Return-Path: <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov> Received: from literacy (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by literacy.nifl.gov (8.10.2/8.10.2) with SMTP id h9HHYEV14566; Fri, 17 Oct 2003 13:34:14 -0400 (EDT) Date: Fri, 17 Oct 2003 13:34:14 -0400 (EDT) Message-Id: <304334A8.1693C572.0AB94E44@aol.com> Errors-To: listowner@nifl.gov Reply-To: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Originator: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Sender: nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov Precedence: bulk From: AndresMuro@aol.com To: Multiple recipients of list <nifl-womenlit@literacy.nifl.gov> Subject: [NIFL-WOMENLIT:2754] Re: ADHD X-Listprocessor-Version: 6.0c -- ListProcessor by Anastasios Kotsikonas Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 X-Mailer: Atlas Mailer 2.0 Status: O Content-Length: 3452 Lines: 28 Quigley defines learners as either field dependent or field independent. The former depend on their field, or environment, to succeed.The later don't. Field independent learners do well in school. By definition they don't care much about the environment that they are in (however, this may be inaccurate. Schools, are highly stressful, very rigid learning environments that appeal to a limited scope of learning styles. Some people will do well in school because traditional school content appeals to their particular learning style so they are preconditioned to succeed in that environment. While by definition they are identified as field independent learners, it is more likely that their styles match that of the academic world. Since, some people are already psychological predisposed to do well in traditional academic environments, they do well, and are classified as field independent. It is possible that they would suck in another learning environment and would need accomodations in such an environment, therefore becoming field dependent. Those who are not predisposed to do well in traditional learning environments need accommodations from their environment to succeed. Since the system is not well equipped to provide those accommodations, it abnormalizes those that need accommodations. Instead of designing accommodations, schools tend to classify learners as "resource". Resource people are all those that do not have the same learning style as their teachers, and whose teachers have no training to design accommodations. Most people will teach the way they learn. Most teachers have the traditional learning style that leads to school success. This is obvious, since they succeeded in school, college and have jobs in which they continue to perpetuate the learning environment in which they learned. They consider "normal" those who learn like them. Those who did not learn like they did are abnormalized and the system of normalization gets replicated again and again. Of course, not all teachers are these way. So long as we fail to recognize difference and invest in approaches that recognize and validate them, we will continue to exclude and discriminate. Andres In a message dated 10/17/2003 12:44:57 PM Eastern Daylight Time, msmcgilloway@msn.com writes: > I'm wondering if the reason some of my students have dropped out of school > is that the traditional classroom did not allow them the flexibility to > learn differently. There is very little provision in many classrooms for the > student who learns differently. By the time I get students, the system has > already failed them. In order to help them learn, I need to find out the > best ways that they learn. For some of them, this involves diagnosis for a > suspected condition such as ADHD or ADD. For some it is that they are > primarily visual or auditory learners. I don't mean to simplify the problem > by indicating that we do not have adequate testing and diagnostic facilities > but that is a significant problem for those whom we suspect to have a > "learning deficiency" and are of low income. If a student is having > difficulty no matter what method we try to use to teach them, where do we > turn to have them tested? There are very few places who do not charge > incredible fees for diagnostic testing. This issue is only > part of a social > problem that needs to be addressed. go here: www.geocities.com/andresmuro/art.html
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