Citation
Brown, C.M & White, M. (2014). Connecting Community and Culture. Canadian
Center of Science and Education, 3 (1), 134-139.
Summary
This journal entitled
“Connecting Community and Culture”. This
research subject is sophomore-level teacher candidate at four-year, the focus
aspect is environment which consists of the community, classroom, and
teacher.
This journal talks about the
importance of community connection and culture for teacher candidates in this
21st century. The teacher
candidate has to be aware, to be care and understand the culture and
other contextual factors in the students’ surroundings like the
classroom condition which must be comfortable for the students. Here, since the
majority is urban students, the teacher are demanded to be able to solve the crucial problem of issues of race and diversity of different students’ background and to build a responsive classroom.
In this article, the
researcher use TWS (Teacher Work Sample) to assess the teachers’ self-reflection including the
step to address students who lack mastery of material by considering the
community connection and culture. The elements included in the TWS are contextual factors, learning goals,
assessment plan, design for instruction, instructional
decision making, analysis of student learning, and evaluation &
reflection. The teacher candeidates make an
implication essay containing their understanding of social context of urban
students combined with learning community. It shows that the effective learning community and culture helps the students to enjoy the class because the different atmosphere makes them feel comfort. This can make the goal of education
achieved by the students and teacher.
Implication
Building the cultural awareness
in the classroom is not something easy. Implementing the TWS can be a good way
of learning to be an aware teacher.
