The following are the objectives of this chapter:

1. Describe the characteristics that are likely to exist among individuals that arise from differences in gender, ethnic, and socioeconomic background.
   
   
2. Define cultural literacy and describe how it relates to student achievement and to effective instruction.
   
   
3. Define intelligence, describe how it can be measured, and indicate ways in which this concept can contribute to effective instruction.
   
   
4. Describe strategies for grouping and educating students with various levels of ability.
   
   
5. Describe what is meant by learning styles and cognitive styles and identify ways in which these influence the instructional process.
   
   
6. Describe the main categories of exceptionalities in special education, and describe the major educational needs of students with the following exceptionalities:
   
   a. mental retardation
   b. learning disabilities
   c. emotional disorder
   d. communication disorder
   e. behavioral disorder
   f. attention deficit disorder
   
   
7. Describe the purposes and the major strategies for mainstreaming students with special needs.
   
   
8. Describe the major strategies for identifying and educating gifted and talented students.

Cultural Diversity

Although the topic of cultural diversity is specifically treated in this chapter, aspects of this important topic have been discussed elsewhere throughout this book. The following table summarizes and cross-references this additional information.

Concept	Summary	Chapter
Parental involvement	When involving parents of children from involuntary minorities in the education of their children, it is important to both (1) be aware of the cultural characteristics of the parents and children and (2)enlist the assistance of the parents in making the community environment supportive of learning.	2
Human Development	Cultural identity is a characteristic that undergoes development throughout the life span.	4
Motivation		5
Thinking Skills		7
Classroom Management		13

1.Which of the following statements does the author believe to be true regarding cultural differences?

a.When a teacher's personal impression of a person is contradicted by what research says about that person's cultural tendencies, the teacher should normally revise that impression on the basis of what research says will be true.

b.The generalizations about cultural characteristics should provide the basis for general planning, but these plans should be changed based on personal experience with individual members of cultures.

c.Differences arising from cultural backgrounds have no practical implications for classroom education.

d.Both a and c

e.All of the above

2.Which of the following does the author NOT list as an important factor to explain the possible negative impact of low socioeconomic status on classroom instruction?

a.negative stereotyping by teachers

b.school-related values and behaviors shown by parents

c.absence of stimulating items related to school in the homes

d.threats to basic needs (such as hunger and safety)

e.All of the above ARE listed as important factors.

3.Robert has trouble seeing similarities and differences among various concepts in his social studies class. He is experiencing a weakness in what aspect of intelligence?

a.Metacomponents

b.Performance components

c.Knowledge acquisition components

d.Cultural literacy components

4.John is a very bright junior in high school. His score on an IQ test was 145. Mary does equally well in school, but her IQ score was only 110. They are both in a class called Advanced Mathematics, in which they study aspects of mathematics not normally covered until college. Both of them understand the concepts and do well in the course. Any student who wants to take the Advanced Math course and can pass the basic entrance test is permitted to take the course. Does research indicate that this is an acceptable form of ability grouping?

a.Yes

b.No

5.Adam did well in school until this year. He is now in the sixth grade, and for the first time he has departmentalized courses - that is, he moves to different teachers for different subjects. He does well in all his subjects except math. In math, he got off to a bad start by playing around too much with some disruptive friends in the first weeks, when the basic concepts were covered. Because he did not understand these basic concepts, he was unable to learn subsequent material effectively; and so, he fell further and further behind. Does it sound like Adam has a learning disability?

a.No. There is evidence that his problem is something other than a learning disability.

b.Yes. There is convincing evidence that he has a learning disability.

c.Yes. It is very probable that he has a learning disability, but further testing should be conducted to verify this.

Key Ideas

This fill-in-the-blanks exercise can be a useful way to verify that you can recall and understand the main concepts covered in this chapter. When the answers you give differ from those in the answer key, think about it. If your answer is as good as mine, that's great! However, there's a good chance that in many cases my answer may be better than yours. Try to find the logic behind my answer. The more actively you think - by looking for reasons and explanations - the more valuable this exercise will be for you.)

(Also note that after you have filled in the blanks, this set of Key Ideas provides a good summary of the chapter.

1. When researchers make a statement about group characteristics, such a generalization is merely a ___________ statement about individuals within that group.
   
   
2. Educators can benefit from understanding the research about group characteristics by making ___________ and ___________ plans based on this research; but they should be ready to modify, adapt, or abandon these plans in the face of more specific evidence.
   
   
3. It is important for educators and prospective educators to examine their own personal histories and educational biographies for clues to ways in which their beliefs and experiences are likely to limit their ___________ in working with persons who differ from themselves in important ways.
   
   
   
4. Diversity of students with regard to important characteristics often leads to ___________ in the classroom:
   
   
5. Since it is virtually impossible to avoid diversity in the classroom, it is better to refer to diverse characteristics as ___________ or as factors that educators need to take into consideration rather than as "problems."
   
   
6. Cultural and other types of diversity are likely to present problems in classrooms unless teachers and curriculum designers take into consideration and deal effectively with the potential ___________ associated with diversity.
   
   
7. The advantages of classroom diversity are not likely to occur unless teachers and curriculum designers ___________ to ensure that they will occur.
   
   
8. Educators should implement strategies deliberately designed to integrate into effective ___________ students with diverse characteristics.
   
   
9. ___________ learning is often a very effective strategy for integrating students with diverse characteristics into a classroom environment without lowering the achievement of any of the students.
   
   
10. Research suggests that ___________ American students often value oral experiences and physical activities. In addition, loyalty in interpersonal relationships may be highly valued.
    
    
    
11. Research suggests that ___________ American students are often comfortable with cognitive generalizations and patterns. Family and personal relationships are often important to them.
    
    
12. Research suggests that ___________ American students often value and develop acute visual discrimination skills and use visual imagery and have reflective thinking patterns.
    
    
13. Research suggests that ___________ American students often value independence, analytic thinking, linear logic, objectivity, and accuracy. They often enjoy competition, and are often motivated by tests and grades.
    
    
14. Most of the differences between boys and girls arise out of differences in ___________.
    
    
15. On the average females demonstrate greater verbal aptitude than males.
    
    
16. On the average males demonstrate greater ___________ aptitude and greater ___________ aptitude than females.
    
    
17. On the average males and females are about equally likely to be ___________.
    
    
18. Hyde has conducted an extensive meta-analysis of mathematical differences between boys and girls and has found that there are ___________ differences worth being concerned about.
    
    
19. Teachers of both sexes tend to interact ___________ with boys and to ask them ___________ questions - especially more abstract questions
    
    
20. The term ___________ refers to the pattern of behaviors and beliefs characteristic of a particular group of people.
    
    
21. There is ___________ evidence that students learn better when teachers take into consideration cultural characteristics of their students.
    
    
22. Teachers who understand the culture of their students will be able to ___________ them more effectively and will have fewer discipline problems arising from ___________.
    
    
23. Both the specific ___________ emphasized by a culture and more general ___________ such as learning styles and experience with problem solving are important factors in how information should be structured and presented to students.
    
    
24. Ignoring the influence of culture would be a serious mistake; but focusing too heavily on the culture may cause us to lose sight of the ___________.
    
    
25. Any individual is likely to be a member of ___________.
    
    
26. A child whose ancestors were brought to the United States as slaves would probably be a member of an ___________ minority group; whereas a child whose ancestors came to the United States to seek a better way of life would probably be a member of a ___________ minority group.
    
    
27. For their own protection members of involuntary minority groups tend to develop social/collective identities and cultural frames of reference that are ___________ to the dominant majority.
    
    
28. Ogbu suggests that schools and society make it especially difficult for ___________ minority students to be successful.
    
    
29. A major difference between the two types of students is that the involuntary minority students are likely to employ ___________ of learning or to be ___________ by factors that are quite different from those of voluntary minority or non-minority students.
    
    
30. Involuntary majority students are often faced with the unpleasant dilemma that trying to succeed within the dominant culture is viewed as a ___________ of their own culture, and there are serious ___________ costs for rejecting one's own culture.
    
    
31. It is important to teach children from involuntary minority cultures to separate behaviors that lead to ___________ success from those that lead to rejection of their culture.
    
    
32. ___________ refers to the degree to which a person is familiar with the major concepts considered to be important within a culture.
    
    
33. ___________ groups consist of individuals who have a shared sense of identity, usually because of a common racial background or place of personal or ancestral origin.
    
    
34. When desegregation involves transferring minority students to high-quality schools with mostly middle-class students, the minority students tend to perform.
    
    
35. The income, occupation, education, and prestige of parents in society is often referred to as ___________.
    
    
36. Boykin found that students from lower SES families were (1) ___________ interested in competition and more drawn to cooperation and (2) ___________ willing or able to work for delayed rather than immediate rewards.
    
    
37. ___________ is a general term that refers to strategies for trying to help children from low-income families "compensate" for their academic weaknesses and learn more effectively.
    
    
38. It's fairly obvious that there is such a thing as intelligence, that it's at least partly an ___________ characteristic, and that it is ___________ influenced by a person's environment.
    
    
39. The intelligence test score of a student is one of the ___________ useful characteristics for teachers to know about in terms of actually making plans regarding how to help a student learn.
    
    
40. The term ___________ refers to the tendency of a test to give inappropriately low scores to people from a particular culture.
    
    
41. ___________ of intelligence supervise the other intellectual components in carrying out cognitive activities.
    
    
42. ___________ components of intelligence are the specific skills that are employed in solving problems - such as inferring relationships, mentally manipulating objects and ideas, and deductive reasoning.
    
    
43. ___________ components of intelligence are skills used in acquiring new information.
    
    
44. Howard Gardner has proposed that it is more useful to think of ___________ human capabilities rather than a single factor that can be labeled intelligence.
    
    
45. When we assign students to classes in tracks, this is referred to as ___________ ability grouping, or tracking.
    
    
46. Once students are assigned to tracks, they usually stay within that ___________ for all subjects and perhaps for the rest of their school career.
    
    
47. Research shows that in most schools students are assigned to the tracks on the basis of very ___________ assessment strategies.
    
    
48. Between-class grouping is also referred to as ___________ grouping
    
    
49. The main reason for the failure of tracking is that good things that could happen to ___________ ability students, usually do not really occur.
    
    
50. Two serious problems with between-class ability grouping are (1) placements are often ___________ and (2) placement in tracks tends to be ___________ and detrimental to students in lower tracks.
    
    
51. It is best to group students on the basis of ability only for ___________ purposes. The research shows the most severe negative impacts for tracking occur when schools track across multiple subject areas.
    
    
52. It is best to group students on the basis of characteristics ___________ to the task at hand.
    
    
53. Research does not say that a class on "Advanced Placement Mathematics" is a ___________ idea. The bad idea is assigning students to that class on the basis of IQ scores or English scores and locking students into "lower" tracks with ___________ teachers, inadequate materials, and lower expectations because they did not qualify for that course.
    
    
54. ___________ (mixed-ability) grouping combined with cooperative learning or some other strategy to deal with individual differences appears to accomplish most of the desired benefits that ability grouping is supposed to achieve without the negative side effects.
    
    
55. Although the research evidence indicates that between-class ability grouping is generally ineffective, the evidence suggests that ___________ ability grouping is often a very good strategy.
    
    
56. With ___________ ability grouping, students are scheduled into classes heterogeneously - without ability grouping. Then, for specific purposes, they ___________ themselves into small groups within their own class to work on specific tasks and assignments with classmates of comparable ability.
    
    
57. The main reason for the comparative ___________ of within-class ability grouping is that this strategy tends to follow the guidelines listed for effective between-class ability grouping.
    
    
58. When a teacher uses within-class ability grouping, the number of groups within the class should be kept relatively ___________. ___________ or ___________ groups seems to be the most effective number.
    
    
59. The most serious problem of within-class ability grouping is that teachers must spend time in ___________ among the various groups and students in one group often have to ___________ while the teacher works with another group.
    
    
60. The term ___________ refers to a set of strategies for educating students with exceptionalities to as great an extent as possible in the mainstream of education with other students.
    
    
61. Inclusion refers to the ___________ practice of developing school communities that nurture, support, and welcome the educational and social needs of all students attending a school.
    
    
62. ___________ education refers to a set of strategies that are tied to direct assessment of each individual student's capabilities and learning needs and build on each student's motivation and competence for achieving school success.
    
    
63. The term ___________ refers to a weakness in a specific ability (or in a small number of specific abilities) that results in lowered academic performance.
    
    
64. Persons with ___________ disorder with hyperactivity (ADD-H) find it difficult to focus their attention on objects or ideas long enough to deal with them effectively.
    
    
65. Gifted and talented students are students who are identified as "possessing demonstrated or potential abilities that give evidence of high performance capabilities in areas such as ___________ , creative, specific academic, or ___________ ability or in the performing or visual arts and by reason thereof require services or activities not ordinarily provided by the school."
    
    
66. ___________ refers to the strategy of moving students more rapidly through the curriculum.
    
    
67. ___________ refers to the strategy of exposing gifted students to instructional opportunities that are not ordinarily available to students at a given grade level.
    
    
68. ___________ represents a flexible technique in which individual students develop contracts with the teacher to move through the regular curriculum in a subject area more rapidly than usual; and the saved time is reinvested in ___________ activities that would otherwise be impossible for those students.
    
    
69. With ___________ grouping students are grouped into classes without regard to ability - except that the five or six most gifted students are placed in a single class.
    
    
70. The term ___________ refers to fundamental differences in the ways people process information.
    
    
71. ___________ refers to how quickly or carefully the learner responds to problems.
    
    
72. ___________ refers to the degree to which people focus on whole patterns or parts of that pattern.
    
    
73. The term ___________ refers to learner preferences that are not as much a part of the personality structure as are cognitive styles.

Answers to Quiz and Exercise:

Unit Quiz

1. (b) Since research is based on "average" characteristics, the teacher should use the more direct data, as long as this information has been validly collected. Therefore (a) would be a bad idea &endash; it would be better to revise the teacher's interpretation of the research. Statement (b) describes a good strategy. Statement (c) is silly. Bad research has no practical implications, but differences arising from cultural backgrounds do have practical implications for classroom education.
   
   
2. (e) All of these are listed in the textbook possible explanations for the negative impact of low socioeconomic status on classroom instruction.
   
   
3. (c) Robert is going to be unable to engage in selective perception, which is one of Gagne's essential phases of learning.
   
   
4. (a) Grouping them on the basis of their actual capabilities with regard to the course prerequisites and their willingness to take the course is an effective strategy. Requiring a certain IQ score to get into the course would be a bad idea.
   
   
5. (a) Adam has simply done poorly with regard to the prerequisite information for the later material in math. He has studied poorly. Bad study habits do not constitute a learning disability.

Key Ideas

1. probability

2. initial; tentative

3. effectiveness

4. advantages (or disadvantages)

5. challenges

6. problems

7. take steps

8. working groups

9. Cooperative

10. African

11. Mexican

12. Native

13. mainstream Anglo

14. socialization

15. verbal

16. spatial: mathematical

17. socially-inclined

18. no

19. more; more

20. culture

21. considerable

22. motivate; misunderstandings

23. knowledge; characteristics

24. individual

25. several cultures

26. involuntary; voluntary

27. oppositional

28. involuntary

29. styles: motivated

30. rejection; negative

31. academic

32. Cultural literacy

33. Ethnic

34. substantially better

35. socioeconomic status (SES)

36. less; less

37. Compensatory education

38. inborn; heavily

39. least

40. cultural bias

41. Metacomponents

42. Performance

43. Knowledge acquisition

44. many separate

45. between-class

46. same track

47. flimsy (invalid)

48. homogeneous

49. lower

50. inaccurate; permanent

51. very specific

52. directly related

53. bad; weaker

54. Heterogeneous

55. within-class

56. within-class; rearrange

57. success

58. small; two; three

59. transitions; wait

60. mainstreaming

61. administrative

62. Adaptive

63. learning disabilities

64. attention deficit

65. intellectual; leadership

66. Acceleration

67. Enrichment

68. Curriculum compacting; enrichment

69. cluster

70. cognitive style

71. Conceptual tempo

72. Field dependence

73. learning styles