Teaching for Diversity - Essay Example

Running Head: TEACHING FOR DIVERSITY Teaching for Diversity: Creating An Inclusive, student centered learning environment Name Institution Date Teaching for Diversity: Creating An Inclusive, student centered learning environment Introduction There is great evolution in the living standard of the people which has led to stiff competition in all the systems in terms of the performance or outputs. Education sector is not an exemption. The system has expanded, creating opportunities for the entire population. Formal education used to have well identified age brackets in various stages; for example, children would be allowed to start schooling at the age of five and not less that, thus the one would automatically tell the ages of the students in every stage. Everybody in the today’s society is concerned about education and wants to get the best out of it so as improve the standard of living and keep updated to the new issues that come with evolution For example, technology is changing so fast and its impacts are much felt in the lives of the people. Devices such as computers have eased the style of doing things such as communication (Bron & Schemmann 2003). Australia is one of the known entities with a well structured system of education. It is organized into different associates to support various areas of education, for example, Adult Vocational Learning is one of the sectors that has attracted the participation of both the government as well as other non-governmental organizations. It is one of the sectors that has hard a greater impact on the society and has already transformed the lives of a good number of Australian citizens. Adult vocational education This vocational Education and Training is also referred to as the Career and Technical Education (CTE) functions to prepare or improve the practical working skills of the adults. Sometimes it is referred to as the technical education because the learner develops proficiency in an identified group of techniques or technology. It can be at any level either secondary or post secondary level and can also interrelate with the apprenticeship style. The system existed from the beginning, the only different is the content because of the increasing need and development of the technical skills brought about by the widely usage of machines and other technological issues. All through from the beginning to the to the end of the twentieth century vocational education focused on some trades like automobile mechanics but presently many machines have been discovered like the computers whose knowledge has turned out to be like a basic necessity. As a result so many old people are seeking this knowledge. Due to the economic inflation and other factors like the in the labor market, the government is intervening by formation or support of the training organizations and subsidized traineeship initiatives for business. This is the secondary level of vocational education and the post secondary level is where by the training is offered typically by an institute of technology or any other concern college (Saiyadain, Murthy & Singh 2000). Over the other systems, adult vocational education has some unique advantages. For example, most of then do their job as part time workers or have other jobs thus when choosing the areas to enroll in the vocational education, they prefer to advance their areas of professional. They are also in a position to adventure in their education because they not only depend on the donors like the government but also have the power to finance the project. Vocational courses only calls for the practical experience, not much of the theory is needed like in the graduate degree where one has not had a chance to put their skills into practical so as to know their areas of weaknesses and strategies ways of boosting them (Fasokun 2003). How to boost adult vocational education Adult vocational education is one of the areas in the areas curriculum system which needs all the necessities to achieve its goals and objectives, for example, all the parties involved in any learning organization like teachers, learners and the supportive facilities are necessary for the learning of the this sector. Although the governments of some of the states like Australia have come up with ways of supporting this system of education by forming organizations like Adult Learning Australia, more efforts are needed to see a reasonable performance. There is much to be learnt by the adults but their schools are scarce and that is why only few adults access them (Ahluwalia 2000). These learning centers should be evenly distributed to ensure that almost every adult can reach them. This can be possible by setting up school specifically for training or initiating this program in the existing learning institutions like the public universities or other tertiary colleges. The adult learning program is slightly different from the ordinary program because adults have other responsibilities like families and part time jobs hence should have a system which is a bit flexible to manage. Some of the employers do not recognize the study leaves for their employees hence those that are willing to advance their skills can only create their own time and this is obviously when they are free from job. Thus adult are more comfortable in the program which offers part time classes like in the evening or during the weekends. In the present world this system is only applicable in the private sectors as the proprietors can pay their teachers overtime allowances which the government does not account for thus their employees are not motivated to run part time programs. Those offered in the private sectors are very expensive for the common adults to afford along the other responsibilities that they have hence most of them are not in a position to enroll. The government officers should ensure that the adult vocational training is included in the annual budget so as to support the system and make it affordable by any citizen (Okech 2004). The government should also ensure that these learning have the fiscal resources which may be required for the evaluation development, implementation, training and preservation. This is because the adult vocational education is mostly based on the practical work rather than the theory hence more finance is needed to set up facilities for the practical work. There is another form of adult vocational education which requires less of the school set up an example is a conference or seminar organized to educate the adults on various things like the out break of a disease. These may not be in the budget but those concerns should take the initiative of supporting and running the programs. Although most of the adults and especially the women, lack of shared understanding of adult learning together with varied social, political and cultural contexts have led to a strong division of policy discourse lines especially between developing and industrialized countries. The society should try to appreciate this system of education like any other system and support it. Most of the people look at these adults as illiterate and poor managers of their time that is they are said to have wasted their chances of learning when they were of age. The stereotypes in different cultures concerning the adult education mostly keep off some adults and especially those that are a bit naïve from enrolling themselves. Everybody should support and encourage adult education so as to boost the standard of living of all (Aderinoye 2004). According to the globe analysis, more women are interested in adult vocational education than men. This is because most of the areas majored in concerns them. For example, early child care, environmental education and skill training. However some people assume that women should not have more knowledge than their counterparts especially in a family set up where the husband is expected to be the head of the family. Women should be encouraged and supported to keep up dated on the present society so as to be good role models of their kids as the first teachers. Because they are more attached to their families than the men, their education programs should be short or convenient for their situations. The instructors should be trained on the special skills, knowledgeable, sensitive and social commitment. This is because adults have different teaching techniques to those of the young students. Their levels of understanding may also differ because of their age and other environmental factors like pressure in the work place or the family responsibilities. The teachers should be well loaded with the skills to enable them handle the adults (Wangoola & Youngman 2006). To ensure that the adult educations offered in various centers is of quality, it is necessary to carry out some research and document them. This is important especially in the remote or rural areas where the adults interested are completely illiterate hence require the foundation knowledge. In most areas the teachers are not available so the learners organize themselves and hire somebody they assume to be having knowledge to teach them. There should be a research institute for adult education whether from the government, private sectors or universities. These institutes should come up with a syllabus or curriculum to give guidance on the lessons to be delivered. A thorough research should be done before planning for the schemes of work so as know the level of the awareness of the group that is to be taught. This is because there is some knowledge that is not necessarily achieved through the formal classroom education but can be acquired through social interaction. It may be boring or wastage of time teaching the adults that which is too common in their daily life. Thus as much as there is need to have a curriculum of adult education the immediate instructor should consider the type of the learner that he or she is dealing with by assessing the social knowledge that they have. Lack of orderly monitoring and assessment of the adult vocational education reflects a clear need for a more rational approach. Most of the nations organize for bodies to evaluate the performance of adult vocational education only when the donors demands for it in the fear of loosing their favors. This is necessary as a government initiative to create indicators to monitor progress towards the education for all goals. Availability of the requisite infrastructures plays an important role in this education by expanding access, decreasing the costs and improving quality by allowing the learners to control their own learning. The world wide based information and communication technologies should implemented in the system of adult education so as to improve the quality of learning. These helps to link them with their school instructors and can either be used to submit the assignment or make enquiries without necessarily having to present them physically. Most of the adult vocational education system and especially those in rural areas are organized communally. That is the members of a certain community come together and organize for a teaching program. The government and other financial bodies should intervene to promote the community driven development advancement as an essential point as a point to start adult education as well as learning and reducing poverty. Most of these organizations need to be taught on the organization management so as to be able to run their organizations as well as be given professional teachers who can offers quality education. They should take adult education as an investment and not just a social aspect or a marketable product (Mislevy 2002). There are no enough resources to source the adult knowledge. More text books, journals and other educative articles should be published and released to the public so as to be read by the learners and their instructors to seek the state of art review of the field of work. These books can also help the learners in the understanding of the content taught because they can keep reading by their own. Conferences and seminars should also be organized as a way of teaching the adults. They can be taught on a new invention or new ways of improving their economic status. The government does not only come in to give the financial support but can also intervene through political and legal conditions. For example, during the constitution reforming process, the politicians should include laws which guarantee the right to education. This will prevent ways which can pre4vent adults from accessing the education and can grant them power to fight for the empowerment of the project or for other rights that they do not enjoy as learners. The adult literacy is often seen as a homogenous group but the fact is that it is diverse in a number of ways. It mostly depends on the exposure of an individual or the environment in which a person is brought up and the resources available. For example, if a person is grows up in an environment where by there is availability of computer, he or she may easily know the basic computer operations than the one who has never seen it or if one is socially stable he or she can easily gain social knowledge than the one who keeps to himself or herself. So a treatment that works in a group of people does not necessarily mean it can apply to the other but a good research can show an aggregate outcome across a diverse population. This shows that the adults should be taught depending on their level of intelligence. There are four groups of people which should be considered when planning for the adult education program. These are: those who cannot read or write by their own although they are rare in developed nations like US, low literate people who cannot read well because may be they dropped from school before developing these skills, those with learning disabilities due to physical or psychological challenges and the second language users who cannot read or speak English. They may be aware of many things but are not in a position to express themselves. All these need to be considered when planning for the best syllabus (Möhle 2001). Conclusion Educating adults is very necessary and requires many people to be encouraged to enroll. This is because there is much evolution taking place in the present world and calls for everybody to be updated on the new evolutions so as to be more productive. Like any other learning institutions, those responsible for educating the adults should be fully trained for effective learning of those concerned. Everybody is responsible to see a successs of this project by providing a good learning environment. The public should encourage those concern to work hard and helping them where necessary and the government have a great role of oproviding the teaching and learning facilities and resources. This can be throughy training the teachers or setting up schools and providing the required learning facilities.The level of illetarecy should be considered so as to determine the type of education to be given so as not to waste time educating peple on things that they already know. Although some nations like Australia seems to be putting so much efforts to educate the old people by putting up schools and various organizations more efforts are required,like ensuring that all the extra facilities that these people may need for effective learning are made available or by encouraging those with illiterate relatives or friends to enroll them in this schools. Others nations should also try this program so as to ensure that there is even development and that everybody is accorded the expected services of a citizen. References Saiyadain S., Murthy N., & Singh J. (2000).Challenges in adult education: an impact study in Gujarat. India: Macmillan. Mislevy J.(2002). Performance assessments for adult education: exploring the measurement issues : report of a workshop. New York: National Academies Press. Fasokun T.(2003) The challenges of adult education.Abuja: Awolowo University Press Bron A.& Schemmann M.(2003).Knowledge society, information society and adult education: trends, issues, challenges. Berlin: LIT Verlag Münster, Ahluwalia(2000). Education:issues & Challenges. New Delhi: APH Publishing Okech A.( 2004).Adult education in Uganda: growth, development, prospects, and challenges Michigan: Fountain Publishers. Aderinoye R. (2004). Adult and non-formal education and the global challenges, issues and perspectives: Department of Adult Education 55th anniversary lecture delivered at the University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria on 20th September. Ibadan: Gabesther Educational Publishers. Wangoola P.& Youngman F.(2006). Towards a transformative political economy of adult education: theoretical and practical challenges. Cornell: LEPS Press. Möhle H.(2001). Copy of a paper on "University Adult Education": prepared for the International Conference "Adult Education and the Challenges of the 1990s", Leuven (Belgium) Belgium: Möhle H. Read More