EDUC160: Facilitating Learner-Centered Teaching
Individual
Differences
Objectives
• Identify the different factors that bring about
diversity in the classroom
• Demonstrate a positive attitude towards
diversity as an enriching element in the learning
environment
• Come up with teaching strategies that consider
student diversity
Factors that Bring about Student
Diversity
•Socioeconomic status
•Thinking / learning style
•Exceptionalities
How Student Diversity Enriches the
Learning Environment
• Student’s self-awareness is enhanced by diversity
• Student diversity contributes to cognitive
development
• Student diversity prepares learners for their role as
responsible members of society
• Student diversity can promote harmony
Some Tips on Student Diversity
• Encourage learners to share their personal
history and experiences
• Integrate learning experiences and activities
which promote students’ multicultural and cross-
cultural awareness
• Aside from highlighting diversity, identify patterns
of unity that transcend group differences
Some Tips on Student Diversity
• Communicate high expectations on students
from all subgroups
• Use varied instructional methods to
accommodate student diversity in learning styles
• Vary the examples you use to illustrate concepts
in order to provide multiple contexts that are
relevant to students from diverse backgrounds
Some Tips on Student Diversity
• Adapt to the students’ diverse backgrounds and
learning styles by allowing them personal choice
and decision-making opportunities concerning
what they will learn and how they will learn it
• Diversify your methods of assessing and
evaluating student learning
Some Tips on Student Diversity
• Purposely, form small-discussion groups of
students from diverse backgrounds. You can
form groups of students with different learning
styles, different cultural backgrounds, etc.
Midterm Group Activity 1
• Interview one teacher teaching in the
elementary, one in the high school and one in
the college about the following:
• their teaching strategies that consider student diversity and
• How to demonstrate a positive attitude towards diversity as
an enriching element in the learning environment
• Instructions, rubrics and examples will be given
through Schoology.
