Diversity in Learning
By: S. Mike Miller
Tags: Teaching, Diversity, Teaching And Learning, Learning, Education

Image by Wokandapix from Pixabay

Overcoming racial disparity in schools is a crucial step but it does not deal with diversity in learning styles among students. This diversity affects scholastic achievements and the enjoyment of schooling.

The theme of “diversity” should extend beyond racial disparities in schools to learning diversity. People learn different subjects in different ways — for example, some may learn algebra at a fast pace while others need a more step-by-step approach; and still others grab on to only the basic concept of the subject.

Standardization can’t overcome prejudice but it can promote it — Black students who do not readily learn from THE standard model are often depicted as intellectually inferior, not as learning differently than many others. It is important to act on the understanding that people learn in varied ways and one size does not fit all learners. Directing all students to learn a subject or topic in the same way handicaps those whose learning style differs from the standard model.

We are far from the level where we learn best in one optimal way. Effective schooling for all requires adaptation of the teaching process to the varied learning style of all.

I came to this realization from my undergraduate difficulties in a beginning statistical course. I found it hard to follow the instructor and the required stat textbook; all I could do was use mechanical rules that I did not fully understand. It was only years later, when a job forced me to work up some data into a presentation, that I was able to think in statistical terms and be creative in handling and presenting the data. Thinking how others might use or misuse the data led me to present the data in ways that were new to me — and deepened my understanding of the range and limits of the statistical presentation of the data.

Teachers should be trained to respond to diversity in learning among students: one mode does not fit all. Those who do not readily grasp the prevailing teaching mode are not dumb; they may think and learn in a different mode of teaching that subject. They should not be relegated to the “slow learner” classroom.

Overcoming racial segregation in schools is obviously an important social and economic step. It should extend to recognizing and acting on the awareness that all of us do not learn in the same way. One style of learning is not effective with all students or adults!

“Diversity” extends to the effective promotion of learning. We are yet to reach the level where all learn best in one optimal way. Effective schooling for all calls for adapting to students and diversity should most definitely prevail.

S. M. (Mike) Miller, an economic-political sociologist and activist, has been a senior fellow of the Commonwealth Institute; former chair of Boston University’s Sociology Department; cofounder and board member of United for a Fair Economy; recipient of the American Sociological Association’s Award for the Practice of Sociology; a former member of the staff of the Ford Foundation and board member of the Poverty and Race Research Action Council.

Miller has consulted with poverty organizations in the U.S. and around the world and has worked with Dr. Martin Luther King. In addition, he has authored, coauthored, or edited ten books and more than three hundred articles. Miller has also blogged for Nation of Change, Dissent Magazine, Huffington Post, Classism, and Social Policy. He is currently at work on a book identifying new ways of thinking about, and acting on, American society and politics. His article entitled “America’s Go-To Economic Indicator Is Blunt and Obsolete” recently appeared in The Atlantic, and “Poverty, Inequality, and the GDP: The Economy of Good Jobs” appeared in Economic Monitor.