Psy 330 Mid Term

PSY330: Educational Psychology

Midterm Examination

Diversity in Educational Settings

A student population is only as diverse as the institution hosting them. A middle high school in a rural town with a population of 15,000 will be less diverse than a middle high school in a city of 300,000. Both schools will probably have an entirely different end point based on the way it functions internally in relationship to its environment. Since I have limited current experience with public school institutions I’ll focus on the schools/training environments I have the most experience with, US Army Initial Entry Training (IET), and the Non-Commissioned Officers Academies (NCOA’s). What is unique about these military institutions is the fact that they are culturally unique to themselves, though the diversity of the military outstrips most all educational/corporate environments around the world, the background of the student is almost irrelevant, whether or not the student can or will conform is important.

Integrating a civilian into the military is derived from the Army Mission (Department of the Army, 2009), and is filled with unique training challenges that revolve around the Army Values, Loyalty, Duty, Respect, Selfless-Service, Honor, Integrity, and Personal Courage (LDRSHIP). These Values have nothing to do with the students past, but represent the present and the future potential of the individual within the Army Culture.

Army Instructors are trained to teach within specific parameters that meet their unique standards to accomplish the mission, the primary training method is through Observational Learning (Stanrock, 2009). Knowing that the military is a microcosm of the population military trainers are constantly attending continuing educational training in subjects like Cultural Diversity, Equal Opportunity and Outcome Based Training programs. Through a series of Operational, Institutional, and Self-Development training programs the instructor/student is...