INTRODUCTION

Malaysia is a multicultural country with a wide variety of different races and cultures. Teachers need to become sensitive to the learning needs and abilities, to personal interests and motivation, and to ethnic and cultural differences and similarities

To be able prepare all students to be culturally literate citizens of the world.

Cultural Diversity

What is culture?
Culture refers to the behavior patterns, beliefs and all other products of a particular group of people that are passed on from generation to generation
Ethnicity refers to cultural heritage, nationality, race, religion and language Socioeconomic status refers to the categorization of people according to their economic, educational and occupational characteristics

Strategies for adapting science instruction to children with cultural differences

1. Become sensitive to racist content in materials and classroom interactions 2. Include the experiences of different cultural groups in the classroom; i.e., bulletin board displays, projects and presentations. 3. Recognize and understand cultural differences. 4. Vary your teaching style to accommodate different learning styles.

5. Examine all curriculum material for ethnic and cultural bias. 6. Promote and foster healthy interaction among diverse groups for making decisions and solving problems. 7. Promote students' ability to understand and cope with an environment which can and will change. 8. Infuse multicultural concepts whenever possible in all areas of the curriculum.

9. Teach students sensitivity to and appreciation of similarities and differences.

10. Be aware of elements of culture including language, food, clothing, time, space, gestures, ethics, values, religion, sex roles, rights and duties, esthetics, etc.

11.Promote effective interaction between/among individuals and groups.

Task 1
a) If your students are culturally different from you, how can you help them to learn science? b) Discuss techniques for teaching science to non-English speaking students