I began reading a book today that really grabbed my attention. Culturally Responsive Teaching & The Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigor Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students by Zaretta Hammond was just recently released and has taught me many things in just one day.
For example, on pages 12-13, she describes our jobs as educators as helping students to learn. "One of our key jobs in the early years is to help students become independent learners" (p. 13). We teach children and help them build their cognitive skills so that they can think complex concepts and learn independently.
On page 19, Hammond states that it is our job as educators to help students process what they are learning. We "mediate student learning based on what [we] know about how the brain learns and students' cultural models."
Over the course of my online classes I have been taking, I have learned much about many cognitive theories. I have learned about being culturally relevant. I have also learned a little about how the brain learns. What Hammond is stating is that all three go together. Culture affects how the brain learns. As educators, we must be aware of the cultures in our classrooms.
The question she challenged me with was "How do you support struggling students to become independent learners?" (p. 20) I think it is a valid question to ask ourselves as pre-service effective educators.
Hammond, Zaretta. Culturally Responsive Teaching & The Brain: Promoting Authentic Engagement and Rigo Among Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin, 2015.
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