Page 9 - LESSION 20.pmd

Understanding Diversity

access to learning resources. Variation in cognitive style adds vareaty to the
classroom and has direct implications for the educational administrators as well
as the teachers. The class teacher must adopt teaching methods to cater to all Notes
the children in the class. Teaching a concept to cater to different learning styles
benefits the whole class. This may require using different methods for teaching
the same thing, resulting reinforcement and promoting better learning. For
example, while narrating a story, the teacher can use a story book with the
narration. This will cater to both the auditory learner and the visual learner.
Auditory learners enjoy listening to the story while visual learners enjoy the
words and pictures in the book with the narration.

The benefits of classroom diversity are both academic and socio-emotional.
Teachers must give importance to creating diverse learning opportunities for
children thereby exposing them to diverse experiences. This will make a positive
impact on their development and immensely impact society.

INTEXT QUESTIONS 20.2

State whether the following statements are true or false:
(a) Children should be discouraged from expressing or sharing their religious
beliefs with their peers.

(b) Each child has her/his own style of learning.

(c) Auditory learner enjoys listening to stories.

(d) Children learn through discussions and debates in a group.
(e) Children carry their experiences of religious practices from school to home.

20.3 DIVIDE BETWEEN HOME AND SCHOOL LANGUAGES
India is a multilingual country and the Constitution is committed to protect the
multilingual nature of India. In terms of linguistic diversity, it has a variety of
languages and dialects. The home and school language divide indicates the
situation where medium of instruction at school is different from the language
used at home. For example, the school may use English as a medium of
instruction while at home, Tamil is used by the child and her/his family to
communicate with each other and with neighbours.

The divide between the home and school can occur due to :
• Family moving from one part of country to another

• Lack of availability of a school using mother tongue as medium of
instruction in the area

EARLY CHILDHOOD CARE AND EDUCATION 193