Running Head: STATEMENT OF INFORMED BELIEFS 1

Statement of Informed Beliefs

Denise Hanson
Instructor: Evin Fox
EDUC 204: Families, Communities, and Culture
Spring 2014

STATEMENT OF INFORMED BELIEFS 2

Statement of Informed Beliefs
Introduction
"We may have different religions, different languages, different colored skin, but we
all belong to one human race" (Annan, 1997-2006, para. 9). When it comes to the human race,
we are a diverse people. We are all different in our looks, how we act, and what we do, but we
are all human; we all eat, drink, love, grow and learn. Everyone, no matter who they are, has the
ability to learn when they have a desire, the proper encouragement and opportunity to do so.
Through this paper, I hope to give an insight into a students ability to learn, the students social
ecology, cultural diversity and how a teacher can provide the support and curriculum needed for
all learners to succeed.
Students Ability to Learn
Everyone, no matter who they are, has the ability to learn. It does not matter how old
a person is, his/her color of skin, what religion he/she is a part of, or how intelligent he/she is;
every person is capable of learning. There are situations, however, that makes it difficult for
some people to learn. At times this is due to their cognitive development. Some people are born
with or develop learning disabilities that make learning a more difficult task. Other times it
is because he/she has unfavorable conditions at home or negative influences in his/her life, such
as peer pressure or the media. However, it is the responsibility of a teacher to understand these
situations and be able to create an atmosphere that will give each diverse student his/her greatest
chance to be successful.
As a teacher, a person is responsible for creating the learning environment where he/she
understands the childrens needs, interests, and abilities and where he/she can provide positive
feedback and reinforcement. A teacher is part of the childs socialization process and as such
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needs to be a good influence for the children and encourage him/her to learn. A teacher also
needs to understand that each child has different learning styles. According to our text, Berns
(2013) states, Best teachers make students want to learn and reinforce their efforts, while
worst teachers turn students off (p. 216). In order to be the best teacher a person needs to
adapt to each students learning style and the pace of his/her learning to give all students the
opportunity to grow.
A teacher is one of the most influential socializing agents, aside from the students
family. A student spends more time at school, aside from home, than any other place for the first
several years of his/her life. The teachers expectation of a students ability often influences how
much effort a child puts forth towards his/her education. If a teacher does not expect much of a
student, the student will recognize this and wont try as hard. However, if a teacher expects too
much of a student, then the teacher is setting the student up for failure. It is extremely important
for a teacher to teach within the childs zone of proximal development, an important part of
Vygotskys theory. Additionally, a teacher is to then build on the childs zone while
giving positive reinforcement and feedback to the student. This helps the child understand what
he/she is capable of and how to complete his/her goals. Furthermore, this helps develop the
students self-concept and will help the student with challenges later in life.
Students Social Ecology Theory
A students social ecology is also a great influence in his/her learning process.
Bronfenbrenners bioecological model of human development (1994) states there are four
basic structures of a students social context; microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, and
macrosystem. Each of these four structures interacts in some way with the others and has great
influence on the learning of the student and on that students chronosystem.
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Families, community, and culture all impact a students learning. A family is the most
important impact because they are the first people, friends, loved ones that a child is introduced
to. A supportive and loving family helps the child form an attachment to those members of
his/her family, which later helps to create a high self-efficacy that helps him/her to understand
that he/she can achieve tasks later in life. The culture of the family also has an impact on a
students learning. In some cultures, education is a very important part of the familys life,
however, in some it is not. It is important to understand, as a teacher, which families are going to
be involved with the childs learning and which are not, to help make up the difference in each.
In order to provide students with the best possible education, the Microsystems, school
and family, must be joined. It is essential that a teacher knows the family situation of each
student and to interact with his/her parents. A teacher can call the parents for advice or help
when dealing with the students, inform the parents of how the student is doing in class, and
recognize that families have diverse structures and parenting styles that influence how much
the parent is involved in his/her childs education.
Cultural Diversity Instruction
In order to instruct students in cultural diversity, a teacher much use creativity, extra
effort, and diligence. There are so many diverse cultures that it can be an intimidating task.
However, it can be done and is a vital key to being a successful teacher. Teachers that are able to
teach diverse cultures succeed in creating multicultural classrooms, and help the students
understand that diversity is not a bad thing, but in fact, is exciting.
As a teacher, and as a human being, a person must be open to the idea of cultural
diversity because if he/she is struggling to accept it, how does he/she expect his/her students to.
In order to be open, a teacher must get to know his/her students, inside and out; get to know
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his/her cultures and his/her traditions. If the teacher shows enthusiasm towards diversity, the
students will as well. This will also help the teacher to understand why a student acts a certain
way, or how to help a student learn better by using his/her cultural background to guide them.
By being open and understanding to different cultures, the classroom will be more open to
communication, where the teacher and the students will be able to talk about different aspects of
their culture. Whereas, if the teacher were to be closed-minded and run the classroom as a
cultural assimilation where he/she only focus on the English or American cultures, the teacher
would lose communication and openness of the students.
Another way a teacher can incorporate cultural diversity in the classroom is to
incorporate the language and culture of all the diverse students into the curriculum. One way to
do this is to take time in the classroom to learn more about each of the students cultures and
create a cultural pluralism within the students. This could be by learning the language or having
the students do reports on these cultures. This will help students have a mutual appreciation and
understanding of the different cultures and why it is important to coexist in society. Another way
to incorporate diversity is to make sure the classroom library has books about each of the
different cultures as well as books that are published by people of different cultures. This sets an
example to students that it doesnt matter who you are or where you come from, everyone is
important. By building diverse programs, showing appreciation for and acknowledging those
differences, discovering the diversity in the classroom and avoiding stereotypes, (Boutte and
McCormick, 1992, para. 8) a teacher can lead a successful culturally diverse classroom.
Curriculum for all Learners
As in most areas in life, some things work and some things dont and a teacher will have
to be prepared to make adjustments in planning, delivery and assessments. There will also be
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situations that come up where a student will need more attention or cannot accomplish a task.
This may be because of a disability or a language barrier or some other circumstance that the
teacher will need to provide an accommodation for. The question is how to determine when an
accommodation is needed?
In order to fully understand if students need an accommodation, I will first need to have
some form of assessment. At the beginning of the school year, I will have a pre-evaluation for
each of the students to see where they are starting at. This will help me understand which type of
learner they are and how much knowledge content they have. At that point I will create a plan to
teach students the same core concepts, but adapt them to the students learning profile.
Throughout the year, I will do assessments to see if the students are learning by testing them on
the increase of knowledge content. I will then identify and evaluate the areas the student is not
meeting and determine if it is content or a classroom format problem. If the problem is that the
student does not understand the content, I will take steps to test for a learning disability and get
the parents involved. If in fact it is a learning disability, the parents and I will look into getting an
IEP for the student. If I determine that it is in fact a format problem then I will adjust my
teaching method and/or materials for the child or class as a whole. After implementing the
adaptation, I will continue to assess the students to see where they are at by
evaluating their progress.
Another great way to assess the students is to let each student evaluate himself/herself.
This not only provides me with information, it also allows the student to help determine if he/she
feels he/she is learning or not and whether he/she is putting forth the effort needed to gain more
knowledge.

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Conclusion
Families, communities, and culture impact the learning of children dramatically. Families
and culture influence children from the time they are born. A childs community influences
him/her from the time he/she starts getting friends and years after that. A teacher influences
children on a daily basis as soon as the child starts school. It is the teachers responsibility to
help the child develop a sense of unity between the home and their time in school. We live in a
diverse world filled with many cultures and in each of these cultures are children that deserve to
have the best education. Every child can learn, no matter who they are, where they come from, or
how intelligent they are; they can all learn when they have a desire, proper encouragement and
opportunity to do so. As a teacher I will give every student the opportunity to learn, no matter
what their social ecology or cultural diversity is; I will provide a curriculum to all learners.

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References
Berns Roberta M. (2013) Child, Family, School, Community: Socialization and Support.
Wadsworth, Cengage Learning: Linda Schreiber-Ganster
Biography Online (n.d).Unity in Diversity. Retrieved from
http://www.biographyonline.net/spiritual/unity-diversity.html
Boutte, Gloria S. and Christine McCormick. "Authentic Multicultural Activities: Avoiding
Pseudomulticulturalism" Childhood Education 68 (1992): 140-44.