culturally responsive teaching and the brain download

Call and response, music, movement, and storytelling are all culturally relevant ways to create neural pathways. Processing - Help students 'hold on to it.' Learn about the neuroscience of information processing to support students in internalizing content to the level of automaticity. This is where learning theory, neuroscience and culturally responsive teaching all meet up. Teach the truth about power, politics, history, and context in developmentally appropriate ways, and use these issues as tools of instruction and discourse.Ĭognition - Use students’ culture as a reference point for helping them understand concepts.

Validation - Validate students’ experience of the world by acknowledging the socio-political context we live in.

I understand and nurture your multiple identities and none of these aspects of you are in conflict to me. In Beyond Flesh-Colored Crayons: The Four Components of Culturally Relevant Pedagogy, Hammond lists the four key components for culturally responsive pedagogy as follows:Īffirmation - I recognize and accept you as you are. All the while, the educator understands the importance of being in relationship and having a social-emotional connection to the student in order to create a safe space for learning.” Components of Culturally Responsive Teaching Zaretta Hammond, in her book Culturally Responsive Teaching and the Brain, defines Culturally Responsive Teaching as “an educator’s ability to recognize students’ cultural displays of learning and meaning making and respond positively and constructively with teaching moves that use cultural knowledge as a scaffold to connect what the students know to new concepts and content in order to promote effective information processing. When students feel seen, heard, and understood, they are more likely to engage in the learning process and achieve success. In a culturally responsive classroom, reflective teaching and learning occur in a culturally supported, learner-centered context, whereby the strengths students bring to school are identified, nurtured, and utilized to promote student achievement.

Culturally responsive teaching incorporates and centers unique student experiences and identities, supporting educators to build learning partnerships that result in increased student engagement and ownership of learning.īut what exactly is culturally responsive teaching?īased on Gloria Ladson-Billings’ 1994 culturally relevant pedagogy framework, culturally responsive teaching refers to an approach to teaching and learning that facilitates the achievement of all students by recognizing that culture is a powerful force in shaping how we see ourselves and the world around us. Most educators acknowledge that a one-size-fits-all approach to teaching is ineffective, and a more student-centered approach is necessary for student success.

Culturally responsive teaching and the brain download