Learner diversity is a term that refers to the fact that every learner is different: be it in terms of background, learning speed, age, personality, needs, aspirations, motivation, or the order in which they prefer to tackle difficult tasks (Shareef, 2017). These aspects and more vary between learners, which makes assuming that everyone in your class is the same and needs the same things a rather outdated expectation.

Yet many classrooms, as well as e-learning environments, are still operated this way (Jeffrey et al., 2006). An accredited Master’s degree in one of the United Kingdom’s most revered online universities, for example, will still overload every student with the same texts and audio lectures (recorded in a classroom elsewhere, two years before, without the visuals mentioned in the lecture). Students have the same deadline, and although the most important assignment is an open-book, written one, it can only be passed by adhering to strict, uniform set of rules. This means that if you deviate from the “title” you choose because you are more interested in exploring, in-depth, a related subject, you get penalised heavily.

Taking into account learner diversity in the traditional classroom, however, is challenging. With thirty students or children to teach, and very little time to pay attention to individual students and their needs, uniformity seems almost the only way to go. Unfortunately, this not considering individuality is currently causing many problems in education worldwide (Wahl & Duffield, 2005). Parents with children that require extra attention, whether because they have disabilities or because they are gifted does not matter, as extra, personalised attention is required for both, see their child withdraw or misbehave because they do not get what they need. With technological advances, however, these challenges should hopefully soon become a thing of the past.

In knowledge-intensive workplaces, more of which exist now than ever before, reproduction is less important, while creativity and complex problem-solving skills are crucial (Jeffrey et al., 2006). These require a more interactive educational approach. One of the advantages of the ‘new’ classroom is that learners gain autonomy. They can learn in their own time, at their own pace, and in their own way, because they can use the internet and their peers for knowledge acquisition. Furthermore, the teacher can become part of this collaborative effort, in a much less hierarchical way: students and teacher can interchange bits of information. They can comment on each other’s ideas, and check spelling, grammar, sources, and other aspects (Wahl & Duffield, 2005). Even more so, as was mentioned in the lectures, the dialogue that arises can be used to assess the quality of the information exchanged, i.e. is this acceptable, reliable information, what is the source, and how do we find more information like this? This way, the demand for creativity and problem-solving skills may be met by more students, because they learn at their own pace, in a way that suits them, and in a less hierarchical fashion.

By collaborating in the (online) classroom, teacher and students alike can all become learners, and with their individual differences and preferences they can all teach each other a thing or two.

References

Jeffrey, L. M., Atkins, C., C., Laurs, A., and Mann, S. (2006). E-learner Profiles: Diversity in Learning. The Open Polytechnic, Samuel Mann, Otago Polytechnic. Report prepared for the Ministry of Education. Retrieved from: https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/57989/Research-report-final-31-Oct.pdf

Shareef, Fawaz. (2017). Types of Diversity. Foundations of Teaching for Learning 8: Developing Relationships [Coursera course]. Retrieved from: https://www.coursera.org/learn/teacher-relationships/lecture/cj0l0/types-of-diversity

Wahl, L., and Duffield, J. (2005). Using Flexible Technology to Meet the Needs of Diverse Learners: What Teachers Can Do. Retrieved from: https://www.wested.org/online_pubs/kn-05-01.pdf