Goldenberg goes onto share something that is extremely important to remember and that is language of the reading material in relationship to students' language proficiency has more impact on reading comprehension than did familiarity with the content.
Obviously and as Goldenberg notes, even though familiar content will help a learner to learn the language and the academic curriculum at a faster rate, what is familiar shouldn't be limited to what is part of his/her home culture.
All this is not to say, as Goldenberg reminds us, this is not to excuse an educator from becoming familiar with and respectful of a learner's home culture. Being able to make connections for the learner based on his/her home culture is not only good teaching but it's beneficial to the student regardless of the impact it has on student learning per se. Plus, it will be worthwhile for other students to learn about cultures other than their own.
Yet, Goldenberg reiterates that there has not been one study conducted that has shown that culture-based curriculum improved achievement in reading and writing and those that do claim this connection have research design problems. He adds, though, that this is a worthwhile topic for investigation.
Dr. Roland Tharp, a research professor from the University of California Berkeley, says that even though it is difficult to provide empirical research concerning the effectiveness of culture-based instruction, he contends that research in this area needs to be given a high priority. He says that there have been studies that have shown "culture-based education systematically produces greater student engagement, greater parent involvement, better attendance rates, lower dropout rates, and general satisfaction of all participants, as opposed to a standard, traditional program based on mainstream models." Even though studies, according to Goldenberg, haven't shown the connection, yet, it would seem that these outcomes Tharp mentions could influence and improve academic achievement. To know this, we obviously need studies that carefully separate out cultural accommodations for examination as Diane August, a senior research scientist at the Washington Center for Applied Linguistics, recommends.
August asks the all important question, "Is it the cultural accommodation or the teaching that matters?" and then Dr. Luis Moll, an education professor at the University of Arizona, reminds us of the importance not to focus only on test scores as a learning outcome indicator. Doing so could cause us to miss other outcomes such as an increase in student engagement and participation which could be just as beneficial to the student, if not more so.
My note: Lessons learned from this discussion:
- Research studies need to be conducted that carefully separate out cultural accommodations to better understand the impact they have on student learning as well as other outcomes that are beneficial to the student.
- Whether cultural accommodations improve student learning or not, teachers who are familiar with a learner's culture can use that knowledge to help make connections for a learner.
- It is beneficial for students of all cultural backgrounds to learn about other cultures.
- IMPORTANT: Rather than using only that with which a learner is already familiar, it is important for a teacher to expand and increase a learner's familiar world.
Information for the content in this blog post came from a personal email with Dr. Claude Goldenberg and an article from Education Week entitled Evidence on Effect of Culture-Based Teaching Called Thin by Mary Ann Zehr which was posted and retrieved online on January 8, 2008.
January 8, 2008 on line at Education Week
