...Culturally Responsive Teaching: Bridging the Gap Michael Warren University of Texas at El Paso Culturally Responsive Teaching: Bridging the Gap The changing demographics in classrooms are not often reflected in the pedagogies, curriculum and strategies used in represented grade levels and content areas by the education professionals that drive our education system. Recent research has considered the idea that culturally responsive or culturally pedagogical teaching may be the answer to closing the achievement gap created by the absence of cultural awareness. The concept of cultural awareness may be simply defined as an understanding and awareness of the diversity in the classroom (Villegas & Lucas, 2002); however, such a simplistic definition does not recognize the many dimensions involved in the pedagogy of culturally responsive teaching, which for students includes seeing germane links between subject matter and lessons and their experiences outside the context of the classroom and how those links influence what and how they learn. The purpose of this literature review is to examine the many facets that make up the term Culturally Responsive Teaching (CRT) and the impact and implications implementing such a broad concept may have on the education system. While the literature discusses several topics connected to CRT, I will confine this review to the following: (1) CRT Background/Definition (2) The methods of study, the participants involved and the significance...
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...Early Childhood Research Quarterly 19 (2004) 375–397 The early childhood classroom observation measure Deborah Stipek∗ , Patricia Byler School of Education, Stanford University, 485 Lasuen Mall, Stanford, CA 94305-3096, USA Abstract This study assesses a new measure of early childhood classroom practice in 127 kindergarten- and first-grade classrooms. The measure was designed to be appropriate for classrooms serving children from the age of 4–7 years. It assesses the nature and quality of instruction as well as the social climate and management of the classroom. Two separate scales assess the degree to which constructivist, child-centered and the degree to which didactic, teachercentered instructional practices are implemented. Findings indicate that the measure produced reliable scores and meaningful, predictable associations were found between scores on the observation measure, on the one hand, and teachers’ self-reported practices, teaching goals, relationships with children, and perceptions of children’s ability to be self-directed learners, on the other. © 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Keywords: Early childhood; Classroom observation; Teaching; ECCOM; Measure 1. Introduction Political and public concerns about improving education have been fueled recently by reports highlighting the number of students, particularly from economically disadvantaged homes, who fail to achieve minimum academic standards. The National Center for Educational Statistics (2002)...
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...Contents Title Page Dedication Prologue CHAPTER ONE: Republicans and Democrats CHAPTER TWO: Values CHAPTER THREE: Our Constitution CHAPTER FOUR: Politics CHAPTER FIVE: Opportunity CHAPTER SIX: Faith CHAPTER SEVEN: Race CHAPTER EIGHT: The World Beyond Our Borders CHAPTER NINE: Family Epilogue Acknowledgments About the Author Also by Barack Obama Copyright Prologue IT’S BEEN ALMOST ten years since I first ran for political office. I was thirty-five at the time, four years out of law school, recently married, and generally impatient with life. A seat in the Illinois legislature had opened up, and several friends suggested that I run, thinking that my work as a civil rights lawyer, and contacts from my days as a community organizer, would make me a viable candidate. After discussing it with my wife, I entered the race and proceeded to do what every first-time candidate does: I talked to anyone who would listen. I went to block club meetings and church socials, beauty shops and barbershops. If two guys were standing on a corner, I would cross the street to hand them campaign literature. And everywhere I went, I’d get some version of the same two questions. “Where’d you get that funny name?” And then: “You seem like a nice enough guy. Why do you want to go into something dirty and nasty like politics?” I was familiar with the question, a variant on the questions asked of me years earlier, when I’d first arrived in Chicago to work in low-income neighborhoods. It signaled a cynicism...
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