The Skillful Teacher

Gauging Diversity
One understandable response to encountering diversity is to throw
your hands up in frustration and conclude that since it is impossi-
ble to address this fully, one may as well teach as if your classrooms
contain the same homogeneous mix as would have been the case
thirty years ago. Most of us are not capable of such massive denial,
however, so we must find some way of dealing with this reality. A
useful starting point is to find some way of gauging the breadth and
intensity of the diversity you encounter. This can be accomplished
in a number of ways. Various instruments exist that purport to assess
personality types and learning styles, many of them based either on
the Myers-Briggs Personality Type Inventory or on Kolb’s (1984)
cycle of experiential learning. Others often used are the Learning
Combination Inventory (Johnston and Dainton, 1997), the Learn-
ing and Study Skills Inventory (Weinstein, Schulte, and Palmer,
1987), and the Two Factor Study Process Questionnaire (Biggs,
Kember, and Leung, 2001).
Teaching in Diverse Classrooms
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T
HE
S
KILLFUL
T
EACHER
I have observed several classes where completing a learning style
assessment is one of the first activities students are presented with.
For students used to the paraphernalia of test-taking this can be an
interesting task from which they can gain some self-knowledge.
However, for many of the students that diversity initiatives are cre-
ated to address, particularly those for whom English is a second or
third language, for English speakers who operate at a low level of
functional literacy, or for those who associate form-filling with sur-
veillance and the arbitrary, even punitive, exercise of officialdom,
this can be a highly intimidating task.
Another approach is for teachers to develop their own more
informal measures of students’ diversity. Diagnostic tests that ask
students to demonstrate their familiarity with, or knowledge of,
certain key skills or concepts usually give an early reading of the
different levels of ability in the class. Some of these tests can be
written in the form of multiple choice questions about course con-
tent, or the teacher can spend some time talking with students
about their previous learning. Even a series of questions asking for
a show of hands in response to certain questions about students’
prior learning can tell you something. An interesting kinetic vari-
ant on the show of hands approach is to have learners stand in a
large circle around the room and then have people who answer
“yes” to a particular question move into a smaller circle within the
larger circle. Although these approaches are highly informal and
supposedly unscientific, they can yield some useful information. At
the very least having people who have taken previous courses
in the area move into the inner circle, or seeing who is taking the
course as an elective as against those for whom the course is
required, tells you something about the likely levels of motivation
that exist.
Of course the means you use to find out about your students’
backgrounds, inclinations, and abilities as learners needs to take
account of their racial and ethnic identities. Asking First Nation or
Indigenous students to go straight into voluble disclosure of their
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histories as learners won’t get a White European teacher very far.
Again, Laotian, Vietnamese, or Korean students typically will find
it uncomfortable to speak about their individual experiences as
learners. African American students may respond much better to a
call-and-response rhythm of questioning than to a linear attempt
to address a number of items in turn. One common exercise is to
ask students to name themselves by describing the racial or ethnic
groups they see themselves belonging to and to announce how they
wish to be addressed. Another (common in elementary school class-
rooms) is the circle of objects exercise in which each student brings
in an object she feels says something about her culture and family
history and then talks about its meaning in her life. In both these
exercises it is important that the teacher model her own commit-
ment by going first with any disclosure. Cultural brokers—members
of the minority groups represented in the classroom who agree to
assist the teacher and can move between academic and minority
culture—can also play an important role. Such brokers interpret
students’ behaviors and responses to the teacher whilst simultane-
ously vouching to minority students for the teacher’s integrity.
As you move into teaching a course containing a diverse group
of students, the Critical Incident Questionnaire will give you a
weekly reading of how the diversity of the student body reveals itself
in learners’ responses to specific classroom activities. This data is
important because it represents a longitudinal balance to the cross-
sectional nature of information derived from assessment instruments
that are administered at the first class meeting. As the semester pro-
ceeds and people become more used to a range of different teach-
ing approaches, they may find their culturally induced resistance to