Affective Learning

The culturally competent teacher should be able to use a variety of assessment techniques appropriate to diverse learners and accommodate sociocultural differences that affect learning.

A teacher might respond to the linguistic, ethnic, and sociocultural characteristic of the students in her or her classroom by noticing their difference and use them to learn. The teacher might want to learn more about where their students are from and try to use that and a teaching tool in the classroom. The teacher might respond to the linguistics by learning the basics of the student’s language so that if they ever come into trouble with English then you will be able to have some resource to be able to help your students. If the only language your students know how to speak is Spanish and they are learning English but could be having trouble learning English then it will be easier for you as the teacher if you are able to understand at least a little bit of what your student is going through. The teacher might respond to the ethnic part of their students by learning more about where their students came from and what their culture is like. By learning more about their culture you could use that in the classroom to help them learn. By the students knowing that you care about who they are they will enjoy your class and enjoy you as a teacher. The teacher might respond to the sociocultural characteristics of the students by observing how they interact with their peers. By noticing how different races of students interact with each other would be very interesting for the teacher. It would also be interesting for the teacher to observe how the same races of students interact with each other. When I become a teacher I want to be able to learn from my students as much as they learn from me. I want to be able to use what I learn from my students in the classroom and in the curriculum to help them learn.

This experience I think connects to Ira Shor’s theories. He is theorist who believes in empowering education. Empowering Education “is a critical-democratic pedagogy for self and social change.” (p.15) If you are able to create a change in yourself for your students then your students will be able to learn a lot more from you because they will be interested in you as their teacher. The students will go through their own individual growth and experience and be able to change because of what they have learned.