Educational Insights
Culturally Relevant Math Lessons and Latinx Children: Engaging All Students
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Paula Guerra
In this paper we share how using culturally relevant mathematics lessons engage Latinx elementary school children with the content in more productive ways than traditional mathematics lessons. In addition to that, all lessons were taught bilingually by 2 pre-service teachers, and 1 math ed professor. From 2010 to 2020 the United States (US) Latinx population observed a 26% increase, accounting for about half of the total population growth (Pew report, 2023). An NCES report adds that the Latinx population in public elementary and secondary schools in the US in 2021 accounted for 28% of the total enrollment (NCES, 2023). About the challenges these children encounter in school, Reardon and Galindo (2009) state: “Compared to non-Hispanic White students, Hispanic students enter kindergarten with much lower average math and reading skills. The gaps narrow by roughly a third in the first 2 years of schooling but remain relatively stable for the next 4 years.” (pg. 853). We want to contribute to finding new ways to close that gap. After coding the recorded participation instances as on math topic, on context topic, or off topic, and analyzing interviews with the children, we found that Latinx children appreciated the lessons being taught bilingually. They were highly motivated to complete the mathematics problems, and even claimed they did not realize this was “math class”. Yet they showed success completing the problems which were all of higher cognitive demand.
International Student Experience in a Canadian Literature Classroom: Managing Syllabus Content and Classroom Delivery to Optimize Learning
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Bethany Suvak
This paper is based on the experience of teaching a newly developed Canadian Literature course to international students at a Canadian two-year college. These learners had limited context and experience related to Canadian history and culture which impacted the design of this second-year course. It is important to consider the implications of learner characteristics on their learning process. In this case, most students were not native English speakers and had been in Canada for less than two years; most students were from India. Pedagogical considerations must be made to help these learners engage with the material in an accessible way, avoiding biases and assumptions about prior knowledge. Practical suggestions are made based qualitative study on teacher classroom observations as well as a survey issued to students in the penultimate week of the course. Conclusions from this study are relevant to any instructor who teaches international students and may assign humanities-subject material from the host country.
