Module 4: Knowledge of Students

This module is conceptualized on the social cognitive theory work of John Dewey, Albert Bandura, and Lev Vygotsky. John Dewey philosophized that curriculum should arise from a student’s interest; Bandura suggested that learning is a social process, and Vygotsky believed that student learning is a derivative of the culture surrounding each learner.

Culture is a very broad term, whose connotation is typically around race and ethnicity. However, the expression of culture in a student’s life extends far beyond who the student is both ethnically and racially. Culture describes a way of knowing and doing things like art, music, dance, and writing. Culture can also be used to describe the social groups to which one belongs, like religious organizations and sports teams. Bourdieu (1986) introduced the term “cultural capital” in sociology to describe the benefit that dominant groups like Whites, males, and Christians have in the expression of their culture in major institutions like schools. Cultural capital in its objectified state, is in the form of cultural goods like pictures, books, dictionaries, and musical instruments (Bourdieu, 1986). Students from underrepresented groups, however, did not have capital that was used in schools, because books, images and materials reflected the majority culture. This lack of cultural capital reflected in classroom materials is a component of a deficit theory used to explain lack of achievement. Deficit theories assume that some children because of genetic, cultural, or experiential differences are inferior to other children—that is, they have deficits that must be overcome in order to learn (Nieto & Bode, 2012). A teacher with a deficit perspective attributes poor achievement to variables such as language, social development, and intelligence. The problem with this perspective is that it places all responsibility for children’s failure on their families and communities and positions the teacher as having little to no influence on student learning.