Cross Cultural Classroom Study

Researchers and educators have always tried to find which practices are most effective when delivering instruction in the classroom. How instruction is delivered can affect students in a positive or negative way. Students learn various learning techniques in order to better their understanding of the information under study in their classroom. How instruction should be delivered is always under research. Research tells us that differentiating instruction to tailor the needs of each student is an effective technique. To positively contribute to students’ development, teachers must take time to scaffold students in order to link prior knowledge to new information under study. Teachers in the United States and developing countries across the world tailor to different student audiences which leads to different ways instruction in the classroom is delivered. Research says that schools in the United States have developing diverse classrooms. Schools need to have experienced teachers who promote learning through integrating different cultural practices in the classroom in order to connect prior learning to new information under study. I attended a service project over winter break where we worked in a variety of classroom with teachers and students. This service project gave me the opportunity to study how teachers in a different culture tailored and delivered their instruction to their students. The teachers shared how they prepare and reflect on their lessons. Students at his school have the opportunity to learn different subject areas such as advanced mathematics, Spanish, and English. Our group did not change the world by helping this school in Haiti, but did help better ourselves by emerging our lives into a different culture in order to better our understanding of a different country. Honors Research Project: Cross Cultural Classroom Study 4 Introduction Haiti is an island of Hispaniola in the Caribbean Sea. This island is estimated to be an equivalent size to the state of Maryland of The United States (Coupeau, 2008). Haiti is inhabited by African-Caribbean people, with a history of French Colonialism (Corbett). This island holds an estimate of 10 million people, many of which live in poverty stricken areas (“Haiti” Central). The education system has been a challenge to build due to the large amount of poverty within the country of Haiti. Haitian teachers are challenged in their classrooms every day to alter the teaching strategies in order to improve their students’ ability to comprehend material and concepts. Purpose of Study In order to implement different strategies into the classroom for students to gain greater comprehension of material, teacher must study a variety of practice. Classrooms in America are full of diverse learners. In order to serve each student as an individual learner it is important to differentiate instruction and tailor to different learning styles in the classroom. To strengthen my knowledge in education and implementing comprehension strategies I have completed an independent research project that focuses on how a specific group of teachers implement a specific teaching strategy into their classroom. The focus groups of teachers used in this paper are of Haitian descent and range between the ages of 20 to 50. The purpose of this research focusing on this specific population was to gain a greater understanding of how teachers differentiate instruction in a culture that was not my own, while still observing teaching strategies that were familiar to me. The goal of this research was to gain a greater understanding Honors Research Project: Cross Cultural Classroom Study 5 how to differentiate instruction based on cultural background. The theory focused on in this research that Haitian and American teachers use to develop and implement instructional practices, is Bloom’s Taxonomy. Review of Literature One theory teachers learn about in their undergraduate teacher education training is Bloom’s Taxonomy. Bloom’s Taxonomy is a theory developed by Benjamin Bloom in 1956 that defines six levels of cognitive processes (knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation). Bloom originally developed these levels for teachers to have educational objectives that have hierarchal organization for their students. Bloom’s taxonomy is also used as an evaluation tool to measure how well in the information was presented and how well the students comprehended the information. Throughout time educators came into problems with the theory due to its lack of structure. Bloom’s original theory left highly trained educators “unable to recognize questions at higher levels as more difficult questions at lower levels of the taxonomy” due to the lack of facts and concepts educators were taught. After years of attempts to fix the problems within the theory, Bloom’s Taxonomy was finally revised in 2001. The new levels of cognitive processes (remember, understand, apply, analyze, evaluate create) are made for teachers to have a clearer understanding on how to develop critical thinking within their classrooms. To develop the revision correctly researchers looked at Bloom’s own criticisms about the theory. “The major differences lie in the more useful and comprehensive additions of how the taxonomy intersects and acts upon different types and levels of knowledge — factual, conceptual, procedural and metacognitive ​(​Krathwohl, 2002)​. ” Honors Research Project: Cross Cultural Classroom Study 6 Teachers still use Bloom’s taxonomy today because the theory helps guide teachers into getting their students to the highest form of comprehension due to the strategic levels of different types of knowledge that can be displayed through fact, concepts, and procedures. Bloom’s Taxonomy can be applied to any classroom in any part of the world since it is developed based off of education research and theory, not culture. Developing a correct sequence of questions/activities to administer in the classroom to develop a gradual level of comprehension in students is the challenging part of using Bloom’s Taxonomy since teachers must know each of their students’ learning strengths and weakness in order to create and develop different levels of comprehension questions/activites. Due to the fact that every classroom is different, every teacher must administer Bloom’s Taxonomy in a different way within the classroom. Every student in the classroom has a different history. As a teacher, it is important to get to know each student in order to learn how the student learns best as well as their previous knowledge and what support they have at home. Methods From January 13th to 16th of 2016 I participated in a naturalistic observation of five different classrooms located at Institution Univers, in Ouanaminthe, Haiti. During my time in the classroom I observed how each teacher implemented Bloom’s taxonomy within their lessons. After each of the classes had concluded I was able to complete an interview with each of the teachers. All of the teachers asked the same questions. Since there was a language barrier a translator was with me during my observation and interview to translate as needed. Findings On January 13, 2016 I observed a seventh grade classroom. During at the time of my Honors Research Project: Cross Cultural Classroom Study 7 observation there were 35 students within the classroom. They began going over their math lesson when the teacher had them take out their materials and place them on their desks. The teacher asked the students multiple questions, which the students responded to as a group. The teacher then had the students work on a problem that was located in their book. He walked around the room to look at how students were progressing. The teacher would then complete the problem himself on the chalkboard and explain it step by step. Once the teacher completed this exercise two or three times, he then put a problem on the board and had a student complete it. Once again the teacher went around assessing how the rest of the students were doing in the class. When the student at the board was having difficulties with the problem the teacher would have the class help out the student. The teacher did this exercise with two other different students. Once all three problems were completed on the board the teacher would ask them questions about the problem, which the students would respond by shouting back the answers. Throughout the class there were multiple times when the teacher would stop and explain how to solve a problem to a student who was struggling. Before concluding the class, the teacher evaluated the students’ work and reviewed material on the board. Once the class was completed I had the opportunity to interview the teacher about his knowledge of Bloom’s Taxonomy. As a result of the interview, I had found out during the interview that this specific teacher had studied math and physics for elementary students at Cfefe (Haiti’s main city-center of elementary studies). The teacher went on to tell me that he was familiar with the study of Bloom’s taxonomy and that he did try to implement the strategy within his classroom. He further explained that in the beginning of the year he asked his class what they remembered from past math classes. He then took their answered and evaluated what they really Honors Research Project: Cross Cultural Classroom Study 8 knew. The math teacher explained to me that he aide’s students by creating figures on the board to ensure they understand. He also does stop if the class does not understand the material and decides to explain the concept in a different way. This math teacher does brainstorm how the students learn best and formulates critical thinking questions outside of the classroom upon evaluating how that day’s class went. The teacher explained that he does sometimes has to tailor different questions to different students if they are slower to the material. To assess