Teaching Strategies to Enhance Science Learning among Diverse and Multicultural Learners

Abstract

This paper presents teaching strategies in science for students having “deficitsâ€, negative attitudes, with inadequate content knowledge and communication skills in learning science. It provides teachers useful ways on how to enhance teaching among students with varied needs in a multicultural context. These strategies were recommended based from Sarmiento's (1998) case study on the specific needs of multicultural learners across multicultural setting. The study was done on three case schools identified with deficits in learning science. The students deficiency were caused by cultural factors specifically language and values on schooling shaping students understanding thus a substantial level of their interest, performance and achievement in science were affected. The results of the same study also revealed that the effectiveness of teaching science depends on the teaching practice and the strategy used by the teachers irrespective whether a class is non-ethnic or multiethnic. To enhance the effectiveness in teaching to similar group of learners, the use of various teaching pedagogy will help them become successful in science. From the case study results, the following strategies were recommended to promote science interest, build positive self-concept to raise levels of achievement among diverse learners in multicultural context including teacher related limitations.