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Statement of Informed Beliefs

Keiza Johnson

EDUC 220: Diversity in the Schools

Professor Bevin Etheridge

May 3, 2022
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Statement of Informed Belief

When most people think about education and teachers, a few things come to

mind. Most individuals believe that teaching is just making sure students understand the content

material and be able to pass an exam when needed. Those who truly understand what it means to

educate children to know that it is more than just having students memorize the information. For

most children to learn, many items must be present for that to happen. Starting at an early age,

how socialization took place at different ages, the community in which the child has grown up or

currently lives, family life, the school itself, and how teachers can affect the students' education

and the teacher.

There are leading areas that focus on the best educator that anyone can be in the future.

These include the notion that all students can learn, teacher expectations, students' social ecology

theory, cultural diversity institution, and curriculum for all learners. Teachers no longer teach the

content and expect students to place the information in their minds to be able to recall it at a later

time. Students are coming into the classes with more diversity and backgrounds that affect

teaching as a profession.

All Students Can Learn

Imagine a world where every child has a chance to learn and feel that their education

would be effective. Individuals going into education will be the teachers in the classroom, and

schools will face those problems. We need to find ways that have worked and continue working

on ways that will help ensure that all the students who come to our classroom will learn.

Teachers are essential for children's future and the communities where we live.

Students can learn in a multitude of ways. From the very beginning, children learn, and

they continue to learn. Ecology plays a significant part in all of this. Within the realm of ecology,
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we get the socialization of a child. Socialization is everything that allows for the child’s

knowledge, skills, and traits. (Berns, 6). As the child grows, they continue to learn from play,

interacting with others similar to themselves, and watching the adults in their lives. As they

continue to learn and get older, they enter the educational system. Everything that has to do with

a child’s socialization comes from Bronfenbrenner’s bioecological model of human

development. All socialization, in turn, will help in educating all students. Teachers who can

work on understanding the culture that students come from can help us allow all students to learn

in our class.

In the future classroom, that is part of the imagination and on the horizon of becoming a

reality. One needs to keep in mind a few different things that can help me succeed or fail in the

process. The first is to remember that everyone learns differently. For some students, their

temperament can be the reason for success in learning or struggling. Temperament stems from

when the child is an infant and how their parents’ attitude was the basis for their response.

Another issue that can come about with educating any child is their maturation. Knowing where

children are in their development can help alleviate behaviors—allowing all students to learn in

the classroom when behaviors are known, and there are things in place to help with those.

Understanding these two items among making sure the lessons are flexible and making

modifications when needed is managing the classroom.

Managing a classroom to ensure that everyone can learn is a task that can take time to

perfect. The main thing that will be in my classroom that will allow everyone to know is that

there will be respect. I will show the students respect, and they will guide me, and other students

will respect me as well. The students in my classroom will build relationships with one another.

According to Piaget’s Cognitive Development Theory, school-aged children can understand

relationships with logic. As long as it involves real people or objects. (Berns, 19) At the age that

I plan to teach, building relationships will help manage the classroom. In turn, it will allow those

in class to feel like they matter and have a place where they can learn both academically and

socially.

Every child can learn and has the opportunity to gain experience. In education, we need

to look at ways that can help our children be able to tap into their learning. To allow them to

grow and to learn to love to know. Looking at the child and the ways that make them unique will

help them learn.

Teacher Expectations

When most people think about teachers and expectations, they have one thing that comes

to mind. That one thing is classroom rules. There is, however, a lot more that goes into teacher

expectations. Yes, classroom rules can fall into the category of teacher expectations, but more

goes into this area of education. Expectations will help every child learn and have

responsibilities in the learning process.

When it comes to expectations and teachers, it can be simple as what rules will be in class

or what the teacher feels the students will act like. The expectations that affect a student’s

learning ability come from what the teacher thinks. Often expectations come from the

perception that the teacher places on the students. These perceptions can hinder the expectations

to the point that it hurts the ability of children to learn in that environment. A few of these

perceptions and expectations can be based on gender, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and

opinions from previous teachers. High expectations can allow all students to learn and have a

safe place to feel accepted and learn without problems. Depending on the atmosphere in the

classroom, the expectations are essential to fit that frame of mind.

Like all aspects of life, having goals is a great way to ensure something is done. This

goes for educational goals. Educational goals can range from collaboration and assessments. One

goal can be cooperation, which can be a teacher to student or student to student—allowing

everyone to work together. Another goal can be competition, having students work for goals that

can help them strive for better results next to their peers. Lastly, a goal can include students

being able to work independently, which will help students seek out rewards for themselves.

Goals help us improve on what we want. Educational goals will help us continue to improve on

what we are doing and look for better ways.

Teacher expectations are just as important as students themselves. What we put in place

as expectations will either help students learn or hamper their abilities. If we let our beliefs get in

the way, we are not doing a child justice. We are holding them back. Also, if we do not set high

expectations, students will not strive to be the best that they can be.

Students’ Social Ecology Theory

Many external factors can influence a student’s ability to learn. A few items that can

impact a student are their family, community, culture, or anything that can have a relationship

with that student. With that in mind, social ecology comes into play. Social ecology is the

relationship between a person and their environment. Another way that we can look at this is

through their microsystems. When it comes to what will impact our students, we have to be able

to think of ways to help our students, including understanding those things that are out of our

control. Either way, we need to strive to use that information to teach those that walk through our

classroom doors.

In education, many essential tasks will be on our minds for those precious students that

we will have the opportunity to teach. The first way it is crucial to connect lessons to a student’s
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social ecology is based on inclusion. Inclusion allows all students to get a quality education

where no one child is excluded in classes or activities. This is important for students and their

social ecology because it allows them access to education. Keeping all of this in mind, a great

way to incorporate a student’s social ecology is to enable them to share activities from their

cultures or community. Next, how do the students' family, culture, and community impact the

students learning?

Any student that is in our future classrooms. There is more to the student than what we

see outside, which can be harder to understand. These things that can impact a student and how

they learn can be their family, community, and their culture. The first thing that can affect a

student and learning is their family. Their family can positively or negatively impact their

student’s education by a few different things. The first way they can negatively impact is by not

valuing education. This might be from previous experience or cultural norms. In addition, being

from a family and community that is lower economically can also impact the student’s way of

learning. After both family and community, culture can have an impact as well. Their culture

might also not favor education and make them not want to learn the content being taught in our

classrooms. In addition, culture can make them unable to understand the content because of

language differences. All three can make an impact on a student.

The way students live and where they come from can allow them to learn or be a

roadblock that they have to overcome. Understanding where a student comes from as an educator

is how we can help them learn and become the best they can be. Family, community, and culture

are just the beginning of what a child will bring to make them different and why we must be

more open-minded when designing our lessons.

Cultural Diversity Instruction

Education has continued to change over time, and how we teach those in our classrooms

continues to change. Our classrooms are becoming diverse. As a teacher, we must find ways to

incorporate the histories and communities of our students so that they can be proud of who they

are—visiting lessons that can teach the rest of the class as well—in addition to making sure that

cultural pluralism and assimilation have a part in our classroom and are done for the benefit of

all of the students.

When it comes to teaching all the students in your classroom year after year, there are

many things that we need to keep in mind that will help them either succeed in school or fail.

Cultural diversity in the classroom is why we include all students in the school. We need to learn

about each of our students to make them feel like part of the classroom. In addition, it will also

help us as the teacher knows about the ways that the students learn. As teachers, we can add

things that can help achieve this goal to our curriculum by showing different cultures in books

that we read, studying other traditions during Christmas time, and learning about foreign

languages. This leads us to what it means for cultural pluralism and cultural assimilation.

To understand why these two can be beneficial in the classroom. We first need to

understand what each is. Cultural pluralism is where the individual or group continues to hold

on to parts of their culture. They hold onto things such as traditions. This allows them to stay true

to their culture while living in another culture. The next one must have heard about and what

comes to mind is often negative. Cultural assimilation is where you adapt certain things from

the new place and culture. While doing this, they can sometimes forget about their heritage and

background. Losing what made them who they are. They lose the culture that they have known

their whole lives by trying to learn about the new place and culture where they are currently
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living. Pluralism lets them embrace who they are and keep that part of themselves while learning

about the new site and cultures. Assimilation means that they embrace the unique culture and

place and forget their culture and background from the beginning.

Culture has an impact on lives every day. The students that come into your classroom

might have a different culture than the rest of your class. By embracing and sharing that culture,

we benefit not only the student that comes from that culture. But we also benefit the other

students. Having them learn about others helps with prejudices that can hamper their lives in the

future. In addition, embracing the culture allows the students to hold on to and live in both

worlds.

Curriculum for All Learners

Teaching is an art where we combine our knowledge with the curriculum that we need to

teach every child in our classrooms. To make this a reality, one must understand the learners in

the school. Each student will benefit from having a teacher know that it might take more than

one way to teach the content.

Teachers constantly need to change their lessons to match the curriculum and the students

in their class(es). Students learn differently, just as teachers teach differently. One way that

curriculum can help learners is by using the learner-directed model. The learner-directed

curriculum is based on the needs and abilities of the students. (Berns, 269). For learners, this

helps them take responsibility for their learning. In addition to a learner-directed, there is the

teacher-directed model. For those that favor this type of model, the teacher is in control of

everything. They direct what is being taught and at what time. For curriculum for all learners,

learner-directed is the model. Both of the models that we use are based on learning theory.

Assessments are the next part of the curriculum for all students and learners.
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The following important part of curriculum and learning is assessments. Testing is just

part of the game regarding education and making sure the knowledge is being learned. Teachers

have to look at the evaluations that they give out and learn from the outcomes. If students are

struggling on the assessment, we as the teacher need to go back and look at what information the

students need to spend more time on, which changes how we plan out lessons and, if required,

how we deliver that information in the first place. One or both parts were not beneficial to the

students and their learning.

The last part of learners and the curriculum is making sure that the students are learning

more than they did before entering your classroom. To observe that the students are learning

more and adding to their knowledge.

Culture and curriculum can work together to ensure that all students can and will learn.

We need to see the whole student help them with the course materials. This includes where they

come from. Will this impact their language, respect, and how much time they will need if

education is important to them? All will impact the curriculum and how it will be delivered. In

turn, it will allow “All Students to Learn.”

Conclusion

Students and how a teacher proceeds to teach them to be able to learn takes more than

just understanding the content of the subject matter; by understanding the culture, ethnicity, and

socialization of students. Every student will be able to learn and achieve great success

throughout life. The way all students can learn, teacher expectations, students' social ecology

theory, cultural diversity institution, and curriculum for all learners. Is the future of teaching and

education.
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References

Berns, R. M. (2015b). Child, Family, School, Community: Socialization and Support

(Standalone Book) (10th ed.). Cengage Learning.