Multicultural Education Essay

Multicultural Education is becoming important in our society, because of the big social change in the United States; Americans have been forced to look at the cultural change in the schools. We have had to address multicultural education and the educational needs of our students which continue to be a struggle for educators. Multicultural education programs could be put into three categories. Content-focused, student focused, and socially focused. Content-focused is known to be the most common type of multicultural educational. The students are taught in the curriculum about different cultures. For example holidays. Student-focused programs address the academic needs of the minority groups of students. This approach helps the students integrate into the main stream of the school system. Socially focused programs are designed to develop knowledge among the different cultures in our schools. There are different learning Styles. Every student that comes in your classroom gains and uses the information in different ways: this is done by seeing, hearing, touching, analyzing. As our students are different so are the teaching styles which also may vary from person to person. I have learnt that if a teacher does not try to understand the students in their class there will be a problem passing on the knowledge to their students. and the students will become bored if they are not interested in the subject, it is up to the teacher to make it interesting so they can reach all students. I feel as a teacher you should try to incorporate a variety of different teaching styles into your lessons to help engage all students that will enable them to learn more effectively. Philosophy of Education  I believe that each child is special and they need a secure, caring, and stimulating environment in which to grow and mature emotionally, intellectually, physically, and socially. As an educator it is my duty to help students meet their full potential, and this can be done in by providing an environment that is safe, orderly, and invites a sharing of ideas. There are three ways that will help create such an environment in the classroom. †¢ the teacher acting as a guide †¢ allowing the child’s natural curiosity to direct his/her learning †¢ Promoting respect for all things and all people. The teacher’s role is to guide their students. If we give our student’s access to hands-on activities and allow them enough time to use materials that will reinforce the lesson we are teaching it will creates an opportunity for the students to find the information for themselves. Student life in school and at home Students usually separate their lives into different areas, doing the same things they do at home, and school. The things students learn during these various life stages will eventually be the foundation from which they can build their careers. Most students need to develop the skills they learn that they will use in their future professions. Almost every student in school will learn that the only way to get assignments done on time is by managing their time effectively. The Transition from elementary school to college is difficult for students, as they have to become independent quickly. Today’s classroom Class sizes have become too big in the America school system, and the people making the decisions are taking out the paraprofessionals that help the teachers in the classrooms. In my personal opinion I feel that the classrooms are overcrowded and this extends from the elementary schools to the high schools. Classes used to be smaller and the student teacher ratio helped achieve greater academic success. Some benefits of small class sizes are that the students receive more personal attention. Smaller class sizes will help a student that has a learning disability, and the needs of the other students would be met. A small number of students in the classroom can also help with less noise and disruptive behavior. Tracking Tracking seems to be a common practice in the United States, and allows a teacher to work with students that are on the same academic level. The Students are placed together in classrooms by using test scores. Tracking has been around for about a century and is used in most schools across the United States. I found out in my research that there are different types of tracks. For example there is high or low tracking, all the students in each class are on the same level. Tracking seems to be a good idea, but in reality it seems to be very complicated. One of the main problems is that the students in low tracks are largely populated with minority students, and the low tracks are not good for a student’s development. I also found out that it affects the teachers in different ways. Teachers teach in different styles to educate their students. The students in high track classrooms are taught the content of the curriculum and the students in the lower track classrooms just briefly cover different subjects. In other words the high track students are challenged and the low track students are not. Low track teachers seem to have low expectations of their students (Callahan 2005) and high track classrooms have a positive attitude which helps the students desire to learn (Hotter 2004) The classroom has become very culturally diverse with students from all over the world. I found out that the students who were in the low tracks were predominately minorities, and the high track students were Caucasians and Asians. The text book states† In a classic study done in the 1970s, Ray Rest Observed a kindergarten class in an all-black urban school. By the eighth day Of class, the kindergarten teacher, apparently using such criteria as physical Appearance, socioeconomic status, and language usage, had separated her students Into groups of â€Å"fast learners† and â€Å"slow learners. † She spent more time With the â€Å"fast learners† and gave them more instruction and encouragement. The â€Å"slow learners† got more than their fair share of control and ridicule. The children soon began to mirror the teacher’s behavior. As the â€Å"fast learners† Belittled the â€Å"slow learners,† the low-status children began to exhibit Attitudes of self-degradation and hostility toward one another. This teacher’s Expectations, was formed during the first eight days of school, and this shaped the Academic and social treatment of the students in her classroom for the rest of the school year. Records of the grouping that had taken place during the first week of kindergarten which was then passed on to the teachers in the upper grades, providing the basis for further differential treatment. † (Sadker, Zittleman pg. 106. ) This is true because working in the school system you here teachers telling other teachers about the students they have in their classrooms, and what to expect if they come into their classrooms. In conclusion I found out that tracking is not the main problem it has its positive and negative points. I believe that if all students had the equal opportunity of a good early education there would be more students excelling in our schools. For example if all students had the opportunity to attend preschool it would help the students from being put into high or low track groups as all children would have the same opportunity in education my opinion is that detracking would help all students work and learn from each other no matter what their level is in the classroom.