Week 4 | Teaching in a Diverse Classroom | PIDP 3260

In chapter 8 when it talks about “one group of students is field independent, liking to be left alone to plan and conduct necessary learning; another is field dependent, welcoming teacher direction and externally imposed structure.” (Brookfield, 2015, p. 98). I know I find myself going back and forth between being independent and dependent depending on the subject I am studying. While I am doing my computer science program right now, because I am still constantly learning all these new coding techniques, I find it a lot more helpful when I am dependent on the help of others. However, if I am doing courses like Math and English then I am more independent.

In Chapter 8 it also talked about getting students to “demonstrate their familiarity with, or knowledge of, certain key skills or concepts” (Brookfield, 2015, p. 100). When I was a coding teacher, I would give students surveys on how well they knew certain coding languages. This helped me understand where everyone skill level is at and how I can make sure that everyone catches up to speed. It also gives me a sense of what the diversity in skills in the classroom is like.

In chapter 8 when it talked about “no matter how much she might strive to empathise with different learning needs, racial traditions, and personality types, any individual teacher is inevitably limited by the boundaries of her own personality, learning, preferences, racial group membership, and experience” (Brookfield, 2015, p. 102). I do agree with this because everyone is really just limited to what they know and how they have been raised. This is why being a teacher is a learning process in itself as well. It just takes time to adjust to everyone’s needs and teachers eventually get better at what they are doing.

In chapter 8 when it talked about “deliberately mixing students of different ability levels, experiences, racial backgrounds, learning styles and personalities also bring benefits” (Brookfield, 2015, p. 104). I think it is important to get the teacher to force people to work with someone they might not have thought about working with because it will give the students a chance to see a new perspective. Most students just like to stick within their groups they know. So, breaking out of this cycle of just communicating with people who you are familiar with is really important to grow and learn to communicate with different people. I believe this will then help prepare them for the real world as well since we do not always know who we will work with when we get into a new job.

In chapter 8 it talks about how “mixing activities along each of the axes is complicated and can sometimes appear confusing to learners” (Brookfield, 2015, p. 105). I agree that sometimes it can feel like the class is jumping around. However, I do also believe that it is important to give a variety of ways of learning to students so they do not feel like everything is always the same. This then makes school feel less robotic. It will keep students alert when they feel like there are always new things that they need to try.

In chapter 8 when it talked about “a visually colleague can help by expressing ideas graphically and by encouraging students to provide their own visual depictions of central concepts” (Brookfield, 2015, p. 106). When I am teaching, I always make sure I have visuals to clearly illustrate where values are coming from in coding. I felt like when I was going through some computer science courses not all teachers were clear on how certain functions and variables work together. I wanted to make sure when I was teaching that I provided clear visuals for students to really see where the values are going and how it’s being passed over to different areas in the code.

In chapter 8 it talks about “in silent periods when students are told that speech is not permitted” (Brookfield, 2015, p. 107), since I am an introvert, I found these periods to be the most peaceful. I loved it when the classroom was quiet because it just allowed me to really think and formulate my thoughts. I found that when the classroom was too loud, I got headaches and I found it hard to concentrate.

In chapter 8, when it talked about “We cannot constantly transform ourselves into something we are not” (Brookfield, 2015, p. 108), I think this is true. I know when I started teaching at BCIT I thought I had to talk constantly throughout the entire class and be an extrovert. However, I eventually got extremely tired and overwhelmed trying to change myself. Instead, I just became more relaxed and really used my strengths as an advantage to how I manage my classes. I know that I could use the first half of the class to talk about the topic. Then leave the rest of the class for students to work on an exercise on their own.

Brookfield, S. D. (2015). The Skillful Teacher, On TEchnique, True and Responsiveness in the Classroom. Retrieved August 5, 2024