Teaching Diverse Students

I-BEST students come from diverse backgrounds related to education, learning styles, and cultural practices. As an I-BEST instructor it is helpful to be aware of where your students are coming from and learn about the best teaching practices to support their learning.
Resources on this page:
- Working with Students from Diverse Backgrounds
- Teaching to Different Learning Styles
- Teaching Tolerance

Working with Students From Diverse Backgrounds
Intercultural Insights taken from thiagi.com
Here are some of the guidelines they offer for working with a very diverse classroom. The entire list can be found at http://www.thiagi.com/email-intercultural101-tips.html

1) BE PATIENT, WITH YOURSELF AND WITH OTHERS. Working across cultures provides many *opportunities* to make mistakes, be unintentionally offensive, and react in surprising and inappropriate ways. Be patient with yourself, and with others, and move past these occurrences as quickly as possible. 

2) DON'T GET ANGRY -- ASK QUESTIONS. Recognize that unexpected behaviors and strong emotional reactions are often signs of language and culture barriers. Put aside your own emotional reactions to unexpected behaviors, and avoid making assumptions about the motives behind those behaviors. Ask questions instead, and you may be surprised at what you will learn. (ME)

3) GIVE RESPECT. In working with people anywhere, probably the most important aspect of your behavior is conveying respect. If it is apparent that you have, and are trying to show, respect for the other person, then generally faux pas are of little consequence. However, if it appears that you lack respect, then small infractions can be seen as major slights. (DR)

4) TAKE THE LEAD - First and foremost, it is important to check your cultural baggage at the door. If this is not possible, at least be somewhat introspective throughout and remember that you are part of the environment and situation as well. Others in the group will be feeling uncomfortable and look to you for leadership (by example). (GW)

5) ASK DESCRIPTIVE QUESTIONS. The Describe, Interpret, Evaluate process (written about by Jon Wendt and Stella Ting-Toomey, among others) is an excellent tool for double or triple checking one's reactions to a cross-cultural experience. In preparing sojourners for cross-cultural experiences, we have heavily emphasized the skill of describing what one has experienced (participants are prompted to come up with a "pure" description until other participants agree it is a description). The emphasis on description is helpful in that it is much better to ask "what might it mean if someone stands and touches me on the shoulder?" because it is much less apt to get a defensive response than "why are the people so aggressive in this culture?" (BK)

6) ACKNOLWEDGE THAT VALUES ARE A SYSTEM FOR DECISION-MAKING. It is impossible to compare cultures by saying this culture values "this" while another culture values "that." Humans and the societies we live in are much more complex than such simple comparisons allow. If we want to understand why a person behaves the way she/he does, we need to understand the context in which a decision was made, and thus, the context in which the person prioritized her/his value system and which one came out on top. For example, it is often said that U.S. Americans value time, while others value relationships. But, when I, as a U.S. American, walk across town on my way to a meeting, whether or not I stop to visit with a person I know depends on several factors - sometimes my emphasis of timeliness will rise to the top (I am on the leader of the meeting, it's a job interview, etc.), whereas other times my emphasis on relationships will rise to the top (depending on the person's status, family relationship, etc.). (BK)

7) AVOID USING IDIOMS. Idioms are forms of expression understood usually by only native speakers of a language. In English, for example, avoid expression like, "I've got to get out of Dodge," or "I've got to bite the bullet." (JB)
UNIQUE INDIVIDUALS. When running a country-specific training, it is important to keep reminding participants that generalizations are guideline, but that individuals are unique. (DR)
PEER LEARNING. Seek out information from your new peers. Discussion groups such as Dianne's and the many books and varied literature on the subject of working effectively with intercultural groups are a wealth of information. (GW)

Additional Resources on teaching tolerance and diversity in the classroom:
*Teaching Tolerance: The Teaching Tolerance project website offers strategies for teaching diverse students from the Teaching Tolerance: http://www.tolerance.org/


*The Berkeley Graduate School of Education's Center for Research on Education, Diversity & Excellence offers Five Standards for Effective Pedagogy. These pedadgogy do not endorse a specific curriculum, but establish ideals for best teaching practices that can be used in any classroom for any level of students: http://crede.berkeley.edu/


Material to Come Soon:
*Teaching to the different Learning Styles
*Filming or recording classroom lectures for students to watch on their own.
* Scaffolding