transcript.
YOUR EXAM SCORES AND WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS ARE NOT SUBMITTED ELECTRONICALLY.
Items to be sent:
Final Printed Certificate of Completion
Completed Course Evaluation Form
Final Case Study Paper
Required Critical Thinking Essays
Required Journal Article Summaries
The CD-ROM is yours to keep.
Mail to:
Virtual Education Software, inc.
16201 E Indiana Ave, Suite 1450
Spokane, WA 99216
Fax to: (with cover letter)
VESi
509-926-7768
Course Syllabus Addendum
Important - Please Read