Deck 5: Addressing Cultural and Socioeconomic Diversity

Question 1

Within ethnically diverse groups of students, cooperative learning is likely to

A) foster resentment among members of different ethnic groups.
B) result in a widening achievement gap among different ethnic groups of students.
C) foster an increased understanding of classmates from different ethnic groups.
D) result in increased competition among members of different ethnic groups.

Answer 1

foster an increased understanding of classmates from different ethnic groups.

Question 2

Which of the following statements about cultural diversity in the United States is true?

A) Cultural diversity is decreasing because of changing immigration laws.
B) Cultural diversity is increasing because of increasing numbers of Asian Americans, but the number of Latinos/Latinas is decreasing because of immigration restrictions.
C) Cultural diversity is decreasing because of decreasing birthrates among immigrants.
D) Cultural diversity is increasing because of changes in immigration and birthrates among immigrants.

Answer 2

Cultural diversity is increasing because of changes in immigration and birthrates among immigrants.

Question 3

The concept of cultural pluralism holds that

A) all cultures are basically the same and should be considered equal.
B) people can rise above their particular culture and become culture-free.
C) all cultures within a society should be respected by all members of that society.
D) different cultures have their own beliefs and behavioral norms, but cultural values are universal.

Answer 3

all cultures within a society should be respected by all members of that society.

Question 4

Racial and ethnic minority students who grow up in poor, one-parent families are

A) at greater risk of academic failure than are white middle-SES students.
B) likely to do as well as the average student.
C) likely to compensate for their deprived background by performing above average in school.
D) more likely than other students to place a high value on education.

Question 5

Bilingual programs that try to improve non-English-speaking students' native-language competence are known as ________________ programs.

A) bicultural
B) transitional
C) pluralistic
D) maintenance

Question 6

If a young Korean student doesn't look at you while you are speaking, this is probably because

A) the child is guilty of something and feels she may be found out if she looks at you.
B) in the child's culture of origin, it is a sign of respect to avert one's eyes when speaking to an elder.
C) the child isn't paying attention to what you are saying.
D) the child is upset about something and is trying to conceal his feelings.

Question 7

If you were a teacher of low-SES racial and ethnic minority students and wanted to increase their achievement levels, which of the following would you do?

A) Create a caring and supportive classroom environment.
B) Communicate to students high but realistic expectations for learning.
C) Use scaffolded instruction.
D) All of these answers.

Question 8

Multicultural education is especially challenging to teachers in culturally homogeneous schools. What technology tool is likely to aid teachers the most in adding diversity to their classroom?

A) videotaped documentaries on other cultures
B) foreign language films
C) international telecommunications projects
D) computer simulations of life in other countries

Question 9

Multicultural programs attempt to

A) help students master reading, writing, and computation skills in a context that makes mainstream American culture more appealing to culturally diverse students.
B) help students analyze which harmful social stereotypes are not supported by scientific fact and which are.
C) reduce ethnocentrism by allowing students the opportunity to understand how different cultural groups perceive and have influenced historical events.
D) reduce ethnocentrism by teaching students which cultures have the right interpretation of various historical and cultural events and which do not.

Question 10

How a group of people perceives, believes, thinks, and behaves is the ________________of those people.

A) attitude
B) culture
C) right
D) ethnocentrism

Question 11

Which of the following conditions likely contributes to the achievement gap between minority and white students?

A) inadequate health care
B) growing up in a one-parent family
C) low need to achieve
D) all of the above

Question 12

Proponents of a transitional approach to bilingual education advocate

A) helping non-English-speaking students become even more proficient in their native language
B) placing all non-English-speaking students, regardless of native language, in the same classroom.
C) keeping non-English-speaking students together even after they have mastered English.
D) teaching non-English-proficient students in their native language until they can function adequately in English.

Question 13

Peer tutoring has been shown to improve the achievement of which of the following groups?

A) low-SES students
B) primary grade students
C) ethnic minority students
D) all of the above

Question 14

The need for multicultural programs and an increased sensitivity toward the educational needs of students from different ethnic groups is apparent because

A) the gap in test scores among various minority groups decreases as the students move through the school system.
B) African Americans, but not Latinos/Latinas or Asian Americans, have difficulty securing employment once they graduate from high school.
C) a higher divorce rate among various minority groups can be addressed with increased multicultural education.
D) members of various minority groups have lower standardized test scores and dropout rates.

Question 15

Crispus Attucks, thought to have been a runaway slave, was a patriotic American who died in the Boston Massacre in 1770. If you were to present a lesson about events that led to the American Revolution, asking your students to select a point of view of either white colonists or African Americans (such as Attucks) at the time and to study with this perspective in mind, this would be the __________ approach to multicultural education.

A) contributions
B) additive
C) transformative
D) social action

Question 16

The essence of cooperative learning is that

A) it produces a high level of cooperation between the students and the teacher.
B) students help one another master a particular learning task.
C) students work on assignments on their own and then come together to compare notes.
D) individuals who perform the best within a group may be rewarded.

Question 17

Which of the following scenarios demonstrates the teacher expectancy effect?

A) Karrie's reading achievement declines from one testing to the next because she does not like her teacher.
B) Lonnie's reading achievement increases dramatically after he is criticized by his teacher for being a poorly motivated student.
C) Linda's achievement test scores increase because her teacher, who feels Linda is gifted, begins to expect more of her.
D) Bobby's achievement test scores increase because he wants to show his teacher that he is smarter than everyone else in class.

Question 18

Students from low-SES homes are more likely than students from upper-SES homes to have difficulty studying because low-SES students typically

A) live in smaller, more crowded conditions.
B) receive less supervision from parents.
C) lack a good place to study.
D) all of the above.

Question 19

In light of the chapter discussion on cultural differences, if you have a young African American student in your fourth-grade class who consistently has problems working on assignments alone, which of the following might you consider in trying to help?

A) Assume that the child has reading difficulties and make arrangements for her to be evaluated.
B) Try letting the student work cooperatively with peers.
C) Make arrangements to speak to the child's parents about the child's refusal to participate in school.
D) Provide either negative or positive reinforcement to encourage the child to read the required assignments.

Question 20

Advocates of mastery learning believe that this approach

A) can help foster all students' perseverance if rewards, length of learning units, and teaching methods are appropriate.
B) should be restricted to those students who have sufficient aptitude for the subject matter.
C) can compensate for a student's lack of prerequisite knowledge and skills.
D) is appropriate for vaguely defined learning objectives.

Question 21

Describe the relationship between teacher expectations and students' achievement and participation.

Question 22

List several ways that members of various ethnic groups differ in verbal and nonverbal communication patterns.

Question 23

What are the primary characteristics of transition bilingual education programs?

Question 24

How does cooperative learning help one accomplish the goals of multicultural education?

Question 25

What are some advantages of peer tutoring?

Question 26

What is culture?

Question 27

Explain why the United States has become more culturally diverse since the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Question 28

Provide two examples of how values and culture may conflict with classroom practices.

Question 29

Briefly describe four factors that researchers believe lead to lower achievement scores for low-SES minority students than for white students.

Question 30

Describe cooperative learning.

Question 31

Generally speaking, studies on the effectiveness of bilingual education have shown that

A) bilingual education is not as effective as immersion programs in terms of bringing non-English-speaking students up to the same level of competence as English-speaking students.
B) bilingual education appears to produce moderate gains in achievement in reading, language, and math skills tests.
C) there appears to be little difference in test score gains between bilingual and immersion programs.
D) English and reading scores seem to benefit from bilingual programs, whereas math and science test scores appear to benefit more from immersion programs.

Question 32

Explain how multicultural education can affect minority dropout rates.

Question 33

Describe the three beliefs on which cultural pluralism is based.

Question 34

Describe the primary characteristics of maintenance bilingual education programs.

Question 35

Describe five factors that influence teacher expectancies.

Question 36

Describe how you can use technology in your classroom to promote cultural pluralism.

Question 37

Given that certain conditions are met or created, what is the fundamental premise of mastery learning?

Question 38

Define ethnocentrism.

Question 39

Describe four basic goals of multicultural education.

Question 40

Explain how members of various ethnic groups may favor different learning modes.

Question 41

Describe the nature of the achievement gap that exists between white and minority students and the four factors mentioned in the textbook that appear to contribute to this gap.

Question 42

How has the ethnic composition of the United States changed since the late 1960s and early 1970s? Incorporate into your answer the concepts of the melting pot and cultural pluralism.

Question 43

What are three instructional tactics advocated by proponents of multicultural education? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

Question 44

What are the four approaches to multicultural education described by James Banks? Describe how each approach builds on the previous one in the hierarchy. Which approach would you use in your classroom, and why?

Question 45

Describe the primary characteristics of two-way bilingual (TWB) education programs.

Question 46

What conclusions can be drawn from research on bilingual education?

Question 47

Three approaches to bilingual education are transition programs, maintenance programs, and two-way programs. Define each type and indicate their similarities and differences.

Question 48

Explain how you will use technology in your classroom to promote cultural pluralism and to diminish the educational impact of socioeconomic differences between your students.