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number of minutes for the next, another for recess or lunch time, and so on. In more ways than one,
therefore, being on time becomes especially valued in schools, as it is in many parts of society. Punctuality
is not always conducive, however, to strong personal relationships, which develop best when individuals do
not end joint activities unilaterally or arbitrarily, but allow activities to “finish themselves”, so to speak—to
finish naturally. If personal relationships are a broad, important priority for a student, therefore, it may
take effort and practice by the student to learn the extent to which schools and teachers expect punctuality.
Punctuality includes the obvious, like showing up for school when school is actually scheduled to begin. But
it also includes subtleties, like starting and finishing tasks when the teacher tells students to do so, or
answering a question promptly at the time it is asked rather than sometime later when discussion has
already moved on.Accommodating diversity in practice............................................................................................................
Hopefully I have persuaded you—if you did need persuading—that students are indeed diverse. The important
question that follows from this point is what to do about the diversity. I have begun answering that question by
including a number of suggestions in the sections and paragraphs of this chapter. But there is obviously more to be
said about accommodating diversity—about actually working with students’ diversity and turning it into a resource
rather than a burden or challenge. In the rest of this book therefore I offer more suggestions not only about
knowing how different one student can be from another, but also about diversifying teaching to acknowledge this
fact. Differences among students remain a challenge during all phases of teaching, from planning instruction, to
implementing lessons and activities, to assessing students’ learning after lessons or activities are all finished. In the
next chapter, I illustrate this reality by describing how students with disabilities can be included in classroom life—
one of the more telling examples of accommodating to diversity.
Chapter summary
Students differ in a multitude of ways, both individually and as groups. Individually, for example, students have
a preferred learning style as well as preferred cognitive or thinking styles. They also have unique profiles or
intelligence or competence that affect how and what they learn most successfully.
In addition to individual diversity, students tend to differ according to their gender, although there are
numerous individual exceptions. Motor abilities as well as motivation and experience with athletics gradually
differentiate boys and girls, especially when they reach and begin high school. Socially, boys tend to adopt
relationships that are more active and wide-ranging than do girls. Academically, girls tend to be a bit more
motivated to receive slightly higher marks in school. Teachers sometimes contribute to gender role differences—
perhaps without intending—by paying attention to boys more frequently and more publicly in class, and by
distributing praise and criticism in ways differentiated by sex.
Students also differ according to cultures, language, and ethnic groups of their families. Many students are
bilingual, with educational consequences that depend on their fluency in each of their two languages. If they have
more difficulty with English, then programs that add their first language together with English have proved to be
helpful. If they have more difficulty with their first language, they are risk for language loss, and the consequences
are also negative even if more hidden from teachers’ views.
Educational Psychology 80 A Global Text