Cultural ways of Learning

From: Michael Erickson (mericks1@mindspring.com)
Date: Thu Oct 09 2003 - 16:23:05 PDT


I found the article "Cultural Ways of Learning" by Gutierrez & Rogoff very interesting. It reminded me of a conference that I attended many years ago in the southwest where the presenters both Native Americans and Euro-Americans spoke about their students and a computer lab learning setting that they were apart of.

In the presentation they were perplexed by the "inability" of their predominantly Navajo and Hopi students to learn well in this environment. The computers and lessons were in a stand alone mode which from the background of their cultural comments struck me as "foreign" to many of their students.

When it was suggested that maybe networking the computers so that the students could capitalize on their preferred style of learning- as a community-based, collaborative activity, they confessed that they never made the connection.

When we capitalize on the preferred learning styles of individuals, then and only then can we teach the necessary learning strategies which they may need for future use in the other America. However, we must be sensitive that all students of a particular culture are not identical and a more personalized approach is needed. There are native American students who are also "apples." They have learned to do quite well in the world of the white man.

Michael E.



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