Instructing African - American Students

Young, C., Laster, J. and Wright, J., (2005). Instructing African-American students. Education 125(3), pp.216-525.

Teachers must begin to examine the instructional process utilized in urban public schools. And, with the achievement gap slowly closing, they must identify effective teaching strategies for those children who have traditionally underachieved. Now more than ever, there is a need to examine the role of culture and its impact of learning styles in the classroom if we are to develop viable ways to educate urban children.

Intent

The aforementioned article postulates that teaching styles are significantly linked to educational achievement for African-American students. The prime intent of this article is to illustrate, through research-based findings, that the African American children learn differently than do their Caucasian counterparts.

Young et al (2005) notes that there are two main learning styles: global and analytical. A global learner is “visual, tactile and kinesthetic” (Young et al, 2005, p.519). An analytical learner “can process information that is written or oral” (Young et al, 2005, p.519). African-Americans are global learners while Caucasians are analytical learners. Current teaching methods, according to Young et al (2005), are geared toward those students who possess analytical learning styles. The authors note that “traditional American school is quite rigid and encapsulated in a style that mimics the particular cultural style of mot European-American children” (Young et al, 2005, p.521). Therefore, African-American students are alienated from the learning process.

To further illustrate their postulation, Young et al (2005) note that learning activities which entail physical movement contribute to the academic success of African-American children. Thusly, the authors urge teachers to include a multitude of activities including oral expression and non-traditional learning methods to engage African-American children in the learning process.

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to identity effective strategies for teaching African- American students. This topic has become increasingly important as local, state, and federal agencies and educational leaders work to close the achievement gap between minorities and members of the dominant culture.

African-American students are not attaining educational excellence at the same rate as their Caucasian counterparts. Teacher quality has been cited as a causal factor regarding this disparity. According to Young et al (2005), effective teaching and educational excellence are synonymous.

Young et al (2005) posit that reexamining existing teaching methods is vital to the success of student achievement. As such, educators should be encouraged to scrutinize their own learning styles because research notes that teachers teach they way they learn (Young et