Paper Topic:

Defining Content and Strategies to Teach Reading

Diversity and Education According to Vytgotsky and Bruner

America 's student populations are increasingly reflective of an ethnically diverse society . However , we recognize that there are several major variables for improving the multicultural accommodation apparent in a school . Bruner and Vytgotsky lend this discussion some useful insight concerning such variables . Chief among them , the diversity of faculty , of learning content and of learning media all are directly relevant to the school 's embrace of difference . As the immigrant population continues not only to rise but to diversify in the United States

, our educational system , and indeed , our nation has in many contexts attempted to enforce a degree of cultural uniformity inclined to either assimilate or exclude incoming cultures Standardized testing , rigid curriculum design and poor representation amongst teachers and administrators of a diverse student population have all had the impact of white-washing American education . In the urban setting such as the case at hand , this can be especially problematic with such failures of institution causing vulnerable students to disengage

Vytgotsky contributes an important idea to this discussion , referring us to the relevance of effective pedagogy in engaging such students One of the best ways to accomplish this is through group activity . We have a core understanding of the fact that diversity implies not just a diversity of ethnicity or culture but also of potential learning styles or strategy . Vytgotsky offers an effective way to use this diversity to the advantage of the classroom . Group activity is always an effective way to help distill strategies and strengths for individuals . By strategically grouping students according to aptitude and academic strength , we enable stronger learners to directly engage weaker learners in a way that helps to effectively communicate concepts and ideas in play . Vytgotsky essentially contends that there is value to the less effective student of being partnered with a more skilled learner . This interaction can be beneficial to the aptitude of the former and can help the latter develop innate leadership skills

The focus of such legislation as No Child Left Behind does not leave a great deal of freedom or latitude for the urban school to engage in such activities however . There seems at present to be an impulse of standardization directly opposite the need for diversity celebration Some of the root causes of the failure of our educational system to accommodate diversity as it cuts across multiple demographic lines are resultant of the instruments used to promote student aptitude measurements (McCarty , 1 ) Primarily , the ability or interest of teachers to accommodate diversity is stunted by the entrenched presence of institutional prejudices that shape testing standards , curricular design and instructional method in a way that embraces standardization legislative mandate and procedural uniformity (McCarty , 1

One of the most heavily-recognized and persistent of such conflicts may be observed still today in the genuine lack of equality in the cultural standards applied to teaching African Americans . Particularly , there is a fundamental failure in the content choices which shape curricula such as those concerning...

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