The effects of discrimination, bullying, alienation, and violence of students and the learning environment

Discrimination, bullying, alienation, and violence of students affect the learning environment in many different ways. All of these things have a negative effect on learning. Discrimination, bullying, and alienation can make a student feel singled out or alone. This may bring their self-esteem levels down, which, in turn, may affect their confidence in their schoolwork and make it more difficult for them to try again and learn from their mistakes on a concept if they do not understand it for they first time. Discrimination, bullying, alienation, and violence are all very big distractions in the classroom. They make it so students cannot concentrate on the lesson. These actions are all major obstacles that a teacher has to face in the classroom. A teacher needs to put forth their best efforts to eliminate or counteract these kinds of negative and hurtful actions. To minimize these actions and their effects, a teacher needs to create a safe and supportive learning environment inside the classroom. A teacher should make an effort to do disciplinary action the first time any of these actions are seen to show that it is not tolerated under any circumstances. Many times these actions can occur when students are bored, if these kinds of actions seem to recur, make an effort to keep the students busy. If things do not get better, the teacher can always have a parent-teacher conference to try to get the parents involved to eliminate these behaviors. Dealing with these actions can vary from student to student and each student can react differently to disciplinary action.

Things that can shape the teaching and learning process

A person’s personal value system, attributes, stereotypes, and prejudices can shape the teaching and learning process greatly. These things affect a person’s behavior and how they act. When teaching, a person may make decisions based on personal value systems, attributes, stereotypes, or prejudices, even if they are subconscious or not intentional. These subconscious or not intentional decisions may affect who is called on or how a topic is presented. For example, if a teacher is slightly uncomfortable or not used to being around with people with disabilities, even if they make an effort not to show it, they may subconsciously choose not to call on a student in their class who has a disability. Also, another example is if a teacher begins to like one student over another, they may also call on them more frequently than the other students, even without knowledge of it. Even the way a teacher was raised with their parents can impact how a teacher teaches. If a teacher was raised with a racist parent, there may be some prejudiced influence of them that may come out in their teacher. A teacher could grade one student more harshly than another based on their race, gender, or any other traits.

Family and Community Among Diverse Students

Family and community are key influences upon the needs of diverse students in schools. They affect how the student act in school and how the students react to school interactions. If a student has a dysfunctional family and the family is not interested in the child’s schooling, it can be very detrimental to the child’s education and the child is less likely to succeed in school. A parent and other family members need to support a child’s education in school. For example, allowing a child to stay up late, not do homework, or not feed them well balanced meals can affect what happens in school. It makes it so they are not ready to learn or focus or do not know the material as well as necessary. Another thing that can affect students is family quarrels. Family quarrels can divert a student’s concentration away from school work. Family can also affect a student positively. They can encourage a student to do better in school. I a student’s parents, other family members, or other important people in a community take the time to sit down with a student and read with them, or help them with their homework, it can make the biggest difference and help them to learn more and improve their reading and learning skills. Family and community influence a child and teach them about their culture, where they come from, and what their roots are. The influences are both positive and negative.

Teaching of Students with Exceptionalities

There are many ways a teacher can help students with exceptionalities to learn. The first thing a teacher can do is look into the students records and learn as much as they can about the student from the students academic history. From there you can establish an understanding of what learning level a student is on and what skills a student has mastered and has missed. The frustration level of a student is then analyzed. Starting at the fundamental skills, it is important to understand where a student is coming from and to build from it. A student can be taught one on one to get their skills to the level they need to be at. Also, a student may be put in small groups for the same type of learning. Behavior can be a big problem if not addressed appropriately. The student’s behavior issues need to be based on their exceptionalities. For example, you cannot scold a student who may have Tourette Syndrome for speaking out in class, so long as it is due to his or her exceptionalities. Being positive is very important when working with students with exceptionalities. Many of the students with exceptionalities may have self-esteem problems and being positive will help them boost their self-esteem so they will have more confidence in the activities they are doing. As a teacher, you must also figure out what triggers a student’s behavior. Using all these tools will help a classroom of exceptional student s flow more smoothly.

Laws affecting students from diverse populations.

There are many federal and state law that affect students from diverse populations. In 1982, the Supreme Court ruled in Plyler vs. Doe that undocumented children have the right to seek public education and that educators cannot ask about their or their parents’ immigration status. The Civil Rights Act of 1964 banned discrimination in schools, employment, and public accommodations. The Supreme Court decision in Brown vs. Board of Education began the effort for schools to not be segregated. In 1973, the Rehabilitation Act calls for educational equity for individuals with disabilities. In 1974, the case of Lau vs. Nichols gave English language learners the right to have instruction that meets their specialized needs. In 2003, a Supreme Court ruling overturned the last anti-homosexual law. Title IX made it illegal to discriminate against women and girls in educational programs. In the Federal District Court ruling of Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children vs. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, it ruled that all children between the ages of six and twenty-one must be provided free education. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act required free and appropriate education for all children with disabilities. All these rulings and law the government has introduced show the ways it has tried to make education better and available for everyone. With a better educated youth, this country could do great things.

Characteristics of Various Student Exceptionalities

There are six different categories of student exceptionalities. Those categories are: intellectual, communicative, sensory, behavioral, physical, or multiple. Intellectual exceptionalities are exceptionalities that include higher intelligence and students who are slow to learn. Communicative exceptionalities are prevalent in students with speech or language impairments. Students with sensory exceptionalities have auditory or visual disabilities. Behavioral exceptionalities are common in students who are emotionally disturbed or socially maladjusted. Physical exceptionalities include students with orthopedic or mobility disabilities. Many students have multiple exceptionalities. Theses exceptionalities can impact student learning and achievement in many different ways. In any one average-sized classroom, the likelihood is that there will be 3 or 4 students with at least one exceptionality. A student who has intellectual exceptionalities may take longer to learn material or may need to be taught in a different way to learn the lesson. A student with communicative exceptionalities, certain attention may have to be given to the student to make sure they understand the material. Students with sensory exceptionalities may be blind or deaf. The student will have to learn other ways to learn by learning Braille and using it. Students with behavioral exceptionalities will need to be treated more sensitively in a way that will help them the most. Students with physical exceptionalities may have a difficult time using their motor skills so special adjustments may need to be made.

Identify methods and benefits of culturally-responsive teaching.

Culturally responsive teaching is a teaching method that involves the students and relates the lesson to the students lives. Culturally responsive teaching connects the lesson and activities at school and allows the student to bring them into their home. When used in literature, you might choose passages or stories that reflect multiple ethnic views. When used in math, you might incorporate concepts used in everyday life. Culturally responsive teaching can show students that there is no one specific version of a lesson that is true all the time. A benefit to using culturally responsive teaching is that you can teach students that learn several different ways in one lesson. This is very helpful for students in special education. This is also helpful for students in English for Speakers of Other Languages. They may interpret things differently than the average student would. Involving the lesson and incorporating it into their daily life instills the understanding that they can use the lesson in and out of school. Teaching English for Speaker of Other Languages with culturally responsive teaching methods would be the most beneficial, if not essential. Learning the English language and American customs can be difficult. Taking our customs and putting them in a way that English for Speakers of Other Language can understand, relate with, and utilize would help them learn the lesson to their greatest ability.

Compare and contrast differences and similarities among cultures.

There are many differences and similarities among all the different cultures. For example, in American culture obesity is a big issue. Many other countries do not have as big of an issue with obesity as Americans. We emphasize consuming fast, even though we know it is bad for us. Another issue, even the United States, is homosexuality. Depending on where you go in the United States and how you were raised, homosexuality can be accepted or not. Across the globe, gender roles have the same basic stereotype. The women stay home and cook, clean, do the shopping, and take care of the children. Women’s gender roles are stereotyped as housewives while the men go to work and make the money to provide for the wife and children. Men are also many times stereotyped as being strong and powerful. As men are stereotyped as being powerful, women are stereotyped as being weak and helpless. They are stereotyped as needing to be rescued and taken care of by men. Another difference among different cultures is they degree to which individualism is encouraged. Many countries, like the United States, encourage individualism. They encourage people to be themselves and to be unique. However, many other countries look down on individualism and encourage collectivism, for example, China.

What Cultural Diversity Means to Me Today

In my opinion, cultural diversity in any society is a must. As far as teachers go, being able to be a living example of how to deal with the growing number of diverse cultures in a classroom is essential. Children learn from watching others. Not only do teachers need to be aware of cultural diversity and respecting cultural diversity, but also everyone should respect cultural diversity. People need to show actions that are supportive of diversity and can lead by example. Teachers need to have open minds and should teach children to be open minded as well. In my opinion, being open-minded alone is not good enough. Teachers need to be willing to understand the diverse nature of different cultures and should research diverse cultures and new ways to help their students. All students are from different cultures and backgrounds and may not react or understand things in the same way. I believe that assimilation is not the way this country needs to be headed. I think that America needs to value that we are such a diverse group of people and use this diversity to grow so that people become more tolerant and understanding of people who may seem different from us. There are many places in this world where there are only a handful of different cultures present. Americans are lucky to be able to experience many different cultures from many different parts of the world including the ones developed right here in America, sometimes all in one day. Americans should nurture our cultural diversity as it allows people to respect their heritage and others’ heritages at the same time.