Theory Review: Environment and Context in Learning
Cultural Environment and Learning by Carol Clendening
Carol Clendening
EDAC 635 Fall 2022
Dr. Bo Chang
October 2, 2022
Name | Commented On |
Carol Clendening | Peggy Dessing |
Carol Clendening | Vicki Cooper |
The internal mental process of learning is significantly impacted by the external environment in which a learner engages in that process. The learning environment includes not only the physical space, furnishings, equipment and conditions like heat, light, and sound, but also invisible elements that reflect the cultural and social assumptions and expectations of the learner, other members of a group of learners, and the person who is teaching or facilitating the learning experience (Mackeracher, 2004, pp. 186-192). A facilitator must consider the learning environment and context beforehand, not only to avoid problems, but also to maximize the effectiveness of a learning experience (Mackeracher, 2004, p. 187). This paper will discuss the main points of theories related to the impact of the cultural environment on learning and ways in which the application of those theories can enhance learning experiences.
Main Theoretical Points
An initial point addressed in the theoretical literature on the impact of culture environment on learning is the question, “What is culture?” Basically, the definition used generally in all of the literature, as it impacts learning, is that it consists of the beliefs and values, assumptions, language, customs, behaviors and associated meanings that are common to members of a group or society and that guide their interactions within the group and with the world. It is initially derived from family and relationships within communities such as an ethnic or religious groups, but with exposure to new experiences and ideas, an individual’s sense of cultural identity can change.
One author emphasizes that culture is always a factor in the learning environment, whether the facilitator is aware of it or not (Mackeracher, 2004, p. 193). One writer has pointed out four negative issues that may arise when one encounters someone from a different culture: anxiety, misinterpretations, inadvertent taking of offense, and power imbalances (Noble, as cited in Mackeracher, 2004, pp. 193-194). To elaborate somewhat on those problems, it is understandable that being confronted with values and beliefs that differ from those in a model of reality a person has incorporated into their life over many years of experience can feel threatening and cause anxiety (Mackeracher, 2004, p. 193). Misinterpreting or misjudging a person from another culture occurs when one inappropriately applies their own cultural model of reality to the other person’s words or actions (Mackeracher, 2004, p. 194). Taking offense or giving offense inadvertently may happen because one is unaware of how words or actions may be interpreted differently in the other person’s culture; and finally, power imbalances embedded in one culture may differ from those of another culture for many reasons, such as historical events like slavery in the United States which lead to lowered empowerment of African Americans in this country (Mackeracher, 2004, p. 194-195).
In the context of teaching English as a second language, Z. Hammond’s description of “shallow culture” is cited in one textbook as rules relating to personal space and nonverbal communications which involve strong emotions and in an encounter with a different culture can lead to misunderstanding; however, “deep culture,” which she describes as including unconscious and unspoken understandings such as matters of self-identity and concepts of justice, can lead to actual culture shock when an individual encounters a different culture (Hammond, as cited in Fenner et al., 2017). An extremely important principle is that no one culture can be seen as better than any other (Fenner et al., 2017, pp. 30-31).
In recent years, many scholarly articles have been written discussing different theoretical elements relating to the importance of culture in the learning environment and describing ways that facilitators can apply different aspects of those theoretical principles in the development of approaches, course design and activities to enhance learning opportunities for students of all ages and backgrounds and in multiple different contexts of learning.
In the context of learning environments for international students on college campuses in the United States, one author emphasized that teaching, being a very personal, social activity, requires self-awareness, self-analysis and awareness of the social context for learning (Weaver et al., 2022, p.138).
Recognition of the significant impact of cultural environment on learning has led to theories that are focused on what is often referred to as culturally responsive teaching or CRT. Again, in the context of learning environments for international students, one author describes the essence of CRT as a pedagogy that provides social and emotional support to facilitate not only learning of academic content, but also acquisition of life skills and social competencies (Yeh et al., 2021, 2022, p. 20).
In the context of creating an online graduate course in women’s studies in religion, one article describes the importance of pedagogy allowing representation of diverse voices and the different physical locations of students in the class (Dhala & Johnson, 2021, p.167).
Another article, which focused largely on racial issues in American culture and their impact on learning environments, emphasized the importance of building relationships not only between the facilitator and the students, but also among the student learners (Howard, 2021, p. 412). That article cited the landmark theories of Vygotsky, based on the belief that all human learning is relational, and that conversation in the context of learning is critical, as is the social framework of one’s community (Vygotsky, as cited in Howard, 2021, p. 413).
Applications
The article mentioned above describing an online course in women’s studies in religion contains numerous examples of techniques that can be used to implement the theoretical concepts on the impact of cultural environment on learning (Dhala & Johson, 2021). These include: encouraging students to bring up life experiences they may have had that relate to the subject of the lesson, encouraging students to challenge existing research and raise issues of missing voices in that research from specific groups, such as females, LGBTQ individuals, racial or other minority groups; redesigning discussions and assignments in which the facilitator is sometimes the learner and the students are teaching (Dhala & Johson, 2021, p. 168). Another technique they used was to appoint one student during each class session to monitor the dynamics of an interactive discussion to help ensure that everyone, including students who may be more shy or reluctant to speak up, would have an opportunity to express themselves (Dhala & Johson, 2021, p171).
Another article, describing a cross-cultural online course offered to students from a university in the United States and a university in Liberia, used a student questionnaire with open-ended questions to help the facilitators understand the learner’s goals and aspirations, as well as what they hoped to gain from participating in the course (Devereux & Glenn, 2022, p. 103). One feature that helped promote culturally responsive interactive discussion and activities shared by students from the United States and students from Liberia in this course was that fact that the facilitators had deliberately kept the class size small (Devereux & Glenn, 2022, p. 109). One technique used to increase a sense of relationship and foster the ability of the facilitator to empathize with international students studying in the United States in order to create an effective learning environment was encourage each facilitator to draw on their own experiences traveling or studying abroad, or otherwise just to try to imagine what struggles, concerns, or anxieties they might feel if in their students’ shoes (Weaver et al., 2022, p.142).
Finally, it is worth mentioning the importance of showing each student the simple courtesy of learning how to pronounce their name correctly.
Reflection
Looking back and reflecting upon the significant theories and applications researched for this paper is a useful process for deeper appreciation of this project as learning activity.
Highlights
I chose the particular aspect of Group 3’s general topic of Environment and Context in Learning that is of most interest to me. The impact of cultural environment on learning is extremely relevant to my goal of teaching English as a second language to adult learners upon completion of a graduate certificate in teaching English to speakers of other languages here at Ball State. What I found most interesting was the tremendous amount of research that has been done just since the COVID-19 pandemic on ways that culturally responsive teaching can be applied to online classes and virtual learning environments. I also found it very it significant to learn that there are so many different contexts in which the theories and techniques involved with creating effective and culturally responsive learning environments can apply; for example, K-12 school environments, international collaborative courses, international students on college campuses, immigrant communities, teaching English as a second language, and courses on sensitive topics like women’s studies, race relations, etc.
Process
I began by becoming familiar with the OneSearch feature for researching books and articles through the Ball State library website. I found it amazingly simple to find articles related to my topic which could be readily downloaded as .pdf documents. The “Quick Look” feature in OneSearch was very helpful in eliminating articles that were not that useful for my topic. Since I was not formerly familiar with APA formatting rules, I found the citation printing feature of OneSearch tool extremely helpful. Rather than needing to take written notes on the articles I found, I used the “Comment” tools in the Adobe application to highlight sections that I wanted to cite in the paper. I printed out the most interesting and relevant articles with the most pertinent paragraphs already highlighted, so that it was easy to go to the printed articles, read and paraphrase the relevant provisions.
Table 1. Summary of the theoretical ideas
Main Theoretical Ideas | Summary of how to apply the main theoretical ideas in practice |
| Facilitators can become aware of their own cultural assumptions and learn about the cultures their students bring to learning experience, and thereby anticipate and avoid anxiety and other problems that would negatively affect the learning process. |
| Facilitators can learn about and apply culturally responsive techniques to create a safe environment for students from different cultures to use their voice and feel free to listen and learn from others. |
| Facilitators can make it clear to learners that no one culture is better than another and take steps to ensure a learning community of mutual respect. |
References
Devereux, & Glenn, A. (2022). Transformational Learning Through Shifting Global Perspectives. Journal of International Students, 12(S3), 96–115. https://doi.org/10.32674/jis.v12iS3.4642
Dhala, M., & Johnson, S. (2021). Taking bell hooks on zoom: Embodying feminist pedagogy in a graduate theological classroom. Teaching Theology & Religion, 24(3), 165-174. https://doi.org/10.1111/teth.12593
Fenner, D. S., Snyder, S., & Breiseth, L. (2017). Unlocking english learners' potential: Strategies for making content accessible. Corwin, a SAGE Company.
Howard, T. C. (2021). Culturally relevant teaching: A pivot for pedagogical transformation and racial reckoning. The Educational Forum (West Lafayette, Ind.), 85(4), 406-415. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131725.2021.1957637
Mackeracher, D. (2004). Making sernse of adult learning (2nd ed.) University of Toledo Press.
Weaver, G., Hiltebrand, G., Ngai, G., & Chan, S. (2022). Faculty perceptions of building collaborative teaching capacities within a transnational virtual exchange. Journal of International Students, 12(S3). https://doi.org/10.32674/jis.v12iS3.4633
Yeh, E., Sharma, R., Jaiswal-Oliver, M., & Wan, G. (2021;2022;). Culturally responsive social emotional learning for international students: Professional development for higher education. Journal of International Students, 12(1), 19-41. https://doi.org/10.32674/jis.v12i1.2976
Carol,
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing your theory review paper! You did a lovely job on this assignment. What was the motivation behind these theories you discovered?