Teachers need to believe that ALL students can and will learn. They then need to teach them how to learn. TEAMS programs provide a learning climate that encourages ALL students to succeed by providing positive experiences. Through TEAMS programs, teachers are encouraged to help students develop self-confidence, persistence, and self-esteem. They are provided strategies that help students respect each other and value diversity. Academic achievement of students is facilitated through a variety of teaching styles that are consistent with the wide range of learning styles within a diverse student population. A diverse population can strengthen and enrich classroom experiences. TEAMS programs foster an appreciation and respect for diversity. Teachers are encouraged to use examples from the variety of cultures and groups represented in their classrooms to illustrate key concepts, principles, generalizations, and theories in their mathematics programs.
Suggestions for providing equity in diverse populations include:
The basic aim of a multicultural instructional program is to help students see themselves and others as having dignity and worth. A multicultural program places emphasis on similarities and differences among individuals and groups. Similarities are viewed as those characteristics which make people human, and differences are viewed as those characteristics which make each person or group unique and special. In this context, differences are viewed as positive. Thus, students are helped to respect and accept a wide range of diversity, including physical differences, gender differences, emotional differences, cultural differences, and differences in life-styles among individuals and groups.
1. The student will indicate feelings of self-worth and self-acceptance and will demonstrate respect and acceptance of the value, dignity, and worth of individuals and groups different from himself or herself.
2. The student will show acceptance of the validity of cultural pluralism, of diverse ways of meeting human needs, and of alternative beliefs, manners, customs, and life-styles.
3. The student will demonstrate that he or she values cultural pluralism as a positive component of the local community, the state, the nation, and the world.
4. The student will show evidence of a desire to reduce or eliminate inequalities caused by stereotyping, prejudice, discrimination, and inequality of opportunity.
5. The student will show evidence of a desire to exert efforts to resolve conflicts and inequalities arising from stereotyping, prejudice, or discrimination.
Addison-Wesley. Multiculturalism in Mathematics, Science and Technology: Readings and Activities, © 1993.
Lawrence Hall of Science, Berkley. EQUALS.
California State Dept. of Education, 1977. Guide for Multicultural Education Content and Context.
Schwan Smith, Margaret and Edward A. Silver. "Meeting the Challenges of Diversity and Relevance." Mathematics Teaching in the Middle School Vol. 1. No. 6 (September-October, 1995): 442-448.
Young, LaVerne H. and Daniel L. Householder, D.T.E. "Teaching and Learning in Multi-cultural Settings." The Technology Teacher (February, 1992): 7-9.