April 15

Teaching Culturally Diverse Students

• Cultural advice can provide useful general guidelines, but those guidelines are not necessarily appropriate for all ethnic students
• Non-verbal cues provide important feedback that influences your further communication
• Eye contact from students can indicate whether or not they are listening and engaged in a discussion
• Asian Americans, African Americans, and Native Americans consider looking away to be a sign of careful attention rather than inattention
• Silence among different cultures can have different meanings
• Reluctant speech can be explained through cultural practices of each student and how their speech varies
• Students who are reluctant to speak may be concerned about insulting the teacher or concerned about being in the spotlight
• Western thought and language tend to proceed in a linear fashion, whereas other ethinc groups conduct conversation in a circular fashion
• Patience is essential when dealing with someone in a circular conversation
• Westerners tend to be spurred by goals such as individuation, independence, self-development, and self-reliance
• Ethnic cultures are motivated by group goals and achievements within their families.
• With family support, an ethnic student achieves great strength and feels a powerful desire to work towards goals.
• Cultural stressors are imposter syndrome, first-generatoin condition, and acculturation anxiety
• Imposter syndrome is caused by self-doubt as the ethnic student is aware of his or her minority status
• First-generation students experience stress caused by lack of familiarity with the new environment
• Certain concepts or procedures may be difficult to grasp to culture shocked ethnic students
• Acculturation anxiety is when an ethnic person is coping with academic tasks and possibly adapting to a new environment while also facing the risk of denigratoin from his or her own cultural group
• When discussing goal setting with an ethnic student, find out how he or she came to be in school to begin with, and gain a sense of the familial values and expectations
• Understanding the source of a student's stress may assist you in offering appropriate help
• Familiarize yourself with studies that offer the ethnic students' personal views of the academic environment
• Presumption of special privilege through affirmative action may contribute to the imposter syndrome
• The first-generation condition is not just unique to ethnic students
• Many students experience homesickness early on, but learn to manage it by developing a new sense of freedom and self-confidence, and becoming comfortable with their new identities
• In addition to being sensitive to cultural differences among students, you can make your classroom more welcoming and effective for ethnic minority students by your choice of teaching approaches
• Match-Learning exercises show you that different students may have different learning styles
• Understanding the cultural experiences of an ethnic student can help bring academic material to life in concrete ways
• Cultures can be viewed as either horizontal or vertical in their interpersonal structure
• A vertical culture establishes high-to-low status roles associated with titles of address
• Western structures tend to be horizontal, where everyone is on the same level
• Take the time to chat with students, have consistent office hours but encourage drop-ins, be encouraging and positive, supportive and solution-oriented, listen, and help students identify their strengths
• Pay attention to your students in order to learn about them and truly understand them

The presentations in class today were very thorough and entertaining. Both presenters were very engaged the whole time.  I really enjoyed doing the activity that indicated what type of learner we were.