Yesterday, I attended a university student committee meeting. In 2008, there will be a diversity task force forming to address the needs of diverse students on campus. For example, the Muslims students have requested a 24 hour prayer room on campus. Many of our diverse students have problems and there is no one on campus who they can discuss their needs with. We will be hiring a counselor to specialize in counseling students with problems related to diversity.
Since we are increasing the student diversity on our campus, I wanted to look at how I could make some curriculum changes in the courses that I teach to meet the needs of these students. These are some suggestions that Amaro, Abriam-Yogo, & Yoder (2006) mentioned in their research study:
1. Ask for tutoring with English. The university does not provide English tutors to students. Honestly, I do not know where I could refer students for an English tutor. I need to bring this issue up at the next committee meeting.
2. Have papers edited by English-proficient classmates or family members. We provide a writing center at the University so this option would work.
3. Take a medical terminology class. We require a mandatory medical terminology class in the fall semester of the sophomore year for ALL students.
4. Record lectures. We do not allow students to tape lectures in the classroom because we discuss confidential information related to patients and clinical sites. If students want to tape lectures, they need to require special permission from the University.
5. Participate in study groups. I strongly encourage my students to participate in study groups in the courses that I teach.
6. Ask faculty to provide more time to complete tests or other assignments. I feel this is preferential treatment and this would not be fair to other students. If students want additional time to complete an exam, they must require special permission from the University.
I felt these suggestions from this article were helpful, and I plan to implement these curriculum changes in the courses that I teach.
References
Amaro, D., Abriam-Yago, K., Yoder, M. (2006). Perceived barriers for ethnically diverse students in nursing programs. Journal of Nursing Education, 45 (7), 247- 254.
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1 comment:
Does your school have a VP of Diversity? It's a common new trend in higher education. Interestingly, there's no real consensus on what they're supposed to actually do, though.
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