New book on classroom diversity highlights solutions for effective instructional management

Guardian News – Houston, TX. Constructive conversations about diversity management in the classrooms is now getting a more realistic attention.  After decades of political complexities within remarkable demographic changes in the population, colleges are now eager to prioritize matters of managing diversity in the classrooms with more practical strategies. New scholarly research book “Classroom Diversity Managementby student success and diversity advocate, Dr. Patricia Ifeoma Ugwu, tackles complications of classroom diversity head on – offering effective instructional approaches as resolutions.  

More than a decade ago, Dr. Ugwu currently the Dean of Student Success & Engagement at Houston Community College (HCC), Coleman College for Health Sciences, in her doctoral dissertation reported the prediction that community colleges would continue to experience growth in enrollment and diversity.  Today, this prediction has manifested.  While growth in enrollment may not have been consistent, growth in student diversity has visibly exploded.

Consequently, the American Council on Education in a study analysis of latest trends in diversity in college classrooms acknowledges that hundreds of colleges and universities recognize the educational value of diversity and view student and faculty diversity as an essential resource for optimizing teaching and learning.

According to Dr. Ugwu, “The challenge is how to ensure that not only motivated faculty engage in regular professional development, but that faculty who lack the skills or have limited strategies for teaching diverse 21st century students are directed to engage in essential professional development, and that this engagement is tracked and that there is evidence that participation in professional development activities is equipping all faculty to successfully teach HCC’s diverse student body.”

Dr. Patricia Ugwu (foreground). “The challenge is how to ensure that not only motivated faculty engage in regular professional development, but that faculty who lack the skills or have limited strategies for teaching diverse 21st century students are directed to engage in essential professional development….”

  Dr. Ugwu in this book delivers a scholarly research study, on effective instructional approaches that exceptional faculty use to engage diverse students in the classroom. Using critical incident technique, in-depth interviews, and focus groups the author identifies effective and ineffective instructional strategies for teaching diverse students.  The findings Dr. Ugwu stated, would provide instructional leaders and administrators with relevant information to guide decisions in dealing with an increasingly more diverse student body.

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