Diversity in our Classrooms: How Do Teachers Adjust?

Classrooms of today are become more diverse - as many institutions in North America (and possibly the world), are emphasizing the practice of "diversifying their recruitment, student services, curriculum, pedagogy...", and other strategic initiatives within their schools - as pointed out by Stephen Brookfield in his textbook entitled "The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom (2015, p. 97). And, as a result, of this globalization and internationalization phenomenon, teachers now need to become more involved and understand this change - as well as learn to adapt their teaching styles, methods, and modalities, in order to accommodate this ever-broadening new student body within their schools. This is certainly true of my school. We have over one third of our student population that are international coming from over 99 countries - which most definitely is bringing diversity on to our campus. This can be seen as a good and bad thing. On the plus side - the diversity of sharing and learning together from each other is great. It is a wonderful rich environment. On the negative side - we are facing challenges with the learning - students are not coming in prepared to succeed (as there are language barriers and cultural differences that are sensitive to deal with - but we are determined to rise up to this.

The author notes in his book that our classrooms are truly a mix of multiculturalism, not only from an ethnic or racial lens, but even from a learning perspective. For example, there is diversity in how students learn such as auditory, visual, and tactile - and instructors need to be aware of this. There are those students who are self-directed, others that seek direction, those that work well in a team setting, while some prefer their own independence. Brookfield identifies ways in which instructors can gauge the diversity in their classrooms by doing simple exercises such as asking students to raise their hands in response to certain questions, or having students bring in an object that the student feels says something about their culture. Another fun and simple exercise which I have done not only with students, but also with my employees is to have them take a 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper - and pretend it is a flag. They are to draw and/or colour items on the flag that identifies who they are. It was an eye-opening exercise to really see how each participant wanted to express who they are and feel comfortable in doing so. Highly recommended!

Another sure way to get a reading on a weekly basis on how this diversity is revealed - and how one is managing to teach in this environment is to conduct a Critical Incident Questionnaire (CIQ). This tool, which is normally a one-page handout, is used at the end of the week given to students to answer a few questions, anonymously, to give the instructor a sense of when they were engaged, when they were distance from the learning, what did they find helpful, or confusing, to name a few. Teachers also need to be aware of their own teaching styles and how students are taught in order to try and address this diversity issue. For example, the author offers the notion of having team teaching. Teachers have different styles and by having two teachers co-present a lecture, there is a greater chance that one of those styles is going to resonate with a student - and keep them engaged. (I had this experience when doing my M.Ed in Student Affairs, and it was a great thing. I really resonated with one of my profs, and thoroughly enjoyed her teaching style. I wouldn't have had this.. if they decided to not team teach). Teachers need to be mindful of the diversity that they may create when having students teach in groups. By putting the students of the same ability together may be good in some settings, but not in others. Having a mix of students with differing abilities, learning backgrounds, experiences, can bring the sense of learning that matches the reality of life. By matching extroverts with introverts can also be another challenge when dealing with diversity within the classroom. In looking at diversity...it is clear to see that it can never be fully addressed to the satisfaction of all. There are just too many variables. But, as the Brookfield points out "if your purpose is to help people learn, then you must be open to constantly varying your activities in response to what we find out about the range of students we work with." (2015, p. 108). And isn't that what teaching is all about?

Reference: Brookfield, Stephen D. (2015). The Skillful Teacher: On Technique, Trust, and Responsiveness in the Classroom. Jossey-Bass. San Francisco, CA.