Importance Of Learner Diversity In The Classroom

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1. INTRODUCTION

All around the world, we have students which are differing from other students in performance level, learning rate and learning styles. Moreover, there are students who are differing in ethnicity, culture, social class, home language and gender. Some have disabilities and some are gifted or talented in one or more areas. These students in these situations are often called as learner diversity or student diversity. Learner diversity refers to both the group and individual differences in our students, it exists in every classroom and it can have a powerful effect on learning. These learners are influence by several factors or sources which are language, gender, culture and socioeconomic status.

These differences can have important …show more content…

We will search in dictionaries and it reveals that learning is “acquiring or getting of knowledge of a subject or a skill by study, experience or instruction.” An educational psychologist would define learning even more succinctly as “a change in an individual caused by experience” (Slavin, 2003, p. 138). Teaching which is implied in the first definition of learning, may be defined as “showing or helping someone to learn how to do something, giving instructions, guiding in the study of something, providing with knowledge, causing to know or understand.” Teaching cannot be defined apart from learning. Teaching is guiding and facilitating learning which enabling learner learns will determine your philosophy of education, your teaching style, your approach, methods and classroom techniques (Brown, H.G., 2007, p. 7-8).

2. FACTORS INFLUENCING LEARNING OF LEARNER DIVERSITY
In Malaysia, students between the ages of 5 to 18 years are expected to learn in school with a heavy expectation on their shoulder. It become their primary goal in society and it will prepare them to enter their working world or to continue their higher studies but it change several years back when most of students drop their studies and enter their working world which was reported on 2011 where it shows that 80,000 students drop out school from 2006 to 2010. There are several factors influencing learning of learner diversity which are:-

2.1 SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS …show more content…

This involvement is necessary for respecting their culture, acknowledging that they learn in a appropriate ways and assuming that they are capable of learning. Knowing your students as a group or as individuals is important part of a good teaching. Some students will have unique challenges that make learning in classroom difficult. As teachers, it is important that we recognize our students own learning styles and cultural assumptions because their styles and assumptions influence how we teach and what we expect from