Culture & Learning: How Culture Impacts Students' Learning & Performance - Research Paper

Introduction

Culture refers to how different groups of people from all over the world organize their normal lives, in the ethnic or national groups, neighborhoods, institutions, among other setups in the society. Imminently, as addressed by this paper, culture is a major determining factor of learning as well as teaching styles to students from all over the world. Moreover, it is apparent that cultural background might have a significant influence on the approach to learning as well as the performance of the students. The different cultural gaps between the teachers and students should, therefore, be well addressed to enhance teaching cross-culturally. The reason for the choice of this topic was influenced by the necessity to adjust teaching techniques and management skills to a more well planned as well as organized classes in the context of diverse cultures in the learning institutions. As this paper shows, to truly engage students and ensure effective cross-cultural teaching, teachers must reach out to them in manners that are culturally and linguistically responsive and appropriate. In addition, cultural assumptions and stereotypes brought into the classroom must also be well investigated to avoid hindering interconnectedness.

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A View of Cross-Cultural Teaching in Detail as an Issue

The concept of culture is vast and encompasses knowledge, skills, beliefs, norms, as well as the different values shared by a particular group. More importantly, as Biggs (2011) provides, cultures are often recognized by the different shared patterns of behaviors as well as interactions, emotional understanding, and intellectual concepts. These aspects are all learned through the socialization process, but individuals appear unique within different cultural parties. And according to Iljina (2014), student interaction between different cultural groups enables a continuous construction of meaning, as well as cooperation between the teachers and students in the educational set up. Moreover, cultural learning is a developmental, dynamic, and continuous process for students and teachers. This, therefore, indicates that cultural diversity in educational institutions has a practical impact on teaching and learning.

Among the most important aspects of classroom teaching is the role played by the teacher, and they are the only prerequisite for a successful organization of the classroom as well as the overall performance of the students. Therefore, as Biggs (2011) provides teaching in a cross-cultural setting, a teacher is supposed to have the skills to manage a classroom's elements, including a mixed ability-examination oriented curriculum, among other attributes. Furthermore, the enthusiasm and expertise demonstrated by teachers, also have a significant influence on the learning attitudes of the students, specifically their study on particular subjects such as languages. Moreover, it is imminent that those teachers teaching in the cross-cultural setups should be responsible for ensuring a positive working environment that allows students to make mistakes, ask the relevant questions, and express their different opinions (Leask & Carroll, 2013). More importantly, while teaching in the multicultural setups, teachers should provide an environment that will allow students' personal effects to be well recognized and rewarded adequately.

Imminently, every teacher has their own teaching styles depending on the level involved. As such, there are various national and cultural traditions in academics, along with cultural differences in pedagogy. However, as Iljina (2014) suggests, despite the existence of these different styles, traditions, as well as cultures, teaching in a multicultural set up in any part of the world, consists of one major thing, making connections. Moreover, there is evidence that cognitive neuroscience, educational psychology, as well as long periods of practical teaching experience, all enhance cross-cultural teaching. More importantly, sound education in such contexts entails bringing about knowledge as well as skills in the students from different backgrounds through establishing connections between the new things that teachers try to teach them as well as the current information. Biggs (2011) also provides that in a Piagetian perception, students from different cultural settings build and expand upon schemas through accommodation as well as assimilation. On the same note, the Vygotskian perspective provides that students advance entirely into their zone of proximal growth through the assistance of guardians.

The main point of classrooms is ensuring effective communication of ideas and concepts from the teachers to students in particular subjects. Tesar & Arndt (2017) explain that for teachers teaching in a different culture than their own, reaching students can be challenging in the beginning. This is because it is a requirement for both parties to be familiar with each other's culture, including the language. Therefore, teachers can fail to reach students from another culture due to a lack of understanding of their culture and thus fail to understand most parts of their lives. And while some of the teachers learn quickly about the students in their classes, others do not, and for them, the lack of cultural understanding between them and their students can frustrate them further. Moreover, this can also lead to contrary stereotyping, anger, and more drastic, ultimate failure to such teachers.

The Complexity of the Issues From Various Perspective

All of the above issues relate to the value of teaching in a multi-cultural setting. A genuine desire towards teaching and learning, as well as the commitment to persona and professional growth, are imminent to cross-cultural collaborations. Among the most complex issues in this context involves the challenge of discipline. This entails the discipline among the students as well as between the students and the teachers, whereby a low level in this aspect creates difficulty in creating an understanding between the two parties. (Tesar & Arndt (2017) provide that adult education should have a well-developed relationship based on discrete theories and literature which guide and shape their respective directions. The complexity of language differences is also an important aspect to consider based on the issues identified above. An adequate understanding between teachers and students require sufficient language comprehension. This is, therefore, among the most significant challenges that exist while teaching in a cross-cultural setting where teachers have to adapt to different forms of communication to reach the learners.

Implications of Teaching Cross-Culturally in Biblical View

In a multicultural educational setting, the first principle that teachers should emulate is adjusting to becoming learners in the new cultural context. More importantly, such a framework requires that to be an effective cross-cultural teacher, an individual must learn the perspective of the other culture. Moreover, teaching in such settings requires that teachers think outside their own cultural as well as contextual expectations and further look for the relevant solutions beyond their training, expertise, and experience (Perry, 2018). Importantly, they must begin to think about their faith in Jesus Christ as the beginning of our liberation from any situation and specifically from our own cultural bias. For instance, Paul reminds us in Philippians 2:1-5 that we should consider others as better than ourselves and therefore make their interests equal to our own (Perry, 2018). Ideally, in most instances, we usually tend to see other people's cultures of teaching and learning as deficient while thinking our own as superior to the rest. From the biblical perspective, Christian teachers in a cross-cultural setting should know that they are required to consider others as better than themselves (Philippians 2:3).

The Bible is a perfect example of intercultural teaching and has all the absolutes that we possess. This is because a member of any particular culture can be able to use it safely towards relating to God as well as the fellow humans. According to Perry (2018), commonalities tend to outweigh all the differences among different parties and make them more alike than dissimilar. Importantly according to (Genesis 1:27), God's image rests on every person, while (Ecclesiastes 3:11) states that everybody has a longing towards eternity in different forms. It is, therefore, apparent that God has provided his people with principles that reflect a different attribute shared with God, which is morality. As such, just like in education in a multicultural culture, the principles of scripture are envisioned by God to be applied by individuals of different cultures, in relation to other people of different cultures.

Elements for Consideration to Improve Cross-Cultural Engagement

Different elements should be considered towards improving the cross-cultural engagement among students and teachers in multicultural setup. For instance, both should embrace diversity and the existence of different cultures among students and teachers. Embracing the difference in cultures within the learning institutions will, therefore, enable teachers to reach the different cross-cultural students effectively. Moreover, open communication should also be considered when teaching students from different parts of the world. Teachers can enable this aspect by learning the different languages that various students understand. Strong relationships should also be encouraged among students from diverse background setups as well as between teachers and the students to create an easy understanding of the various cultural backgrounds.

Evaluation of the Sources Used in This Paper

Biggs, J. B. (2011). Teaching across cultures. In Student motivation (pp. 293-308). Springer, Boston, MA.

Biggs' research addresses the concept of teaching cross-culturally as problematic among teachers, especially the ones that teach international students. This research has a huge contribution to this paper since it addresses the topic of cross-cultural teaching in detail.

Iljina, S. (2014). Classroom Management in Cross-Cultural Context. In Proceeding of the International Scientifical Conference May 23th-24th (Vol. 1).

In his article, Ijiina focuses on the role of teachers in managing a classroom in a multi-cultural context. The study is essential to this paper since it identifies strategies that teachers can use to maintain excellent communication and learning in a multicultural class.

Leask, B., & Carroll, J. (2013). Ethical practice principles in practice: Teaching across cultures. G. principles, 1-31.

Leask and Carroll's study identifies ethical practice principles in practice while teaching across cultures. This is helpful in the paper as it identifies the good activities that should be emulated by teachers while teaching in a multicultural setup.

Perry, M. (2018). How can the life, ministry, and teaching of the Apostle Paul address the development of cross-cultural leadership practice that is biblically-based and informed by relevant secular theory?. Journal of Contemporary Ministry, (4), 102-119.

The research by Perry becomes helpful in reviewing the biblical implications of cross-cultural teaching. This source provides an overview of the Bible towards teaching across different cultures and therefore plays a huge role in answering the question

Tesar, M., & Arndt, S. (2017). Cross-cultural complexities of educational policies. Policy Futures in Educarions, 15(6) 165-193.

This paper is helpful in identifying the complexities involved in teaching across different cultures. Tesar and Arndt are successful in relating the complexities involved with teaching in a cross-cultural settin...