The Influence of Diversity in the Classroom

The Influence of Diversity in the Classroom

The current climate in university campuses is rather heterogeneous as a result of students’ diversity. This is an important issue that appeals to the teachers and students to find appropriate ways to create friendly relationships and atmosphere in the classrooms. It is a well-known fact that students have better opportunities for travel and study in foreign countries. Obviously, they face different challenges in the new environments and need special experience, skills and attention. The role of teachers as student leaders has become obvious and needs in-depth investigation. Teachers are responsible for creating an inclusive classroom environment that enables students from different cultures and backgrounds to adopt in the classroom environment and succeed in their studies. The growing number of immigrants in the United States leads to the diverse classroom environment. However, the teaching force has become less diverse.

Diverse Needs of Students

Nowadays, heterogeneous classrooms have become a norm in the United States and many other countries. That is why it has become obvious that educators are worried about interrelationships between people of different races, cultures and religions. In fact, diversity has become a real problem, especially at high schools. Powell and Powell observe that although most teachers are ready to meet all needs and demands of diverse students, many problems still exist in the educational institutions. Many educators consider that it is necessary to implement more effective programs at schools, colleges, and universities in order to satisfy all needs of diverse students. Teachers understand that they should consider problems of students from the developing countries, poor backgrounds and disabled students. The history of American education has shown that diversity in classrooms is not a new phenomenon. The country’s public education, for example, has received much since early colonial times. Thus, black students are not oppressed in modern days. However, many professionals argue that the nation’s educational system is not perfect and needs further improvements.

Good teaching requires a perfect relationship in the classroom. It is a relationship between a teacher and a student in the process of learning. Teachers who are able to understand the specific and diverse needs of their students can become real leaders in the classroom environments. Moreover, this is a relationship between students who need a lot of special skills and values in order to communicate with each other in a friendly manner. Oftentimes, in a diverse classroom environment, students’ unique cultures do not incorporate into the classroom setting. Modern education philosophy encompasses the view that educators should do everything possible with the aim to create a positive classroom environment for students from diverse cultural, ethnical, economical, and religious groups. Admittedly, many professionals observe that in the age of modern technology, face-to-face teaching can have a great contribution into the learning process. The implementation of e-learning within blended environments helps students to create more productive tools in order to succeed in their study.

Teachers’ Support

Actually, every student who comes from different backgrounds feels somehow uncomfortable in a new classroom environment. Moreover, many of them keep feeling this for a long time. Thus, teachers’ support is an inevitable task of every educator in all institutional establishments. There are different factors that can influence teachers’ authority and the classroom. An effective classroom management requires special teaching skills and abilities. There are numerous effective management principles to be applied in the classroom, which are as follows:

•     Students must follow rules of the certain institutional affiliation and never break these rules.

•     All students should be involved into the classroom or campus activity in order to express their talents and interests.

•     Discipline should become a law for each student.

•     Teachers should help students to create self-control and self-awareness in the diverse classroom setting.

Following these guidelines, students and teachers should communicate with each other in an efficient and effective manner. Moreover, proactive behavior should be implemented in the diverse classroom setting that will enable teachers to support their students. Positive attitude to students as well as to life in a whole is also equitable.

Many professionals argue that the most important role a teacher plays is a role of classroom leader and manager. Students need leaders who can organize them for better learning activity. Many studies mention that talented classroom leader helps students from diverse groups and with different abilities to work as a team. Relationships with peers are for many students more important than relationships with teachers. Though, there are many new ways of learning, such as e-learning, for example, the traditional classroom learning is considered to be more effective. In doing so, diverse students learn how to communicate with each other, build personal and business relations, and many other important things that they could implement in their future lives and careers.

Students’ Diversity Problems

According to the research, teachers oftentimes ill prepared for diversity in the classroom. Thus, those teachers who have low expectations of students from different cultures and backgrounds may fail in their professional activity. Moreover, some teachers share racial behavior, which complicates the problem of diversity in the classroom setting. Admittedly, today’s classroom environment requires teachers who can treat all students with respect regardless of their income, race, religious beliefs, and cultural background. Some scholars consider that many teachers discriminate students who have different backgrounds from their own. This has become a real problem in many institutional establishments in the United States as well in other multinational countries such as Great Britain, Germany, France, etc. However, there are many teachers who support students from different ethnicities, backgrounds, and treat them with respect. Therefore, it is truly important for learning achievements of every individual student who tends to receive in-depth knowledge, adapt in a new culture, and attain their social and economic status through learning.

Unfortunately, some teachers lack cross-cultural skills, experience, knowledge, and professional ethics what, consequently, creates different cross-cultural problems in the diverse classroom setting. Therefore, special programs should be implemented in order to educate teachers to communicate with diverse students appropriately in order to avoid conflicts and different unforeseen situations. Diverse students from different immigrant groups tend to be involved in a new cultural environment as soon as they can. Thus, many of them try to assimilate with their American peers and the classroom environment. Furthermore, diverse physical and mental abilities of some categories of students can be humiliated by their peers, thus, teachers should be ready to negotiate any conflicts and create a positive atmosphere in their classrooms. However, not all teachers are quite aware of how to become leaders among their students. It is important to mention that they have a variety of choices to succeed in this by taking different training courses. For example, they can provide different meeting and after-class activities in order to create better relations with students as well as among students.

It has become a common practice for students and teachers to communicate with diverse student communities in schools, colleges, and universities all over the USA and other developed countries. This process may be a rather challenging one. Nowadays, the influence of diversity is rather obvious. There are different reasons for this, such as cultural, religious, economical, racial and other differences. The role of the teacher is to become a leader and manager in a diverse classroom environment in order to enhance the learning process. Moreover, teachers are responsible for creating an inclusive classroom environment that enables students from different cultures and backgrounds to adopt in the classroom environment and succeed in their study.

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