 Student Diversity

“Every student can learn, just not on the same day, or not on the same way.” (George Evans)

 INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES IN LEARNING

1. Helps every educator to maximize their potentials in handling learners with
differentiated background and abilities.
2. Understanding the why’s and how’s of students’ diversity creates a welcoming and
positive environment which helps reaching Educational Success.
 THE CONCEPT OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
1. “The variation or deviations among individual is regard to a single characteristics or a
number of characteristics, those differences which in their totality distinguish one
individual from another.”( Good, C.V.)
2. Sees individual differences as including any measurable aspect of the total
personality(Skinner, C.E.)
 HOW DIVERSITY AFFECTS THE CLASSROOM
1. Race , Class , Gender, Sexual Orientation
2. Identifying and thinking through notions of difference and how they affect the
classroom allow both students and teachers to see the classroom as an inclusive
place.
 THREE DOMAINS OF INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
1. Intellectual Differences- First, what people typically think of as “intelligence” is best
described by a hierarchal model with numerous specific abilities occupying the lower
levels, a small number of group factors at an intermediate level, and a single general
cognitive ability factor, referred to as “g,” at the top.
2. Personality Differences- Personality is of interest to numerous disciplines, including the
science of individual differences, which has given rise to a variety of theories.
- (1) Extraversion (includes surgency and positive emotionality factors),
- (2) neuroticism (includes anxiety and negative emotionality factors)
- (3) agreeableness, (4) conscientiousness, and (5) openness to experience.
3. Conative Differences- The importance of conative factors (or volition; e.g., interests and
motives) is found in virtually all theories of the determinants of purposeful behavior.
 FACTORS AFFECTING INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES
- Individual Differences is the uneven rate of growth and development among
individuals.
TWO MAJOR FACTORS
1. Heredity- We inherit almost all the things we need for growth and development
• HEREDITY- SEXUAL ORIENTATION- Males are expected to be aggressive, fearless, and
capable of doing heavier work. Females are expected to be passive, demure, prim, and the like.
McNemar and Terman discovered the following differences between men and
women, on the basis of some studies:
• (i) Women have greater skill in memory while men have greater motor ability.
• (ii) Handwriting of women is superior while men excel in mathematics and logic.
• (iii) Women show greater skill in making sensory distinctions of taste, touch and smell etc., while
men show greater reaction and conscious of size- weight illusion.
• (iv) Women are superior to men in languages, while men are superior in physics and chemistry.
• (v) Women are better than men in mirror drawing. Faults of speech etc. in men were found to
be three times of such faults in women.
• (vi) Women are more susceptible to suggestion while there are three times as many colour blind
men as there are women.
• HEREDITY- AGE- Age – age is a big factor in making one different from another.
Generally , older learners have more physical strength and higher level of comprehension than
younger ones.
2. Environment - Environment modifies to a certain extent the effects of hereditary.
ENVIRONMENT-SOCIOECONOMIC STATUS- The millionaires’ lifestyle differs
from that of the middle income or lower income group. Differences in
children’s interests, tendencies and character are caused by
economic differences.
ENVIRONMENT- FAMILY BACKGROUND- Family background – includes level of
education and value orientation of parents is an other determinant.
ENVIRONMENT- COMMUNITY BACKGROUND- Community Background-It can
be observed that children of individuals coming from these different
types of communities differ markedly in their values, manners, actions,
and thinking.
 Benefits of Individual Differences
Individual Differences- According to educational psychology individual difference are stand for
difference in their totally distinguish one individual from others.
Two types of Individuals:
1. Physical differences
2. Psychological differences
Causes of Individual differences
1. Heredity (Nature)
2. Environment (Nurture)
Benefits of Individual Differences
1. Academic Achievement- Numerous study shows that diversity inside the classroom is indeed
beneficial to every learners
2. Creativity and Confidence- Contrary to feelings of danger or discomfort, a study in the journal
“Child Development” has illustrated that students feel safer in life and school when they are
educated in a diverse environment. These positive feeling developed in diverse environment
results to children developing confidence and helps them to generate ideas easily.