Human and Abilities

In my future career, I hope to be working in a hospital setting. In this setting, I will experience many different types of people, cultures, and beliefs. I know that different cultures have different beliefs regarding medical attention and treatment; therefore I will do my best to educate myself on many cultures. This way, I will be able to help people while taking their cultures into consideration.

One problem about working with people from such different backgrounds is that it may be hard to identify their culture simply by looking at them. I would not want to look at them and assume their culture because that is stereotypical. Some people do not strongly identify with their culture, however for those who do I found some helpful questions to ask them. These questions could provide insight to their beliefs and how to best help them. Here is the link to the questions: http://www.d.umn.edu/~hrallis/courses/1100sp04/assignments/learn_cultures_qs.html

A difference that may be encountered in my future career besides culture is the difference of skin color. This is a difference that may make many children feel as though they do not belong. When children are the only one of their race in a classroom they feel excluded. This feeling could impact the child’s ability to learn, their overall school experience, and their confidence in themselves.

I do not plan on working in schools, however if my career takes me that way there are things I would do to make sure that I am ready for differences and that I am helping students who may feel left out. One thing I would do is similar to the “I would like my teacher to know” notecard we did the first day of class. Instead, I would allow the students to write down one thing they are struggling with, whether that is inside or outside of the classroom. I would do this once a week and doing so would allow open communication where students could tell me what they struggle with, especially if that is race-related.

I find that planning for differences is important because there will be diversity no matter where you work. With this being known, you cannot treat every person and situation the same. Every individual is different, as is every culture. The way that problems get handled should be examined on a case-to-case basis. One culture may not believe or support a solution that another culture does. Students who look different from their peers may not learn as well simply because they are uncomfortable in the classroom. It is important that professionals look at and understand why the people they are working with are behaving or acting a certain way. Then, the professionals can figure out the best way to treat or teach them

Individuals develop and construct knowledge in different ways. Some people learn through seeing, speaking or hearing. Many individuals often develop and construct knowledge from experiences, too. Scaffolding can have a large affect on learning development. Students can learn to teach each other how to perform certain tasks or solve problems, therefore enhancing their knowledge on the subject. Also, as students are challenged with more difficult tasks, they are able to gain more knowledge with the guidance and hopefully be able to do it alone. As time goes on, students may have difficulty completing assignments. This is when it becomes important for teachers to get involved and determine if their students need help. Some benefits of the models and theories we talked about in this unit is that these theories allow us to see where students are developmentally. With Piaget’s stages of cognitive development, we can see if students are ahead or behind of where they should be in regards to his model. With Vygotsky’s Zone of Proximal Development, we can see the potential of development with guidance. However, with Vygotsky’s theory we are unable to know what style children learn best from or their learning ability. With Piaget’s stages model, he did not study a large, diverse group of individuals, which makes this model less reliable.

The role of media can have a great impact on people, especially women. Women are often negatively portrayed in media. They are made to be sexual objects that must be skinny, fit, have large breasts, bottoms and so on. I found a great video that shows the affect of media on girls. It explains how media creates poor body image and self-esteem. When the average girl is spending thirty hours a week watching TV where they see the “ideal women”, it is no surprise that nearly 80% of girls are dissatisfied with their body image. The media needs to change their portrayal of women to ultimately help the way women see beauty and themselves.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0pwXRQxSYE