Suchergebnisse

The new philosophy of cultural democracy in educ is discussed in relation to cognitive styles & how practices based on the exclusionist melting pot ideology have affected learning in culturally diff children, specifically, Mexican-Amer children. Cultural democracy is the individual's right to maintain a bicultural identity, that is, to retain his identification with his ethnic group while simultaneously adopting mainstream Amer values & life styles. Cultural democracy includes the right of each individual to be educated in his own learning style. The exclusionist melting pot philosophy, on the other hand, assumes that values & life styles differing from those of the Amer Mc are inferior & must be changed. G. S. Lesser, G. Fifer & D. H. Clark, in "Mental Abilities of Children from Different Social-Class and Cultural Groups," Monographs of the Society for Research in Child Development, 1965, 102, have shown that members of diff ethnic groups exhibit diff patterns of intellectual ability, each group performing better in some areas than in others. Intellectual patterns varied for each of 4 ethnic groups & the patterns were similar for diff SE groups within the same culture. These findings imply that intellectual patterns observed are manifestations of culturally unique learning styles. Rejection of an individual's culture is accompanied by rejection of his established learning, incentive-motivational, human relational, & COMM styles (or cognitive styles) which are determined through soc'ization, itself culturally determined. The hyp is developed that the primary reason for the failure of educ'al instit's to fulfill the needs of the majority of Mexican Amer's is that they do not recognize or reflect the cognitive styles of these people. This hyp is supported by a study in which the Portable Rod & Frame Test was admin'ed to 53 teachers & 711 elementary students. Results showed teachers to be more field independent than Mexican Amer students. The hope is put forth that this res will lead to the development of techniques for training teachers to teach in both styles, to write curricula & to develop assessment instruments which are appropriate for both field sensitive & field independent children. Modified AA.