Keys to Success

This article deals with identification of methods to help "nonmainstream" pupils make academic gains in all subject areas. The author has worked with students ranging from Native Hawaiians to Zuni and Navajo Indians to Latinos. Researchers from the Center for Research on Education, Diversity, and Excellence at the University of California-Santa Cruz have identified five standards as critical to improving learning for students from diverse ethnic, cultural, linguistic, or economic backgrounds:

• Teachers and students "producing" together, whether they are producing knowledge or some tangible product
• Developing students' language and literacy competence in all subjects
• Connecting school and learning to students' lives, or "contextualizing" knowledge
• Teaching complex thinking
• Teaching through conversation rather than relying on lectures

I was pleasantly surprised at how well these standards coincided with or incorporated the prinicples of the Learning Cycle, reinforcing the idea that teaching science this way is and can be of great benefit to Native American students.

Bibliographic Note:

Debra Viadero, "Keys to Success", Education Week, 02774232, 4/21/04, Vol. 23, Issue 32