Teaching through Diversity

Abstract

One of the richest vehicles for enhancing students' learning in the classroom is the diversity of the students themselves.1 Integrating diversity into the classroom process not only enhances learning, but it can in crease motivation and facilitates the de velopment of social, cognitive, and com munication skills that are necessary to enter today's multicultural work force (Burke 1996; Fried 1993; Hodapp 1996; White 1994). Various pedagogical mod els have been presented that highlight the value of classroom diversity (Belenky et al. 1986; Fried 1993; Poison 1993) or that suggest changes in classroom practices (Enns 1993; Ortman 1993; Tatum 1992). However, despite these contributions, issues of classroom process that arise as a result of diversity remain challenging and, at times, are downright intimidating. Several factors may contribute to the difficulty in integrating diversity into the classroom process. One is that the diver sity of student populations is increasing. Furthermore, our definition of what con stitutes diversity is expanding. That is, students differ along dimensions other than culture, ethnicity, and gender. Social class, cognitive styles, age, physical abil ities, and religion also create important differences in students' backgrounds and