MC-DIP Diagnostic Question Set: Multicultural education, Learning Styles & Creativity
07-August-2006
permalink comments (2) forum (2) email thisSo 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..
2 Replies (comments)
1 Thanks Glenn!
Thanks for this, Glenn.
We'll be analysing the new stuff ASAP for inclusion in the diagnostic tool...
2 MCDIP – diagnostic tool: 3rd feedback brief
Section 1 Culture (an optional section not applicable to all): There are a lot of larger concepts invoked in this section, such as culture, diversity, environment, norms, values, etc. The Appendix makes it clear where the questions come from in terms of research, but what tools/explanations are available to the people administering or using the diagnostic tool? My concern is that the terminology/phrasing of the questions may not be easily understood by non-social scientists, or by younger individuals.
Section 6 Creativity: As the question set that must be tailored to the group using the tool, this one is most problematic. However, I think that the sample set provided here can be useful to us for the purposes of testing, even if all individuals testing the tool are not working in the field of internet marketing/e-commerce. In our reporting, we should make note of the fact that the field-specificity of the tool limits the sorts of findings we can report on in our project. (We cannot have a question set for all possible fields / we cannot test all possible fields / the scope of the testing is thus limited, etc.)
Most of my comments and questions on the text refer to specific wording/concepts (examples below). Rather than listing them all, it would be more efficient to work together on a (Word?) document where comments can be inserted and tracked.
Section 2 Learning Preferences:
page 7: the acronym VLE appears only once – can it be spelled out/explained?
Question 10: I do not understand the meaning of this question. (“When I am trying to find my directions in town or when going to a new place maps, such as Google maps, is natural way of finding my destination”) – is the question about use of technology (Google)? Or the use of maps (road maps, etc)? Are these techniques natural – or comfortable?
Section 3 Cognitive Learning Styles:
Question 5: “when there is enough data to support learning” – I am not sure what is meant by “data” or “support”.
Question 6: “when there is a lack of restrictive written procedures” – does this refer to written “instructions” (might be British/American translation hiccup?); I am not sure what is meant by “procedures”.
…
The clarity of the text and question sets would benefit from thorough (nit-picky) proofing for grammar and punctuation.
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