Week 5: Continue Blog Outline for Instructional Plan (Culture and Critical Thinking)

How is does cultural diversity play a role in your instructional experience? How will you honor this diversity?

The dynamics of context and culture play a huge role in an instructional experience. “Teaching methods such an andragogy may be comfortable for learners who grew up in Western cultures and feel free to share personal experiences, but highly uncomfortable and foreign for learners from non-Western cultures” (Merriam and Bierema, 2014, p 242). Additionally, motivation is viewed differently. In western societies, motivation “tends to be highly individualistic and ego-driven, as compared to the concept of success being collective venture involving peers and family in Eastern cultures” (Merriam and Bierema, 2014, p 244).

All of our teaching staff, and their parents and grandparents, were taught in western culture, whereas majority of our students’ parents were taught in African, Middle East and Asian cultures. This difference is important for our staff to be aware of.

With this new knowledge from chapter twelve of Adult Learning: Linking Theory and Practice by Sharan Merriam and Laura Bierema (2014), I will discuss these differences with staff before exploring lesson enhancements. For example,  “Western views of learning also tend to be biased towards formalized, teacher-centered settings in contrast to the emphasis on informal learning that is situated in daily life in non-Western settings” (Merriam and Bierema, 2014, p.244).

Additionally, it would be wonderful to have several parents share how their learning experience differs from Western culture and provide ways that teachers could connect more with their cultures’ preferred learning style.

How will you incorporate critical thinking into your instructional experience?

Educational standards are recently emphasizing the importance of critical thinking, but I believe that not all teachers truly understand what it means to think critically. It’s much more than just analyzing a story and answering a question or solving a problem. “Thinking critically requires us to check the assumptions that we hold, by assessing the accuracy and validity of the evidence for these assumptions and by looking at ideas and actions from multiple perspectives” (Brookfield, 2012, as cited in Merriam and Bierema, 2014, p.213).

The way in which standards are written across subject areas provide a structured amount of time to be spent exploring and reflecting. To think critically takes time to reflect, and often time that a teacher can’t provide to students. We, in the United States, move too quickly and work under an enormous amount of pressure and stress. It’s no surprise why this is often a low skill among our students.

With that being said, staff would complete activities for creating a critical learning environment. Some of these activities would need to take place weeks before the workshop, as it’s diverges a little from the workshop objectives.

1.     “Introducing Critical Theory

a.     Understanding power relations

b.     Recognizing ideology manipulation and hegemony

c.     Practicing democracy

2.     Facilitating Critical Thinking

a.     Fostering critical reflection

b.     Building a learning community

c.     Practicing dialogical conversation

3.     Taking Critical Action

a.     Classroom experiential learning

b.     Living experience learning” (Merriam and Bierema, 2014, p.228)

What new insights are beginning to emerge for you as a result of this week's session?

The readings this week have really expanded my thinking. I realized my assumption that majority of people in the world learn in similar ways, is a single story. When we don’t tap into our conscious, we willingly allow our unconscious to make decisions and choices that can be unjust. For example, “All of us participate in this system that protects white male power. As educators, we may be shocked to discover that we call on men more often in the classroom, yet this is one unconscious way in which teachers, where female or male, preserve male power” (Merriam and Bierema, 2014, p.224).

Reference:

Merriam, S.B. and Bierema, L.L. (2014). Adult learning: Linking theory and practice. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.