BeyondLabels

The general focus for the talk is around ‘opening up’ education. My main area of multicultural education research is focused on pedagogy equity in the context of learning styles, education & identity and intercultural dialogue. In this talk I will explore some tensions and opportunities between multicultural education, learning styles and Web 2. Give you an insight into my experiences in integrating learning diagnostics into the teaching process and finally share some lessons I have learnt. Some broad but central questions for my collaborative research are: (1)How do you deal in an equitable way with the increased diversity in our classrooms? (2)How can we deal with discriminatory practice in our teaching and learning process? (3)And finally how can we use technology to enable pedagogy equity? Being a teacher in the University sector it is clear we have moved a long way in supporting diversity but as we all operate directly or indirectly in ever increasing globalised society/communities this has significantly influenced the form of the educational provision required. The diversity in our communities and institutions requires proactive responses towards equality and this has to be in-tune with our regional communities. With no change in educational practice the implications of diversity may be oppressive to many. Many policy documents from the EU also call for greater integration between informal to formal learning and it is viewed that technology has an instrumental role in widening opportunities for people and meeting regional priorities. In addition understanding the informal and formal learning process and supporting integration between them also offers the opportunity to increase understanding of the changing needs of business and the community. For my research specific to ethnic minority groups and social migrants, and as a teacher, I feel undertaking community based education offers provides knowledge to increase depth of understanding of changing society needs for marginalised groups with high risk of being disadvantaged in our communities and in the workplace Before moving into the education perspective we should also consider some important milestones in England that informs and influences my research perspective. •Scarman Report (1981) - Commission as a response to understanding what was termed the race riots across the England. Did not find evidence for institutional racism and rejected •Swann report (1985) – ‘Diversity within unity’ and the need to identify common values and norms. Racism was seen as a major barrier to education for all. •Stephen Lawrence (1999) Enquiry – A response to the death of an innocent man in the ‘hands’ of the police that led to the MacPherson report. Institutional racism accepted as being in our organisations and institutions The above states the driving questions for the research and the climate that re-enforces the need for multicultural education research to enable changes to pedagogy practice in our classrooms and workplaces. So why multicultural education and learning styles? The rationale is to directly deal with the balance between the teaching and learning process. Multicultural education is viewed as a pedagogic perspective (critical anti-discriminatory perspective) and based on teaching styles. Even though the learner is integral to the pedagogic practice this is clearly based, in most instances, on teaching style and approach. Learning styles is view as integral to multicultural education provision and there is a lack of research directly exploring multiculturalism and learning styles. This talk is about exploring learning styles through using learning diagnostics as an intervention to raising awareness of learner needs in the multicultural pedagogic design process. This has the potential to deal positively with increasing diversity and education for all.

Really enjoyed the presentation from Graham and the chat. The summary of Graham supporting information also useful for me. Suggest a read.

Also much respect and thanks to my lovely friends from Ethnic Minority Cultural Initiative and the Mighty Zulu Nation Theatre Production Company. Look forward to working with you all again soon

So I have got there MC-DIP Question set now complete, and uploaded to Plone project site, for those I have been working with on the project - Al, Anna, Mike, Steve etc.. Massive task as the diagnostic cuts across three theoretical lenses - Multicultural education, learnign styles and creativity. The logic behind the questions sets that the diagnostic software will be built around is supporting pedagogy equity for educators and learners. In the environment I work in an imbalance on the teacher and on the Web you can see in many circles an imbalance on the learner through what is frequently termed 'autonomous learning'. The Diagnostic 2.0 software is about intervening for positive educational action for social change and hence fits well with much of the e-learning 2.0 developments and for me logical fit with Knownet software apps.

Just a little more on the background need for such an approach and underpinning thoughts. .....

For me the challenge is to create learning environments that maintain the cultural integrity of every person while enhancing their educational success. At the classroom level, culturally responsive teaching essentially involves using students’ cultural experiences and background as a medium for helping them learn important academic skills. There has also been a general agreement that the development of individual cultural identity is a major process of acceptance of the cultural norms, beliefs, attitudes and values of one cultural group rather than another. Hence multicultural education is important and necessary in order for students to be able to develop personal autonomy. To create inclusive education we need learning environments to re-configure to be in a proactive position to support diversity and equality.

Thats enough for now.. Will be posting over next week specifically on Multiculturalism, Learning Styles and eLearning 2.0 from how I see things..

Recent event in the north England. On going collaboration with EMCI. Always fun and amazing theatre education for children and powerful message below the fun.............. bridging learning styles and theatre/performance loads of potential and needs more exploration 

This is the MC-DIP Learning Styles Model based on our 'theoretical lens'.

The task of establishing identity and identity achievement clearly continues beyond adolescence but for the mainstream particularly challenging for youth. The ultimate goal for many is termed identity achievement (Dunn & Griggs, 1995). Identity achievement is a complex process realised through 'small steps'. For many in there youth, and throughout life, this can be problematic and this applies to both secular and non-secular settings.. Here are some key methods that I came across by Dunn and Griggs (1995) that I found useful... - identity foreclosure: accepting parental values without reservation. Common in many non-secular countries. - Nagative identity status: adopting roles and values diametrically opposed to expectations and parental values. - Identity diffusion status: young persons inability to commit to anything in terms of values, goals, religious beliefs. - Moratorium status: allowing young people time out for experimentation and alternative lifestyles

Overall summary image of the learning styles framework we are using for the MC-DIP diagnostics development initiative. It also illustrates different learnign styles scenarios. Makes sense to consider this in the context of previous posting on skilling needs and mapping

The diagram is intended to support discussions on the plug-in module for the diagnostic and its relevance to the overall tool. The diagram should support discussions - Al, Mike, Steve - on filtering content based on VAK and skills level

As you can see I am re-visiting an important book to me by Rita Dunn and Shirley Griggs (1995).  Routed in 80's/90's in terms of feel but great content and so comprehensive in terms of coverage of the subject area. Some points on learning styles and counseling...

1. counseliing is a learning process. counselor works with person to explore self included values, goals, aspirations, traits in developing the persons full potential

2. need to choose a counseling approach that is responsive to highly diversified personal traits is crucial for adolescents. Couselign selection of techniques needs to be in tune with learnign style needs

3. counselee resistance can be a result of counseling interventions, strategies and techniques not being compatible with the counselers own learning style.

4. when counselees are aware of their learning style they are given a tool previosuly not available to them and can strengthen the counseling  and learnign processes. Can support empowerment and therefore achievement

1. learning style is a biological and developmental set of personal characteristics (Theis, 1979) that makes teaching styles for some learners effective and for others not.

2. Most people have learning styles preferences and these differ significantly between people

3. teaching preferences exist and it is viewed these can be identified

4. stronger the learnign preference more important it is to provide compatible instructional strategies

5. accomodating learning style preferences through teaching styles and supporting activities such as mentoring and counciling interventions increases academic achievement

6. responsive teaching and environemnts improves achievement

7. most teachers and councillors can use learning styles asa corner stone for their instructional and counselling activities

8. students can capitalise on their learning styles when dealing with challenging academic issues

9. for  less academically successful it is more important to critically consider learning styles support (Dunn, Beaudry, & Klavas, 1989)

Do most people in one culture learn differently from most people in another culture?
Do most people in the same culture basically learn in the same way?
Relationship between high/low achievers and learning style
Are we measuring ability or style through assessment?
Learning styles and time: How does style evolve?
Are the majority of teacher 'analytic'?
Cultures and attitude towards school:
Learning styles and role of counselling
Inventories/profiling/diagnostics and teacher-learner equity
Learning styles implementation: diagnostics, environment, Personalised learning