Teaching Diverse Learners Research Articles

Professional vision as a mediator for inclusive education? Unravelling the interplay between teachers’ beliefs, professional vision and reported practice of differentiated instruction

ABSTRACT To ensure inclusion and equity in education, both teacher beliefs and practice are cited as influential. However, the connection between beliefs on student diversity and inclusive practice is often more complex than straightforward. Professional vision is theorised to be important in aligning beliefs with practice. Hence, this study investigates whether teachers’ professional vision of differentiated instruction (DI) mediates between teachers’ beliefs about teaching diverse learners and teachers’ practice of DI, and is unique in investigating these constructs in concert with each other. Data are part of the Potential-project and were collected in a sample of secondary education teachers (N = 461) in Flemish schools (N = 23). Survey data measuring teachers’ beliefs (i.e. growth mindset, professional beliefs about diversity and about differentiating the curriculum) and teachers’ self-reported DI practice were combined with video-based comparative judgement data measuring teachers’ professional vision of DI. Multilevel models show that both teachers with a more expert professional vision and less expert professional vision implement DI. For a more expert professional vision, beliefs about teaching diverse learners explain the association. For a less expert professional vision, teachers’ reflective and experimental practice explains the relationship. Results suggest that aspects of teachers’ competence are related in more complex ways than linear theoretical frameworks propose. Implications for teacher training and professionalisation are discussed.

Pre-service teachers' concerns about diversity

PurposeThe purpose of this study was to investigate pre-service teachers' concerns about including diverse learners in their classrooms. The study identified which concerns they ranked highest and lowest and which types of diversity they were most concerned about. The study also compared results in relation to demographic variables of gender, year and major.Design/methodology/approachData collection relied on the Concerns about Inclusive Education Scale administered online with 343 pre-service teachers enrolled in higher education in Thailand. Analysis aimed to identify what were the highest categories of concerns as well as any significant relationships between concerns and demographic variables of gender, year and major. Analysis also identified the types of diversity about which pre-service teachers were most concerned along with any significant relationships between types of diversity and gender, year and major.FindingsResults revealed that pre-service teachers ranked lack of resources as their highest concern about teaching diverse learners. Analysis revealed a significant difference for gender with females (p = 0.014) having a significantly higher level of concern about lack of resources than males. Mental health disabilities along with physical and learning disabilities were ranked highest in terms of types of diversity about which they were most concerned. There were no statistically significant differences for demographics regarding type of diversity about which teachers were most concerned.Originality/valueThere is a lack of research related to higher education's role in preparing teachers to teach in contexts of diversity. This study goes beyond traditional definitions to include 12 types of diversity.

Designing Cross-Cultural Collaborative Online Learning Framework for Online Instructors

Online education has now become an integral part of the educational landscape in the United States and around the world, where it serves as the primary source of enrollment growth in higher education. The rising student population in online learning mandates instructors and instructional designers to be aware of the importance of cultural factors that influence students’ learning experiences and academic performance in the online environments. However, few empirical studies have examined instructors’ perspectives on instructional strategies that promote cross-cultural collaboration in online classrooms, specifically, instructional strategies that instructors use to promote educational success of diverse learners in online environments. Drawing on collaborative online learning theory, this study analyzed qualitative interview data and online activities of 40 online instructors from two universities. Results showed the following themes; (a) instructional strategies that facilitate cross-cultural collaborative online learning, (b) challenges of teaching diverse learners in online learning, and (c) designing cross-cultural collaborative online framework for instructors. Findings suggested that most instructors lacked the knowledge and skills in addressing the needs of diverse learners in the online learning environments regarding their ability to recognize students’ cultural differences and incorporate multicultural reading resources in course contents to meet the needs of diverse students. Thus, the need to design a framework will broaden instructors’ understanding and promote cross-cultural collaboration in online teaching to help meet the needs of diverse students in online learning environments.KEYWORDS: Cross-cultural collaborative learning, culturally diverse learners, collaborative learning activities, instructional strategies, Collaboration in online learning

Beliefs as filters for comparing inclusive classroom situations. Connecting teachers’ beliefs about teaching diverse learners to their noticing of inclusive classroom characteristics in videoclips

Insight in the way teachers' beliefs filter their interpretation of inclusive classrooms is vital to support teachers’ competences to teach diverse learners. This study explores how three types of teacher beliefs about teaching diverse learners (i.e., professional beliefs about diversity, beliefs about differentiating the curriculum, and growth mindset) are associated with their noticing of two key aspects of effective inclusive classrooms (i.e. positive teacher-student interactions (PTSI) and differentiated instruction (DI)). Data was collected in a sample of secondary education teachers (N = 462) in Flemish schools (N = 23). Teacher beliefs were measured by survey scales, while teachers’ noticing of PTSI and DI was assessed by a standardised video-based comparative judgement instrument. Survey and video data were combined in a multivariate multilevel framework. Findings indicate that teachers’ professional beliefs about diversity and beliefs about differentiating the curriculum serve as filters for noticing PTSI and DI in videoclips. For teachers’ growth mindset no significant relationship was found. These associations did not change when taking into account teachers’ sex, age, educational background or experience. Furthermore, a small part of the differences in teachers’ noticing DI is explained by the school level, suggesting that teachers within a school can share a vision. Results are discussed in the light of teacher thinking for inclusive classrooms and implications for teacher professional development.

Differentiated Pedagogy to Address Learner Diversity in Secondary Physical Education

This article discusses the challenge of addressing student diversity in secondary physical education (PE) classes. Contemporary curriculum documents and teacher standards emphasize differentiated pedagogy in order to engage and challenge all learners. However, the reality of designing effective learning experiences for diverse students represents a departure from traditional approaches to secondary PE teaching, and research indicates that secondary teachers often feel ill-prepared to make the necessary adjustments to plan and teach in a differentiated manner. This article employs the example of a team sports unit (volleyball) to make plain a general approach to planning for and teaching diverse learners.

The Relevance of a Migration Background to the Professional Identity of Teachers

Immigrant teachers face several specific expectations from policy makers, colleagues, as well as the media. Often new hopes are pinned on them for teaching (ethnically) diverse learners. Their professional identity is inevitably linked to these expectations. In this regard, this paper discusses the findings of a qualitative study exploring the professional identities of immigrant teachers. Furthermore, it draws implications for teacher education. Reflecting on our research findings, we illustrate two types of professional identities: Teachers who accept the “special skills” ascribed to them, and where the migration background constitutes the core of their professional identity, as well as others, who reject the expectations, and appeal to the pedagogical skills they share with their colleagues without a migration background. Given our findings, future teachers need more support when it comes to reflecting their own biography, political and public expectations, and the bearings on their professional identity.

Inclusive Attitudes: Considering Student Discussion Board Responses as Indicators of Attitudes

ABSTRACTCompelling reasons exist for moving toward inclusion of diverse learners in Jewish day schools. Graduate programs face the challenge of preparing pre- and in-service teachers as effective educators for inclusive settings. While the development of skills is vital, the inculcation of positive attitudes regarding diverse learners may be equally important. This article explores the process of using student work to evaluate students’ attitudes in the context of a course on teaching diverse learners in a Master’s degree program. The adaptation of course learning activities and assessments are described and excerpts of student work are provided as well as the preliminary coding procedures developed. The question of whether attitudes and dispositions can be assessed from student work is considered and suggestions for course design and future research are offered.

Beginning teachers and inclusive education: frustrations, dilemmas and growth

Scholars report desirable outcomes for all participants in classrooms where diverse learners are welcomed members. Data suggest teachers leave the profession early because of the demands of their work made increasingly difficult by the diverse range of students, lack of assistance to support the diverse range of student needs and the resulting burnout. This paper presents qualitative data from six beginning teachers, juxtaposed with the author's personal narrative, to illustrate the ongoing problems beginning teachers face, contending with political, historical and cultural barriers when teaching students with diverse learning needs. Despite policy advances and mandated courses in inclusive education in initial teacher education, beginning teachers are overwhelmed by the magnitude of teaching diverse learners in contemporary classrooms. Of note in the data are the preservice teachers’ fluid conceptions of inclusive education. The polarity of success and failure of inclusive education is re-envisaged through Deleuze and Guattari's [(1987). A Thousand Plateaus: Capitalism and Schizophrenia. Trans Brian Massumi. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.] rhizome. The data illustrate the challenges and messiness of learning to become an inclusive educator. It is important to listen to the experiences of beginning teachers given the value of supportive classroom environments for students with diverse needs and the impact creating these environments has on beginning teachers’ longevity in the profession.

Transformando la “gramática escolar” para ser más inclusivos: la experiencia de tres centros educativos

The aim of this article is to share some of the early reflections made by the researchers and teachers from three Spanish educational centers that are participating in the European project Teaching diverse learners in (School) Subjects) coordinated by Kerstin Merz-Atalik and Heike Tiemann (University of Education Ludwigsburg). From our point of view, if we really want to make progress toward an educational system and schools with capacity to respond with equity and fairness to the student diversity, we will have to radically change the existing “grammar school”. Our purpose will be to show some of the key elements that have been changed in the three participating centres, to try to ensure the balance between quality and educational equity from the reality of each one. Based on the analysis of the main barriers and challenges to move toward an inclusive education, here are listed some of the elements that have been necessary to transform in these educational institutions in order to shorten the distance between the declared values and specific practices.

JANUARY 2014 PLACEMENT ADS

JANUARY 2014 PLACEMENT ADS

Cultivating Culture: Preparing Future Teachers for Diversity Through Family Science Learning Events

Preservice teachers (PSTs) participated in Family Science Learning Events (FSLEs) at a university designated as a Hispanic Serving Institution. PSTs were required by the instructor to conceive and design culturally relevant science activities as well as implement these activities with K‐8 students and their families during three separate FSLEs each semester. After school venues included elementary and middle schools located in ethnically diverse school districts. Data collected from these future teachers included qualitative PST reflections, lesson plans, project board/activity evaluation by peers, and a quantitative survey instrument (modified SEBEST) to assess PSTs perceptions of teaching diverse learners. Results suggest that using FSLEs as an integral component of teacher preparation can be a powerful facilitator of learning for all involved, increasing excitement for learning, confidence in using culturally relevant activities and valuable experience in working with family members, particularly Hispanics. In addition, using culturally relevant science activities deepened content knowledge and gave PSTs the opportunity to use culturally responsive activities with Hispanic students and their families, increasing feelings of self‐efficacy in science teaching with diverse learners.

The Intersection of Policy, Reform, and Teacher Education

For over a decade, teacher education has been at the crosshairs of educational reform and policy mandates. At the conclusion of a report on the impact of the Holmes Group in the late 1990s, Fullan, Galluzzo, Morris, and Watson (1998) wrote, Never before has teacher education experienced such a massive outpouring of political and fiscal (p. 68). If teacher education was experiencing an outpouring of political and fiscal action in the late 1990s, then what we are experiencing in the beginning of the second decade of the 2000s must be a monumental flood. The impact of policy on the teacher education reform agenda has reached crisis proportions in 2011 and sent the profession into a reactive mode. The impetus for changing teacher education arises from many concerns, not the least of which is that teaching diverse learners in a highly technical and media-rich society requires the learning of new, highly sophisticated strategies (Darling-Hammond & McLaughlin, 1999). Furthermore, teacher education exists in an environment where there are wide achievement gaps among diverse student groups. International comparisons continue to show that U.S. students are not competing at expected levels, especially in mathematics and science where we rank lower than some third world countries (U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics, 2011). Many students exiting classrooms are not prepared for success in postsecondary education and do not have the appropriate skills and abilities needed for today's jobs. The public outcry regarding the performance of our students and the quality of our schools has targeted teachers as one explanation for students' poor performance in schools and sparked a wide-ranging discussion about variation in teacher effectiveness. Because studies and reports establish the importance of individual teachers in student achievement, sources of variation in quality have been under scrutiny. One source of variation in teacher performance, teacher preparation, is a recent target. The ensuing debates about what experiences are necessary to produce high-quality teachers have permeated state and federal policy and mandates. The fact that research is not robust or is at best mixed about what produces a high-quality teacher only added fuel to the debates (Cochran-Smith & Fries, 2009) and lead to calls for reform in teacher preparation at local, state, and national levels. Policy affecting teacher education evolves from a wide range of sources, including public perceptions and attitudes, federal initiatives, current trends in public schools and higher education, the visions and whims of politicians, and the profession's own initiatives. No matter how it emerges, it is not unusual for policy ebbs and flows to result in major reforms or restructuring of programs and curriculum as the teacher education community attempts to respond to federal and state political wishes and to the attitudes and perspectives of legislators and the public. At other times, policy emerges from educational reform and restructuring. A summary of the pressures currently buffeting the teacher education profession and a contrast of two disparate influential movements illustrate the intersection of policy, reform, and teacher education. Pressures on Teacher Education The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) of 2001 and its efforts to define a highly qualified teacher were followed by Race to the Top (RTTT), which brought a renewed emphasis on accountability. The two large federal efforts that focused primarily on PreK-12 education serve as bookends to a series of federal and state pressures on teacher education. There were many ways that NCLB influenced and affected teacher education, but one feature of the policy fueled an already established political debate on teacher preparation (Kaplin & Owings, 2003). NCLB attempted to define highly qualified teachers by focusing on the subject matter preparation of current and future teachers. …

Communication and Diversity: Innovations in Teacher Education

Teacher education programs have increasingly come under fire for not providing pre-service teachers communication skills training. Given that such training is essential to address diversity in the classroom and to meet the day-to-day functioning of teachers, higher education must provide communication skills training for teacher certification. This essay describes the “Teaching Diverse Learners: Communicating Social Support” workshop designed to help new and pre-service K-12 teachers communicate more effectively with diverse student populations, and the results of pre/post test surveys of the participants.

Advocacy for Equity in Classrooms and Beyond: New Teachers’ Challenges and Responses

Background/Context New teachers face an array of challenges in today's schools. Even when teachers leave credential programs with useful preparation, early-career jobs and contexts shape and constrain teachers’ goals and practice related to teaching diverse learners. Becoming change agents can be a tall order. Purpose/Objective/Research Question/Focus of Study Considering this context, we sought to understand how graduates of one teacher credential program appear prepared to advocate for educational equity in their new jobs by asking three questions: (1) What challenges do new teachers identify in classes and schools that require advocacy for some youth? (2) In what ways do they respond to such challenges? and (3) What enables these acts of advocacy? Research Design A total of 38 graduates, all currently teaching, participated in five separate 3-hour focus groups of 5–10 teachers each. We used focus groups as a research tool to triangulate a range of other data, including artifacts and surveys. We sought teachers’ deep reflections on practice, on their preparation for advocacy work, and on their professional needs. We transcribed focus group discussions then subjected these to a series of procedures, including analysis of content and themes of teachers’ narratives. Findings/Results Teachers reported actions to address equity in a range of sites, with the classroom as the core site for teachers’ advocacy work. In complex narratives, teachers reported trying to meet learning needs of diverse students. English language learners’ needs especially prompted acts of advocacy in and beyond the classroom. These included instructional tailoring, out-of-class tutorials, hunts for better texts and tests, a library field trip, creation of a culture/computer club, heightened parent contacts, and launching of a bilingual parent group. Teachers’ acts of advocacy shared four crosscutting themes: a goal of equitable access to resources and support, convictions about equity, interceding on behalf of students in need, and engaging coadvocates. Teachers reported that these themes have grounding in their teacher credential program, which featured advocating for equity in its mission, goals, and practices. Those with bilingual education credentials engaged in more acts of advocacy beyond the classroom, and analyses suggest that this may be due to credential program experiences, life experiences, and the larger sociopolitical context for teaching English language learners. Conclusions/Recommendations Results challenge conventional models of learning to teach, documenting how teachers, even in the throes of the induction period, can focus on student learning and on ways to advocate in and beyond the classroom for those in need of someone interceding on their behalf, particularly when well prepared to do so.

Preservice teacher inquiry: Creating a space to dialogue about becoming a social justice educator

In this paper, we reflect on our experience with an experimental inquiry component within a teacher education program in a large urban city on the West Coast of the United States. This learning space, which is referred to as “Inquiry,” promotes the integration of theoretical and practical knowledge through reflection and dialogue. We highlight how this inquiry-oriented process enabled preservice teachers to reflect on and dialogue about existing ideals of social justice and equity with regard to teaching diverse learners. This process acknowledges that alternative learning spaces in teacher education programs that address ways of observing, questioning, and inventing may well be a valuable strategy in the development of social justice educators. While the process is a valuable one, we offer a critical analysis of our own processes. In particular, we discuss the need for the creation and implementation of strategies that help pre-service teachers build their capacity to teach in diverse urban classrooms.

Observation in Teaching: Toward a Practice of Objectivity

Because most informal classroom assessment is based on the observation of students by teachers, the purpose of the present study is to construct a view of this assessment that is consistent with the practitioners’ perspective. To find out how teachers frame observation, we analyzed stories of 25 Dutch teachers about teaching diverse learners and focused on what they said about the observation of students. Most attempts to improve observation have recommended the separation of subject and object in an effort to eliminate teachers’ personal frameworks. The present study, however, shows that observation is embedded in the action of teaching. Thus, the realities of the classroom do not allow teachers to separate themselves from what they are observing. An alternative view of objectivity is presented. This transactional view shows that the quality of teachers’ personal frameworks is important and should not be eliminated: The supposition of being neutral and detached hampers the teaching of diverse learners. To prevent self-fulfilling prophecies from influencing student achievement in a negative way, pedagogical craftsmanship is essential. Starting from this view, the reliability and the validity of observation for classroom assessment are reframed in a nonstatistical way. According to this view, social practice plays an important role in deciding whether observation deserves a quality warrant. Apart from an alternative view of concepts such as objectivity, a practice of objectivity requires new ways of constructing theories and mentoring teachers to sharpen their perceptive faculty.

Observation in Teaching: Toward a Practice of Objectivity

Because most informal classroom assessment is based on the observation of students by teachers, the purpose of the present study is to construct a view of this assessment that is consistent with the practitioners’ perspective. To find out how teachers frame observation, we analyzed stories of 25 Dutch teachers about teaching diverse learners and focused on what they said about the observation of students. Most attempts to improve observation have recommended the separation of subject and object in an effort to eliminate teachers’ personal frameworks. The present study, however, shows that observation is embedded in the action of teaching. Thus, the realities of the classroom do not allow teachers to separate themselves from what they are observing. An alternative view of objectivity is presented. This transactional view shows that the quality of teachers’ personal frameworks is important and should not be eliminated: The supposition of being neutral and detached hampers the teaching of diverse learners. To prevent self-fulfilling prophecies from influencing student achievement in a negative way, pedagogical craftsmanship is essential. Starting from this view, the reliability and the validity of observation for classroom assessment are reframed in a nonstatistical way. According to this view, social practice plays an important role in deciding whether observation deserves a quality warrant. Apart from an alternative view of concepts such as objectivity, a practice of objectivity requires new ways of constructing theories and mentoring teachers to sharpen their perceptive faculty.

Empowering Diverse Learners at the Middle Level

(1999). Empowering Diverse Learners at the Middle Level. Middle School Journal: Vol. 30, Middle School Reform at the Crossroads: The Challenge of Teaching Diverse Learners, pp. 29-36.

Shadowing Middle Schoolers to Understand Them Better

(1999). Shadowing Middle Schoolers to Understand Them Better. Middle School Journal: Vol. 30, Middle School Reform at the Crossroads: The Challenge of Teaching Diverse Learners, pp. 57-62.

Fostering Growth Inducing Environments for Student Success

(1999). Fostering Growth Inducing Environments for Student Success. Middle School Journal: Vol. 30, Middle School Reform at the Crossroads: The Challenge of Teaching Diverse Learners, pp. 63-67.