Instructing African American Students

One essential key to economic, personal, and social success, for African American, is to pursue formal education. Concomitantly, the struggles of African-Americans to achieve educational excellence, equality, and equity are critically linked to the instruction experienced in the classroom. African-American children, who are among the schools' majority of minorities in this 21st century, have experienced detrimental affects due to the lack of equity in the classroom. These children need advocates for excellence and equity in education to achieve their educational goals (Young, 1994). The dilemmatic issue regarding the lack of achievement by African-American children may conceivably be changed if equal and quality educational opportunities are provided through instruction in the classroom (Wright, 1999). When presenting information regarding instructing African-American students to teachers, I always ask them to think about two things as we progress through this presentation. One is, Change is Good. Even though we live in a society that continues to change, teachers often resist change. The reality is teachers enjoy doing what works for students in the classroom, but children have changed over the years in the classroom. The change in children and what they bring to the classroom requires a change in what should be done in the classroom for African American students to be successful. Another quote I share is, Those who dare to teach must never cease to learn, penned by Anderson (1980). It is my belief that teachers should always be open to learn new things, ideas, and/or concepts to enhance their instruction in the classroom. As educators, we need to address the instructional process in the classroom to enhance learning for African-American children. But, Do teachers teach the way they were taught? or Do teachers teach the way they learn? about students who learn differently from the way teachers teach? Another question I pose to teachers in this presentation is, How do you learn? or What is your learning style or modality? To answer the above questions, the teachers are administered a learning style inventory to assess their learning preference. Since teachers teach the way they learn; and when students learn differently from the way the teacher instructs, they are often times out of luck. Even though style of a teacher and student may differ, the differences should not be used as an excuse for poor instruction or low expectations (Hilliard, 1992). The aforementioned questions will be addressed and information will be provided as workable suggestions can be utilized in the classroom to enhance learning for African-American children. The information will be based on the preferential learning style and dimensions of African American culture. Learning Preferential Style Students' success in school is dependent upon how much they learn academically. It is my belief that students come to school to learn but somehow that does not always happen. It is not as if students cannot learn. If a child walks through the door or if a child can talk and communicate with the teacher, then we know the child can learn. Everything a child can do after they enter school is learned. So, what can teachers do to help students learn while in school? First, teachers need to know how students learn. Learning style and the way students learn has been addressed by many researchers to assist students in making the connection with learning in the classroom as well as helping teachers become successful teaching students with varying learning styles (Stevenson & Dunn, 2001; Gabe, 2002). is a learning style? According to Dunn and Dunn (as cited in Stevenson & Dunn, 2001), a learning style is the way an individual begins to concentrate on, process, internalize, and remember new and difficult academic information or develop skills. Students at the collegiate level tend to have a better understanding of how they learn by developing a prescription for learning. …