ACTIVITY 3 – DISTINCTNESS OF A LEARNER IN A DIVERSE CLASSROOM

In a classroom environment, it is expected for teachers to be able to meet and

interact with students of different genders, races, cultures, and languages, as well as of
different learning abilities, styles, preferences, and interests, among others.
Thus, teachers must learn to understand and embrace their differences to cater to the
diversity of their students. Teachers must be able to establish a classroom setting where the
students’ similarities and uniqueness are acknowledged to demonstrate conducive teaching
and learning.
The third activity of Field Study 1 entitled, “Distinctness of a Learner in a Diverse
Classroom” has its connection to Domain 3: Diversity of Learners of the Philippine Professional
Standards for Teachers. The activity includes observing the diversity of learners in a classroom,
the importance of differentiated learning strategies utilized by the teachers, and analyzing
the impact of teaching and learning on diverse learners.
Each learner is unique in many aspects. According to Hurtado (2001), student diversity
is the recognition that each individual is unique and the acceptance of our characteristics. A
teacher should embrace all of these differences as opportunities for excellent teaching and
learning to create an ideal environment in the classroom.
Our exposure to a classroom with a diversity of students provided us an opportunity to
understand how learners differ from each other, and how the teachers were able to deal with
these differences in the form of several teaching methods and techniques, and classroom
management.
During our observation, we noticed how students have their own learning styles. Some
enjoy listening to the discussion with the teacher while taking notes, and others prefer paying
close attention to their teacher. Meanwhile, other students prefer listening while reading in
their modules.
Given that the students have different life experiences, they were able to provide
unique viewpoints on the topic as the teacher encouraged them to participate in the
discussion and contribute by sharing their own thoughts and opinions.
Educators need to harness their students’ learning styles. They should understand how
each child compiles knowledge, thus reinforcing differentiated learning strategies to support
and provide benefits to the students’ learning. Applying a variety of teaching strategies allows
the students to actively engage in the teaching and learning process thus producing
conducive learning.
In our observation, Ma’am Del Rosario, our cooperating teacher, was able to
accommodate everyone's learning styles. She pays attention to all of her students and
provides them with feedback that demonstrates her appreciation for their contribution to the
lesson. Through these classroom management strategies, it can be asserted that the class was
transformed by Mrs. Del Rosario to become interactive. In addition, it was also observed that
the students have already developed and built solid relationships which are manifested in
how comfortable they are with one another and in how they support and accept each other
as well. Ma’am Del Rosario is successful in creating an environment where everyone
participates without anyone being left behind. She has established a culture that is centered
on the learners by employing strategies that are tailored to each individual student. Everyone
had an interest in learning, thus the environment that they have created is conducive to
education.
In the future, we want our classroom interactions to be more engaging, lively, and
participatory, where students may express their thoughts and ideas in a variety of ways and
actively participate in all classroom activities. We want the learners to feel valued, respected,
and recognized for their differences in the classroom so that they can feel safe and
comfortable, and order for them to effectively utilize their individual differences to gain
learning and achieve academic and professional success.
To conclude, teachers must realize that acknowledging their students’ uniqueness in
learning will help them promote the learners’ academic growth and potential to its fullest.
Utilizing different teaching strategies will help the teachers to match their students’ preferred
learning styles, and to meet their needs. Recognizing the diversity of the learners in a
classroom will provide an equal opportunity for the students to learn. Moreover, embracing
student diversity also allows the promotion of the students’ personal growth and
development.