Classifying

In Chapter Two of our Science book, there is a section entitled "Classifying and Cultural Norms," starting on page 49. The main point of that section is that some students may have cultural backgrounds that make their understanding of classifying difficult. Classifying involves organizing objects into groups. You have to be able to classify objects into opposite descriptions. However some students may come from cultures that do not have an "either-or mind set," and thus do not really get that things have to be classified in two opposite groups. For example, the book talks about how non-Western thinking does not reflect the "either-or mind set."

This section really struck me because a process skill that seems so simple to teach can actually be very difficult for students to get! I thought it would be a simple skill for students to learn because you are just looking for observable properties. However, some students may have a hard time just looking at observable properties, and want to look at the functional properties of the object. It is clear how cultural differences in thinking can even affect how students learn science. Even what students observe about something or infer may be influenced by what their culture values. For example, (this may be a stretch) a certain culture may value the sense of touch as observing, while another may value the sense of sight. That would affect what one student versus what another student observes. Another example that comes to mind is that some cultures may stifle creativity, so a student may not view science as creative, or use creative means to come up with answers to questions or designing experiments.

As a teacher I have take my students' backgrounds into consideration when teaching science, or any subject. The book suggest being explicit, which again ties back to thinking of science as culture. Students need to know the cultural norms of science to be successful learning science. So like teaching another student about Vietnamese cultural norms, like being very respectful to elders, I need to teach my students the cultural norms of classifying, like how to look for observable properties.

When we classified the beans in class on Monday, I had a really hard time grasping this concept at first. I wonder if that has to do with my cultural background or my lack of interest in science. To be honest, however, I still do not see the purpose in trying to get an object into just one group. But John was really good at explaining it to me in different ways, which is what I have to do when teaching science.