Essay about Culminating Activity

The art of teaching and the act of learning, primarily take place because a teacher creates the environment, orchestrates available resources, capitalizes on teaching moments, sometimes pushes back the desks, and does what it takes to help children. Some teachers become cynical for a while, after being put down and ignored and opposed. They end up thinking, feeling and sometimes even believing that no one can be reached. They convince themselves the battle is not worth it anyway. Yet teachers can help their students and influence many.

That influence must not be based on fear, otherwise, it is coercive. It will not work over the long haul and it has many unexpected and disruptive side effects. (Lee, B. 1997, 233). According to Barry Neil Kaufmann (2001, 26), beliefs are conclusions we form (or are taught) about ourselves, other people, events, or objects in the universe. He states that what distinguishes us from all other creatures is our belief-generating capacity. Simply stated, we freely choose to create, adopt and discard beliefs as our way of taking care of ourselves.

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He also believes that beliefs are held for what the believer thinks are the best of reasons. This paper looks into the beliefs systems of teachers and delves into some theories and models of educational psychology as applied in teaching. It hopes to give some solutions as to how best to approach the teaching of students and young learners. I believe that people are so different and variable, their reactions are so complex and influenced by such a multiplicity of factors that it sometimes seems as if real scientific understanding of human behavior is impossible.

Adages such as “one man’s meat is another man’s poison” and “there’s no accounting for tastes” emphasize the difficulties of making generalizations about human behavior. On the other hand, some regularity in behavior clearly exists, and we rely on these regularities in our everyday lives. For example, people drive in accordance with regularities, operating with well-learned habits; furthermore, we assume that everyone in our culture has learned these same habits.

However, I also believe that while some aspects of behavior are generally predictable, it is impossible to be accurate in every case; individual exceptions do occur. Some of the influences that have shaped my point of view on this are the studies, researches and experiences that I have gone through my stay in the University plus my own set of readings. Some issues that made me rethink my own set of beliefs One of the issues that we tackled that made me rethink and act accordingly were my experiences on the important issue for multiculturalism and the profound differences that exist between two cultures.

Cultural differences can be very deep and possibly, irreconcilable. For instance, Native American concepts regarding work and property are quite different from English traditions. Historically, the resolution of these irreconcilable differences involved attempts to destroy Native American cultures and replace them with Western traditions. In recent times, Native Americans rebelled against this cultural genocide and domination with demands for cultural restoration.

What should or can multicultural education do about these cultural differences? Another important issue is the evolution of cultures in the context of domination. The intersection of African and European cultures in the4 context of slavery and racism resulted in African American culture containing a certain ambivalence regarding acculturation to dominant white institutions and values. After all, it is these institutions and values that imposed slavery, segregation, and continued patterns of racism.

Should multicultural education try to bridge the gap between African American culture and mainstream European American culture? Or should multicultural education attempt to maintain African American cultural traditions? With the world movement of labor and capital, these types of cultural clashes will probably increase. The continued intersection of cultures will heighten the debate over multicultural education. For those advocating cultural unity, the emphasis will be on the teaching of cultural values of the dominant culture.